Journal of Sonic Studies 25 is online, by Guest Co-Editors Jonathan Larcher and Heikki Wilenius and Additional contributors from Ernst Karel, Harsha Menon, Julie Métais, Sandro Simon, and Victor A. Stoichiță.
“What can be considered as a discarded recording in an ethnographic inquiry? Do the instabilities and technical errors that may occur in recordings show that technology is an inextricable part of the encounter of ethnographic situations? Furthermore, is there a limit beyond which a sound is too degraded so it can no longer be restored, and instead can only be described in writing, the preferred medium of the human sciences in general and anthropology in particular? The contributions – six written essays, one video essay, and one conversation – offer a range of answers to these three questions, proving that sonic rubbish is worthy of scholarly attention. By approaching the issue of failed or deficient ethnographical recordings from different perspectives and different subdisciplines in anthropology, the ensuing contributions critically engage with discarded audio materials and in so doing challenge the long-standing emphasis on clarity and precision in field recordings.”
