Surrounding sound: interviews, recordings, auditions and methodology

Abstract

The interview is one of the most used techniques in Human Sciences, in Anthropology, in particular. More rarely the audio recordings are taken as a starting point. Audio tends to be considered only as a medium, archive, raw material. This article draws on the sounds, noises and silences of 43 interviews carried out with scientists in the Recife/PE. First, a body of recent sound studies will be discussed. Then, the elements and sound environments will be described and analyzed in the order in which they appeared in the interviews, from when the recorder was turned on (rec) until it was turned off (stop). Finally, ethical-methodological comments follow on how these sounds allowed, even at geographical distance, understanding and dialogue with the activities of the field, the team and the research topic. The proposal is to value, in anthropological work, active, imaginative, deep, vigilant, trained, directed, non-habitual and corporal listening.