Paper short abstract:

The paper looks at the challenges of creating a multimodal book. SensoRhythms is a collaborative and multimodal website that depicts various aspects of the São Paulo's vibrant independent electronic music scene by showcasing an ethnographic film series paired with experimental ways of writing.

Paper long abstract:

This paper aims at describing the multimodal character and experimental collaborations that stay at the basis of the website www.senorhythms.com. The website is a result of a postdoctoral research at the University of São Paulo (USP) about the DIY electronic music scene of São Paulo and focuses on the embodiment of experiences in local music participation. By creatively engaging with digital, audiovisual and multimodal methods, the website takes film as a pivoting element in the construction of the web content while engaging with other medias and experimenting with multiple ways of anthropological writing. The film series feature collaborations with artists, performers, scenographers, producers, filmmakers, photographers or anthropologists, and engage in co-authored filmmaking and multimodal dialogues. Each page exhibits a short film in an episodic-like structure that is accompanied by various types of media languages and multimodal interactions, displayed in a format that mix medias while debating key anthropological questions that derive from the research and collaborative exchanges. SensoRhythms.com is built in the form of an online, multimodal book that feature a chapter arrangement capable of incorporating film, photography, text and online conversations, links and further digital explorations. In this way, the anthropological inquiry considers the complex media ecologies that the DIY electronic music scene is displaying. Moreover, the website is meant to appeal to a greater audience by moving beyond a strict academic pattern of writing or the restricted field of ethnographic filmmaking.