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Accepted Paper:
Sensory ethnography and digitally mediated perception
Meri Kytö
(University of Turku)
This paper will look into epistemological challenges in doing ethnography with a cochlear implant user. These will be pondered in relation to current discussions on media anthropology and sensory anthropology, including aural diversity.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will look into some of the epistemological challenges I have faced in doing ethnography with a cochlear implant user. A cochlear implant is an electric hearing aid in three parts for people with severe hearing loss, one part of which is implanted behind the ear under the skin (on to the skull and inside the cochlea), second (the transmitter) sits on top of this implant with a magnet and third (speech processor) on the auricle. The device stimulates the cochlea with tiny and intricate electric impulses and thus produces a sensation of hearing. The input of the speech processor is heavily regularized with algorithms combing and rendering the sonic environment picked up by two miniscule microphones for an ”optimal result”.
The epistemological questions will be pondered in relation to current discussions on media anthropology (the networked body, infrastructuration) and sensory anthropology (non-human sensory agency, adaptation/attention). Also, the methodological challenge posed by aural diversity will be taken into account.