Exploring Trauma and Recovery through Listening Experiences of Survivors of the Bataclan Terrorist Attack in Paris: On the (Co-)Construction of Knowledge and Ethical Responsibility of Bearing Witness in Music Research

Velasco-Pufleau, Luis (8 July 2022). Exploring Trauma and Recovery through Listening Experiences of Survivors of the Bataclan Terrorist Attack in Paris: On the (Co-)Construction of Knowledge and Ethical Responsibility of Bearing Witness in Music Research (Unpublished). In: Music/Sound Through the Lens of Trauma: Methodology, Theory and History. Utrecht. 7-8 July 2022.

Through listening, we build relationships with places and subjectivities. How can aural memories and listening experiences help to understand processes of trauma and recovery? What are the ethical implications of listening to testimonies of traumatic experiences? This paper examines the ethical responsibility of bearing witness within trauma and recovery in music scholarship. I draw on my research with survivors and parents of victims of the Bataclan terrorist attack in Paris, which unfolded on the evening of 13 November 2015 during a rock concert. Considering my research as a process of co-construction of knowledge, I show how the study of listening experiences and aural memories of survivors contributes to understanding trauma, mnemonic dynamics and processes of recovery related to sound following violent events. Furthermore, I argue that qualitative research is a process of collective discovery, which transforms the subjectivities of both researchers and research participants. The process of witnessing is dialogical. Exploring and writing about Bataclan survivors’ embodied experiences of sound required an ethics of listening and mutual understanding. Through our research-centred relationship, I discovered as much about my interlocutors as about myself and my own relationship to music, sound and silence.

Item Type:

Conference or Workshop Item (Speech)

Division/Institute:

06 Faculty of Humanities > Other Institutions > Walter Benjamin Kolleg (WBKolleg)
06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Musicology

UniBE Contributor:

Velasco Pufleau, Luis Alberto

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
700 Arts > 780 Music
900 History

Publisher:

Utrecht University

Funders:

[164] Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (European Commission)

Projects:

[1590] Political Ontologies of Music: Rethinking the Relationship between Music and Politics in the Twenty-First Century Official URL

Language:

English

Submitter:

Luis Alberto Velasco Pufleau

Date Deposited:

06 Jun 2023 09:58

Last Modified:

06 Jun 2023 09:58

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/183162

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