Ears that open mouths

"There are ears that have the power to open mouths" - I'm not sure who said that...

I heard the above quote just last Saturday at a storytelling workshop "Looking for Peace" led by Angela Knowles. I think it was only then that I realised the importance of listening.

Storytelling fascinates me. I think it's because it's similar to reading a novel. There are different styles of storytellers, different types of stories, yet the same stories are told uniquely. I'm not sure what it is that I find so compelling - it may be because, unlike a film, where you don't have to use imagination, a story can be more vivid because you do. Maybe it's the slower pace, the concentration on one thing as opposed to 101 things.

We had to split into groups at the workshop and each learn and tell a story to the rest of the group. I saw a fantastic bird which had 'flown through a rainbow' and smelt freshly baked bread and cinnamon buns.

I suppose the importance of the initial quote is for me the crux of storytelling. As a 'listener' I find it absorbing - a collective experience which wouldn't happen if the audience didn't listen or participate.

Perhaps one day an audience will 'participate' and be immersed in a story I tell...

What constitutes ethnography?

I'm writing up my transfer report at the moment and I've hit the 'methods' chapter. Originally I intended using ethnography to explore information seeking in oral cultures, however due to difficulties in accessing study groups and my evolving research themes, I decided that ethnography was not the best method for me.

Still I got to thinking, what actually is ethnography? Today, in the modern, electronic world? Ethnography seems to be a buzz word at the moment adopted by non-anthropological fields, such as HCI. Denzin talks about the stages of ethnography, its evolution from imperial roots looking at 'primitive' cultures to reflecting on our own culture and society.

Perhaps the terminology is too sweeping, the meaning of ethnography seems to have changed, comparatively experimental writing styles such as poetry and auto-ethnography strive to establish validity.

Renee Hopkins Callahan's group called the work in a 1-week data gathering section of a project ethnography and subsequently found complaints about it published on a blog.

For my research, I would like to cherry-pick some of the ethnographic ideas whilst realising that an ethnographic study in a traditional sense is beyond my scope and indeed, may not give the best results. Dourish's concerns that ethnography does not lead usefully into 'implications for design' seem well founded to me. Ethnography should be able to stand in its own right.

So hopefully, my ethnographesque style combined with other qualitative research methods will give me a varied, rich set of data.