Sensorial ethnography

For the anthropologist, the work of mining seems to be characterised by a specific set of spatial, material, corporeal and sensorial relations. Ongoing debates in anthropology emphasize the prominence of a direct approach to this range of features of experience, in correlation with a need to understand how they are connected with social meanings. This article uses such an approach to investigate how the sensory experiences of mining are shared by miners as a community of practice. At the same time, the historical decline of mining activity is inexorably restricting mining landscapes and cultures to the heritage of the past. In European mining districts, such as South West Sardinia (Italy), a rich heritage of the memory of an abandoned mining world coexists with a number of advanced, government subsidised mining plants that are just ceasing to be active. In this context, a particular form-of-life seems to appear that links miners, witnesses of a recent mining past, with local communities that are still entangled in mining activity. The existence of a rich aural sensitivity underground, recorded by the research project's filmmaking, is closely related to the way in which former miners "give voice to" and "feel" what they are saying. Sensory landscapes of mining life are linked to the subjective voices which express their history and memory. Starting from an ethnographic research, I shall discuss the relationship between performative aspects of oral memory, and the aural and visual dimensions of modern-day mining work. K E Y W O R D S : mining soundscapes, miner voices, sensorial agency, memory. * I am very grateful for the attention, with which the editors and reviewers read and commented on the text and for the suggestions they gave me.

The introduction to this double issue entitled "A Sonic Anthropocene: Sound Practices in a Changing Environment" explores some of the concepts and methodological issues that inform our understanding of what we call the "Sonic Anthropocene". We argue that incorporating practices of listening and aural documentation that register the transformations in the acoustic landscape creates a space of potential for examining the increasing impact of human activity on the environment. This introduction is divided into six sections. First, we provide an overview of the notion of the Anthropocene. Secondly, we explore the relationship between sound, environment and perception as cultivated by different strands of scholarship. Thirdly, we discuss the capacity of ethnography to generate new insights into the conditions of life in the Anthropocene. With this in mind, we highlight various examples of collaboration between environmental sound artists, researchers, and activists. Lastly, we introduce the essays included in this first volume. Ultimately, this double issue seeks to contribute toward sounding the Anthropocene by placing sound at the centre of an interdisciplinary conversation about the economic, social, cultural, political and ecological processes that underlie the currently ongoing planetary transformations.

For the anthropologist, the work of mining seems to be characterised by a specific set of spatial, material, corporeal and sensorial relations. Ongoing debates in anthropology emphasize the prominence of a direct approach to this range of features of experience, in correlation with a need to understand how they are connected with social meanings. This article uses such an approach to investigate how the sensory experiences of mining are shared by miners as a community of practice. At the same time, the historical decline of mining activity is inexorably restricting mining landscapes and cultures to the heritage of the past. In European mining districts, such as South West Sardinia (Italy), a rich heritage of the memory of an abandoned mining world coexists with a number of advanced, government subsidised mining plants that are just ceasing to be active. In this context, a particular form-of-life seems to appear that links miners, witnesses of a recent mining past, with local communities that are still entangled in mining activity. The existence of a rich aural sensitivity underground, recorded by the research project's filmmaking, is closely related to the way in which former miners "give voice to" and "feel" what they are saying. Sensory landscapes of mining life are linked to the subjective voices which express their history and memory. Starting from an ethnographic research, I shall discuss the relationship between performative aspects of oral memory, and the aural and visual dimensions of modern-day mining work. K E Y W O R D S : mining soundscapes, miner voices, sensorial agency, memory. * I am very grateful for the attention, with which the editors and reviewers read and commented on the text and for the suggestions they gave me.

The introduction to this double issue entitled "A Sonic Anthropocene: Sound Practices in a Changing Environment" explores some of the concepts and methodological issues that inform our understanding of what we call the "Sonic Anthropocene". We argue that incorporating practices of listening and aural documentation that register the transformations in the acoustic landscape creates a space of potential for examining the increasing impact of human activity on the environment. This introduction is divided into six sections. First, we provide an overview of the notion of the Anthropocene. Secondly, we explore the relationship between sound, environment and perception as cultivated by different strands of scholarship. Thirdly, we discuss the capacity of ethnography to generate new insights into the conditions of life in the Anthropocene. With this in mind, we highlight various examples of collaboration between environmental sound artists, researchers, and activists. Lastly, we introduce the essays included in this first volume. Ultimately, this double issue seeks to contribute toward sounding the Anthropocene by placing sound at the centre of an interdisciplinary conversation about the economic, social, cultural, political and ecological processes that underlie the currently ongoing planetary transformations.

