Chapter 2
In this chapter, we examine various forms of audio that can be used to record and represent fieldwork: soundscape recordings, soundwalks and sonic maps, radio diaries and audio essays, as well as audio documentaries and historical documentary using archival sound. Each of these sonic recordings provides a set of models for taking into account the possibilities of the audio form. We explore how each approach can provide researchers with unique ways to expand their representational repertoire. Although audio most explicitly focuses on helping audiences hear culture in practice, implicit (and at times explicit) in our discussion are the ways in which audio also allows researchers and audiences to see and feel the environment being studied and how these approaches extend forms of observation, participant observation, historical research, and interviewing. We conclude this chapter with a discussion of the unique possibilities that emerge for researchers who use audio to record and represent culture and some of the challenges that might be encountered.