Paper short abstract:

This talk investigates the methods involved in a research project on studying the materialities of silence in the European Arctic.

Paper long abstract:

This talk speaks to the methods involved in a new research project that considers the ways in which silence is experienced and understood across rural and urban contexts in the European High North. The project seeks to see silence not as mere absence of words or sound, but rather a resource that exists across multiple, diverse social and nature-based forms, carrying with it multiple significations. Through an investigation of how the material and symbolic infrastructures of silence give it meaning as it is produced, consumed and experienced in place, it deconstructs the expectations of silence through its wider social and cultural processes, to show silence to be a fundamental aspect of everyday life and cultivating it as a utilizable immaterial resource. Through playing and experimenting with new constellations of mixed methods from across several disciplines, I want to see what forms of observation and documentation might effectively encapsulate the significance of silence, and show how researchers can implement a more nuanced understanding of the significance of silence in everyday life.