The introduction to this double issue entitled "A Sonic Anthropocene: Sound Practices in a Changing Environment" explores some of the concepts and methodological issues that inform our understanding of what we call the "Sonic Anthropocene". We argue that incorporating practices of listening and aural documentation that register the transformations in the acoustic landscape creates a space of potential for examining the increasing impact of human activity on the environment. This introduction is divided into six sections. First, we provide an overview of the notion of the Anthropocene. Secondly, we explore the relationship between sound, environment and perception as cultivated by different strands of scholarship. Thirdly, we discuss the capacity of ethnography to generate new insights into the conditions of life in the Anthropocene. With this in mind, we highlight various examples of collaboration between environmental sound artists, researchers, and activists. Lastly, we introduce the essays included in this first volume. Ultimately, this double issue seeks to contribute toward sounding the Anthropocene by placing sound at the centre of an interdisciplinary conversation about the economic, social, cultural, political and ecological processes that underlie the currently ongoing planetary transformations.

For the anthropologist, the work of mining seems to be characterised by a specific set of spatial, material, corporeal and sensorial relations. On-going debates in anthropology emphasize the prominence of a direct approach to this range of features of experience, in correlation with a need to understand how they are connected with social meanings. This article uses such an approach to investigate how the sensory expe- riences of mining are shared by miners as a community of practice. At the same time, the historical decline of mining activity is inexorably restricting mining landscapes and cultures to the heritage of the past.
In European mining districts, such as South West Sardinia (Italy), a rich heritage of the memory of an abandoned mining world coexists with a number of advanced, government subsidised mining plants that are just ceasing to be active. In this context, a particular form-of-life seems to appear that links miners, witnesses of a recent mining past, with local communities that are still entangled in mining activity. The existence of a rich aural sensitivity underground, recorded by the research project’s filmmaking, is closely related to the way in which former miners “give voice to” and “feel” what they are saying.
Sensory landscapes of mining life are linked to the subjective voices which express their history and memory. Starting from an ethnographic research, I shall discuss the relationship between performative aspects of oral memory, and the aural and visual dimensions of modern-day mining work.

In this article I engage in a discussion regarding how and why to conduct underwater ethnography when studying the social group of scuba divers. The material presented was collected during fieldwork in Brazil 2016/2017, as well as from the researchers own decade long experience of being a recreational diver. The discussion touches on the methodological approach of using a camera to document and engage with a sensorial experience. Furthermore, aspects of power, representation, and framing of images are brought up, noting how the increasing circulation of visual materials has made interlocutors more aware of the way they are represented visually. I also elaborate on the importance of doing backups of your material. Lastly, the aim of this article is to call for further exploration of the scuba diving community and their underwater practices.



En este artículo planteo una discusión acerca de cómo y por qué realizar una etnografía submarina al estudiar el grupo social de los buceadores. El material presentado se recopiló durante un trabajo de campo realizado en Brasil entre 2016 y 2017, así como a partir de la experiencia del investigador como buceador recreativo durante una década. La discusión aborda el enfoque metodológico del uso de una cámara para documentar y participar en una experiencia sensorial. Además, se ponen encima de la mesa aspectos relativos al poder, a la representación y al encuadre de las imágenes, observando cómo el aumento de la circulación de los materiales visuales ha hecho que los interlocutores sean más conscientes de la forma en que son representados visualmente. También me refiero a la importancia de hacer copias de seguridad del material. Por último, el objetivo de este artículo es reivindicar una mayor exploración de la comunidad de buceo y de sus prácticas submarinas.

Recent discussions on the Anthropocene have refocused attention on the ways in which our lives are intimately and inextricably bound up with those of others, both human and nonhuman. These discussions have also given rise to a plethora of ethical questions concerning how we might move away from narratives of mastery and control of nature and engender broader feelings of a shared, more-than-human world. But what does it mean to inhabit a shared world with others beyond our own species? More specifically, what processes of attunement must occur for a feeling of shared experience to become possible? This conference seeks to explore the multi-sensory, embodied, affective, and intellectual alignments operative within human relationality with nonhuman others, and consider the ethical and political stakes brought about by more-than-human entanglements in a fragile world, increasingly seen to be at the edge of catastrophe. In examining the nature of being with others, we envision this conference both as a conceptual intervention and a methodological reflection. Working with a capacious view of the nonhuman—animals, plants, spirits, objects, landscapes, the atmosphere, etc.—we warmly invite proposals that examine the modes of being and working with that are operative within more-than-human networks of relationality.