Author(s)
Joëlle Bitton, Stefan Agamanolis and Matthew Karau
Research Location/Institution
Media Lab Europe
Country
The research was conducted across Ireland (Dublin), France (Paris), and Mali (Bamako, Timbuktu, and Ségou)
Date
April 24–29, 2004
Writing Style
Academic, ethnographic
Publication
Proceedings of the CHI 2004 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Context
The project developed RAW, a recording tool combining a digital camera with a binaural audio recorder to capture impressions of everyday life.
The tool captures the 60 seconds of sound before and after a photograph is taken to provide context and progressive discovery for the audience.
Minimal mediation, no editing or deletion is allowed by the user or third parties to maintain the raw honesty of the experience.
Study Phases:
Dublin: Initial prototype testing and validation of the one-minute audio constraint.
Paris: A workshop with children/teenagers to observe emerging storytelling behaviors in a different cultural context.
Mali: A large-scale study with 23 participants from diverse professions to test the tool's value in a non-Western, oral culture.
Possible Biases
The authors note the difficulty of being perceived as outsiders or white persons (anthropologists/social workers) in Mali, which required significant effort to break down through local guides.
Terminology
Audiophotography: A domain relating sound to still images.
Binaural Recording: High-quality stereo audio recorded via microphones in the user's ears to mimic their actual auditory experience.
Minimally-Mediated: Reducing the editorial influence of third parties (directors, editors, etc.) to enable a direct relationship between user and audience.
Social Glances: A category of use where the tool is used primarily as a means for spontaneous social interaction.