Sound: Unlocked ears
The Covid-19 pandemic with its social distancing measures changed the course of many anthropological projects involving fieldwork, rendering many impossible but also opening up new possibilities. After the first lockdown that in France ended in May 2020, environmental journalist Simon Beyrand and I created three soundscapes. Being an anthropologist trained to turn research into text, the co-creation of sound pieces was planned as a way to bring me closer to audiovisual language, as preparation to the shooting of a film that would take place months later.
Although soundscapes were planned activities, their timing and contexts were largely shaped by the pandemic.
In this sound pieces research participants—a musician, a bird specialist and activists mobilized against territorial inequalities—build on their perception of the aural environment during the first coronavirus lockdown of 2020 to reflect on the present and on possible, perhaps more livable futures.
"Stand here to listen" (Rios Sandoval 2020)
The soundscapes were shared through ARTE radio Blog in a series we named Oreilles Déconfinées (Unlocked Ears) and in the local festival Ile en Ville.
Reflexions on the collaboration process, on working with sounds as anthropologists and on the soundscapes' specific themes will be shared in an article to the published in the Fall issue of the journal Collaborative Anthropologies.