History of fieldwork recording technology: Difference between revisions

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** For example, in transcribing an interview or melody we think about what's really important.
** For example, in transcribing an interview or melody we think about what's really important.
** Thus the irony:  less information is often more information.
** Thus the irony:  less information is often more information.
----


* Nevertheless, the ''scientific' study of culture was completely transformed by the advent of recording technology, particular for "culture" that is evanescent, immaterial, intangible - such as performance in all its flavors, including ritual, speech, and music.  
* Nevertheless, the ''scientific' study of culture was completely transformed by the advent of recording technology, particular for "culture" that is evanescent, immaterial, intangible - such as performance in all its flavors, including ritual, speech, and music.  
** Such technology centers on representing two sensory fields:  hearing, and vision, as they are carried by waves (sound and light). Other senses are harder to capture.
** Such technology centers on representing two sensory fields:  hearing, and vision, as they are carried by waves (sound and light). Other senses are harder to capture.
** The “scientific” study of music was advanced by technology enabling recorded sound and image, turning the intangible and evanescent into the tangible and durable, stopping time, enabling careful study, and encouraging ''collection'' and ''comparison''
** The “scientific” study of music was advanced by technology enabling recorded sound and image, turning the intangible and evanescent into the tangible and durable, stopping time, enabling careful study, and encouraging ''collection'' and ''comparison''
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* One of the key events was Edison’s development of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph phonograph] in 1877 (recorded and played back from cylinders) followed by Emile Berliner’s invention of the gramophone in 1887, leading to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Talking_Machine_Company Victor gramophone].  
* One of the key events was Edison’s development of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph phonograph] in 1877 (recorded and played back from cylinders) followed by Emile Berliner’s invention of the gramophone in 1887, leading to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Talking_Machine_Company Victor gramophone].  
* But there were even earlier devices, e.g. Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville’s record-only phonautograph invented in 1857 (http://www.firstsounds.org/).  
* But there were even earlier devices, e.g. Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville’s record-only phonautograph invented in 1857 (http://www.firstsounds.org/).  
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* Nascent motion picture technology emerged in France with the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re Lumiere brothers], whose [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddk first film] was screened in 1895.
* Nascent motion picture technology emerged in France with the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re Lumiere brothers], whose [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddk first film] was screened in 1895.
* Even [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4deGQ_CPWw earlier experiments included these shorts]
* Even [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4deGQ_CPWw earlier experiments included these shorts]
----


''NB: All of this technology resulted from an era of European scientific advancement, itself predicated not only on the Enlightenment, but on an era of global travel and discovery, and the resources subsequently made available from global imperialism and colonialism (especially free labor from the despicable slave trade), factors that ironically also gave rise to new directions in social science, including anthropology--initially serving colonialism--and ethnomusicology, which would later make extensive use of it.''
''NB: All of this technology resulted from an era of European scientific advancement, itself predicated not only on the Enlightenment, but on an era of global travel and discovery, and the resources subsequently made available from global imperialism and colonialism (especially free labor from the despicable slave trade), factors that ironically also gave rise to new directions in social science, including anthropology--initially serving colonialism--and ethnomusicology, which would later make extensive use of it.''

Revision as of 19:51, 28 February 2022

  • Your body is the best technology! Your senses (eyes, ears, nose, skin, tongue) and mind (the best filter, the best recorder!) combined with natural mobility and sociability that no other technology can replicate.
    • Anything else can be distancing.
    • Field notes result from a kind of “mental recording”, which is transferred to words, symbols, sketches, diagrams, and musical notations on paper as quickly as is practical.
    • This "low tech" solution remains central to ethnographic fieldwork, not only because it is inexpensive, but also due to its flexibility and its automatic incorporation of the fieldworker's own interpretive competence, intelligent information reduction.
    • For example, in transcribing an interview or melody we think about what's really important.
    • Thus the irony: less information is often more information.
  • Nevertheless, the scientific' study of culture was completely transformed by the advent of recording technology, particular for "culture" that is evanescent, immaterial, intangible - such as performance in all its flavors, including ritual, speech, and music.
    • Such technology centers on representing two sensory fields: hearing, and vision, as they are carried by waves (sound and light). Other senses are harder to capture.
    • The “scientific” study of music was advanced by technology enabling recorded sound and image, turning the intangible and evanescent into the tangible and durable, stopping time, enabling careful study, and encouraging collection and comparison
  • One of the key events was Edison’s development of the phonograph in 1877 (recorded and played back from cylinders) followed by Emile Berliner’s invention of the gramophone in 1887, leading to the Victor gramophone.
  • But there were even earlier devices, e.g. Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville’s record-only phonautograph invented in 1857 (http://www.firstsounds.org/).
  • Introduction of these technologies triggered the advent of the sound archive (starting with the Berlin Phonogramm Archiv), transformed the study of music and essentially gave rise to ethnomusicology (then "comparative musicology")
  • Recordings were made using portable disc recorders, infield or outfield. One of the most famous images of such recording is this one: Frances Densmore recording Mountain Chief


NB: All of this technology resulted from an era of European scientific advancement, itself predicated not only on the Enlightenment, but on an era of global travel and discovery, and the resources subsequently made available from global imperialism and colonialism (especially free labor from the despicable slave trade), factors that ironically also gave rise to new directions in social science, including anthropology--initially serving colonialism--and ethnomusicology, which would later make extensive use of it.

What is recording technology? In recording we transform (transduce) physical waves (sound and light) emanating from the field then preserve them in physical media for longer-term storage. The past becomes imprinted on the future. Ironically it may be the low tech (Sumerian clay tablets, LPs) which last longer (than floppy discs, or CDs...)

Over time recording technology has rapidly developed in three often converging directions:

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