Short Abstract:

This workshop encourages participants to unwrite by using audio recordings from the field for sample-based synthesis and fieldnote composition. Reflecting on our sonic fieldnotes, we will explore how engaging creatively with sound may expose us to unseen parts of our field and inform our research.

Long Abstract:

The field is filled with multiple sounds which encourage scientific as well as creative sampling. Using both approaches to inform each other, will we detect new harmonies and rhythms in our data? Will unwriting like this allow us to gain unheard, and perhaps also unseen insights (Mackie, 2024)? How can this transform our modes of writing in times of transition (Dippel, 2022)?

Recording audio has long been important in ethnography. How do we engage with these sonic samples from the field once they have been recorded? It is usually anathema to change samples in any way, but in music there is a long tradition of adapting samples for audio synthesis and new compositions. Can we, as ethnographers, also use samples to compose sonic fieldnotes? And could sample-based synthesis expose hidden parts of our fields and challenge how we relate to our ethnographies?

In this interactive workshop, participants will explore the creative potential of fieldwork recordings. Introducing participants to ‘deep listening’ (Oliveros, 2005), we will question what we hear and how we listen in the field. Participants will then be sent to record different locations in Aberdeen and to create sonic fieldnotes. Instead of a regular audio recording device, they will use an app designed for recording, mangling and composing with samples. After returning from the field we will listen to each other’s sonic fieldnotes and discuss what we can learn from them which we might have missed using other methods, and how this can inform our understanding of the field.

This Workshop has so far received 2 contribution proposal(s).
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