Field Methods in Ethnomusicology (Winter 2012)
Short URL for this website: http://bit.ly/fmethno
COURSE WEBSITE & OUTLINE NOT FINALIZED - IN PROGRESS!
Contents
Overview
Ethnomusicology is the social practice of studying music as a meaningful social practice (my definition). Within music studies, ethnomusicology's distinguishing practical feature is fieldwork, a principal component of the ethnographic enterprise upon which most ethnomusicological (and anthropological) research is based. This course aims to provide you with strategies for the aquisition of field methods (procedural, declarative, and critical knowledge) enabling you to perform critical ethnographic fieldwork, to gather ethnomusicological data, and develop ethnographies.
For the first few weeks, we take up theoretical and critical overviews of fieldwork and ethnography (along with a heavy reading load), including – most importantly – issues of truth, power, and ethics. Subsequently, that load will be reduced as we begin to focus on acquisition of perspectives, knowledge, and methods—technical and social—pertinent to critical ethnomusicological data collection via participant observation, interviewing, field notes, audio and video recording, and still photography. Here the course shifts gears, from reading about fieldwork to actually doing it. You will learn to transcribe and edit field materials, and to analyze and code fieldwork data in preparation for ethnographic writing. We will discuss techniques and strategies for molding multimedia materials into presentable formats, including documentary film, and development of multimedia websites, blogs, wikis, and podcasts.
You will also learn to develop effective ethnographic research proposals centered on fieldwork (including preparation of budgets and timelines), suitable for funding and guiding your research project. Most students should consider this course as an initial step towards their MA or PhD thesis.
Ethnomusicology is a diverse set of practices, and complete training in its field methods is not possible in the span of 13 sessions. In particular, we will not have time to study the technical subjects (audio recording/editing, photography, video recording/editing) in depth. Mastery of any one of these subjects requires an enormous investment in study and practice. Rather the focus here is on a broad spectrum of introductions—methods for acquiring methods, learning how to learn—in the hopes that you will thereby be enabled and motivated to explore further on your own.
Final assignments
Submission by 5 pm on April 19th must include proposal, budget, ethics application, and partial ethnography (including text, audio, image, video, with metadata, transcriptions, analyses…). Burn all final assignments on a single DVD, with your name written on it. Organize the DVD by folders (one for the proposal/budget/ethics and critical synthesis, and others for each practicum). Each folder should contain a file called README including a file list, explaining what it contains. Put all related materials together). At the top level please include a link to your online presentation (see below).
Please submit the DVD at the Music Office, 382 FAB (open 9:30 - noon, and 1 - 3:30, or drop it off at my office in folkwaysAlive/CCE in Old Arts.
The DVD assignment list follows, together with weights for each assignment:
- Three-page critical synthesis on fieldwork and ethnography (b): 5%
- Final project proposal with budget, and uploaded presentation of your work (see below) (j): 34%
- Six practica @ 6% each: 36% (fieldnotes (c); audiography (d); interviews (e); photography (f); videography (g); coding (h)). Each practicum may consist of a number of files of different formats, and should be accompanied by metadata whenever appropriate.
Of the remaing 25%: 5% is for your preliminary project proposal (a) and budget (i), handed in earlier this term.
Participation & assigned presentations count for 20%
For the DVD submissions, feel free to augment, rewrite, supplement, complement what you originally submitted or presented in class. For instance, over the course of the past several weeks, you may have revised your budget significantly, added material to your project proposal, complemented photographs with metadata, or refined your metadata model.
Also upload to web 2.0 (google site, blog, wiki, youtube, facebook, etc.) an online portfolio of this material (in lower resolution versions) organized as a "virtual exhibit" of your work, and include the URL link (limit distribution if the project should not be made public) on the DVD. (j)
For this wiki see How to write these wiki pages
If I'm missing any of your assignments, please be sure to hand them in - better late than never!
Course outline
Click here for detailed course outline, including assignments
Sci Tech links
Physics concepts & demonstrations: waves and acoustics
Light, vision, and photography
Fieldwork equipment recommendations
Multimedia editing and analysis software
Readings and reserve
Click here for Library reserve list
Click here for scanned online readings
Assigned readings for weeks 2-4
Please sign up for readings to present in class by clicking on the links, and editing as instructed.
Commentaries on the readings
Click on the above link to bring up a list of course readings. Click on a reading title to discuss the reading with your colleagues, adding your own summary, critique, and commentary.
