TY - ABST

T1 - Coffee machines, painkillers and tinnitus: experiments in sensory ethnography

AU - Aabo, Marie Gorm

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Inspired by Sound Studies and art-based research, I experiment with methods particularly useful for understanding a multiple sensory phenomenon like tinnitus. I ask: How can methods be designed to embed and capture sensory experiences in qualitative studies? Tinnitus is on the rise, and the condition challenges the sense of hearing and how the affected person perceives the everyday sound environment. Tinnitus is present both in the absence and in the presence of other sounds. The sensory system is part of our navigation and adaptation to the world. I use the concept of “attunement” to emphasise how sensory impression is constantly shaped and reshaped in the present moment - depending on all the other entities that are present. In examining hearing impairment from this perspective, I insist that hearing impairment as a phenomenon must be studied in practice and in the sociomaterial context in which it occurs. I work with a range of informants who experience tinnitus to varying degrees. Because of the informants' sensory experiences, I consider them experts with particular auditory knowledge. The informants engage in a process of co-creation with me as the researcher. Here I am inspired by design anthropological methods like design probes, methods from Sound Studies like listening diaries, and a method I call "tinnitus walk alongs". The presentation will explore the potentials of experimental sensory methods in ethnological methodological, analytical, and dissemination work, which will develop the ethnographic everyday life analysis and dissemination strategy.

AB - Inspired by Sound Studies and art-based research, I experiment with methods particularly useful for understanding a multiple sensory phenomenon like tinnitus. I ask: How can methods be designed to embed and capture sensory experiences in qualitative studies? Tinnitus is on the rise, and the condition challenges the sense of hearing and how the affected person perceives the everyday sound environment. Tinnitus is present both in the absence and in the presence of other sounds. The sensory system is part of our navigation and adaptation to the world. I use the concept of “attunement” to emphasise how sensory impression is constantly shaped and reshaped in the present moment - depending on all the other entities that are present. In examining hearing impairment from this perspective, I insist that hearing impairment as a phenomenon must be studied in practice and in the sociomaterial context in which it occurs. I work with a range of informants who experience tinnitus to varying degrees. Because of the informants' sensory experiences, I consider them experts with particular auditory knowledge. The informants engage in a process of co-creation with me as the researcher. Here I am inspired by design anthropological methods like design probes, methods from Sound Studies like listening diaries, and a method I call "tinnitus walk alongs". The presentation will explore the potentials of experimental sensory methods in ethnological methodological, analytical, and dissemination work, which will develop the ethnographic everyday life analysis and dissemination strategy.

KW - Det Humanistiske Fakultet

KW - Sound Studies

KW - STS (Science and technology studies)

KW - tinnitus

KW - medical humanities

KW - Ethnology

KW - Sensory studies

KW - Care studies

M3 - Konferenceabstrakt til konference

Y2 - 7 June 2023 through 9 June 2023

ER -