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Accepted Paper:
Auditory epistemologies and relational aesthetics - doing anthropology through music in and with Antananarivo’s jazz scene
Martin Büdel
(Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz)
Researching jazz in Madagascar I aim to understand the ways in which music affects social processes. Based on fieldwork methods such as video recordings and participation in musical practice, I discuss the question of how to interpret different layers of the non-observable of aesthetic experience.
Paper Abstract:
Drawing on theories that explore ways of knowing through sensory experience - from Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten's aesthetics to Steven Feld's "acoustemology" - my research on jazz in Madagascar aims to understand how the adaptation of jazz is changing the musical landscape of Antananarivo's music scenes, but especially the ways in which jazz in its musical qualities affects social or institutional processes beyond the musical environment. During fieldwork, I chose different approaches in order to develop a way into an understanding of aesthetic experiences of jazz listeners and musicians beyond solely discursive dimensions, including audio and video recordings, their collaborative analysis with listeners and musicians and my own participation in musical practice. Writing ethnography on the non-observable dimensions of aesthetic experience and its social effects, I am faced with the challenge of interpreting and putting into words the (sensory) insights I have gained together with my research partners.
In the Pecha Kucha presentation, I use photos, audio and video material to briefly bring to life small pieces of this world of musical experience - as best as is possible within this format. I will then explore some aspects of one of the concepts I use in order to better understand the agentive role of music in society: relational aesthetics, that is, a notion of aesthetics as a way of knowing through the relational qualities of musical experience, with the aim to better understand agentive forces of music that link individual and shared perceptions and ideas to social processes.