This article examines the ethnographic significance of silence and background noise in biographical video interviews with former miners in southwest Sardinia. Drawing on John Cage’s conceptualization of silence, sensory ethnography, and anthropological theories of sound and embodiment, the analysis reconsiders the video interview as a multisensory field. The study argues that background noises—environmental and corporeal—constitute an essential dimension of narrative performance and ethnographic knowledge production. Through close listening to three life‑history interviews collected with old miners between 2008 and 2009, the article explores how silence becomes a space of meaning and how the aural environment shapes memory work, emotional expression, and the co‑production of ethnographic narratives.
In a Silent Way: Exploring Background Sounds in Biographical Video Interviews
Bachis, Francesco
2024-01-01
Abstract
This article examines the ethnographic significance of silence and background noise in biographical video interviews with former miners in southwest Sardinia. Drawing on John Cage’s conceptualization of silence, sensory ethnography, and anthropological theories of sound and embodiment, the analysis reconsiders the video interview as a multisensory field. The study argues that background noises—environmental and corporeal—constitute an essential dimension of narrative performance and ethnographic knowledge production. Through close listening to three life‑history interviews collected with old miners between 2008 and 2009, the article explores how silence becomes a space of meaning and how the aural environment shapes memory work, emotional expression, and the co‑production of ethnographic narratives.
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