Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses how multisensorial experiences of sound can be represented within the frames of anthropological film.

Paper long abstract:

The starting point of my PhD project in visual anthropology is the singing bowl, a metal artefact and musical instrument produced in Nepal, and how it is used in sound therapy and healing practices within globalized New Age religiosity and alternative medicine. In addition to hearing the sound of the singing bowl, the healing practices initiate a multisensorial experience of the object - engaging the visual and tactile senses.

This paper presents a collaboration with sound healers, whose practice with and experience of sound provides the foundation for an audiovisual representation of the healing session. The presentation discusses how the healers and their clients' multisensorial experiences can be represented in anthropological film, and how personal reactions and feelings are visualized and auralized in the project. When translated to an audiovisual media, the healers' engagement with the artefacts and the tones they give, raises questions on what sound is and what it is to hear.