Paper short abstract:

Referring to Grasseni's (2007) concept of skilled vision I will outline the interplay of media technology and skilled senses in scientific practice and refine the findings with Knorr Cetina's (1999) theory of epistemic cultures and the modes of listening described by Pinch & Bijsterveld (2012)

Paper long abstract:

How do you learn to listen in the field? Which recording equipment is needed to make good field recordings? Where are the limits of the media and the hearing abilities? These questions arose while I was doing an ethnographic research on biological field studies about animal communication. For the scientists I observed, sound recordings are their main database. But of course they do not only record when they are outside in the field. They also develop certain skills of factual sensuality to learn how to do the recordings, to observe the animals in the field and to handle them. Referring to Grasseni's (2007) concept of skilled vision I will outline the interplay of media technology and skilled senses in scientific practice. Furthermore I will refine the findings with Knorr Cetina's (1999) theory of epistemic cultures and the modes of listening described by Pinch and Bijsterveld (2012). I will argue that these modes can also be used as analytical categories for other forms of perception. Within the observation process watching, listening, touching, smelling and tasting are often combined with each other and coupled with the media of science. Ultimately these modes of perception produce very different kinds of knowledge within their epistemic cultures but also help to define them.

Grasseni, Cristina (Hg.) (2007): Skilled visions. Between apprenticeship and standards. Oxford.

Knorr Cetina, Karin (1999): Epistemic cultures. How the sciences make knowledge. Cambridge, Mass.

Pinch, Trevor; Bijsterveld, Karin (Hg.) (2012): The Oxford Handbook of Sounds Studies. New York.