The Sounds of míqәn: An Embodied Inquiry of Place, Space, and Perception in Beacon Hill Park
Date
2023-07-04
Authors
Dubé, Caitlyn
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Abstract
Vision is often considered the most important and necessary sense; but what do we miss when we tune out our other senses? Advertised as the crowing jewel of Victoria’s park system, míqәn (Beacon Hill Park) is a major attraction for those visiting the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, each of whom form unique senses of place through their personal experiences and become part of the area’s entangled Indigenous and colonial histories. Experiences with, and senses of, place cannot be separated from the place’s sensorial elements, which each person perceives and understands differently. With a focus on (beyond) the five senses, the anthropology of the senses can provide unique insights into the formation and maintenance of histories, epistemologies, identities, and places while simultaneously exploring sensory configurations that disrupt the colonial prioritization of sight and seeing. Drawing from sensory ethnography, sonic anthropology, and place-based studies, this project focuses on the acts of being, sensing, and audio recording and asks the following questions: How do sounds and other sensorial stimuli (sight, smell, etc.) interact with one another to create a sense of place? How can engaging in embodied studies of perception disrupt colonial and hegemonic ways of knowing and being? This project also explores sound mapping as an embodied, decolonial method of representing the temporal transformations place and experience. In response to these questions, I argue that sound and time play a major role in forming senses of place and contribute to decolonizing places and the discipline of anthropology. I also argue that recording further attunes one to a place and can create new connections with and senses of place(s).
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Keywords
sonic anthropology, sound studies, multimodal anthropology, place-based studies