SPEECHLESS

Language unites. And Language divides. As we have seen Brussel’s ascendance to a level of super-diversity (Vertovec, 2007) brought with it challenges that are as versatile as they a numerous. It seems to lie in the nature of an open art house such as Globe Aroma to feature certain Babylonian qualities. As Bjarne put it in the kitchen while cooking a batch of pancakes:

“You have to be patient with the people. Some come in and don’t speak a single word of French or English. Then you have to find a way to communicate.”

While we were contemplating briefly about the peculiarities of human communication we became aware, that 80% of human communication is being conducted on a non-verbal level. Given some linguistic barriers with French as the dominating language spoken within the confines of Globe Aroma we looked for a universal language that was able to overcome this challenge and found it in body language. In a process of condensing and transforming our fields of interest we formulated three questions we then asked various participants to answer – without ever speaking a single word. To properly document the resulting ‘silent answers’ we used a fixed setting, placing the respective participant in front of a black background and take a photo of him. This method ensured an undisturbed focus on the main object of each picture.

While the use of photography in ethnography is not a novelty anymore its unique properties merit some contemplation. Though it is generally “noted for its realism” it is “routinely subject to multiple perceptions and interpretations” (Schwartz, 1989).

In the context of ethnographic fieldwork scholars distinguished its use either as methodological tool or as a means of presenting research. While the latter is expected to provide the viewer with an unbiased ‘copy of reality’ the former is more susceptible to interpretation or transformation of data during necessary ‘translational processes’. However, visual ethnography is finally bound to be collaborative (Rafee A.M., Arshad A.H.A., Dim A.R., Siri H. & Samaroon M.J., 2015), in other words the viewing process will remain a “dynamic interaction between the photographer, the spectator and the image” (Schwartz, 1989).

SPEECHLESS combines both visual communication and the described property of photos as an ‘echo of reality’. The three questions described above were presented either orally in English or in written form in French to the participants. The latter then reacted and answered directly – as would be the case in conventional interviews. The result is a series of photos that add a distinctive visual layer to our ethnographic data. The analysis was conducted by comparing our perceptions of the given ‘answers’ with the analyses from the conventional interviews. As we were able to classify both results as congruent we here forego a detailed analysis of each participant’s photo series. However, given the changeable quality of photos as both data and art project we here invite each viewer to freely explore his own perception and interpretation of the ethnographic project SPEECHLESS.

All participants of SPEECHLESS were either using the space of Globe Aroma or volunteering there. The 3 questions given were (from left to right) :