Re-sensing food culture in Singapore: Podcasting as practice-based research

Abstract

In this article, the host–creator–researcher of the podcast, Eat By Ear (EBE) explains the methodology of podcast as practice-based research, with epistemological reflections relating to Singapore food cultural studies, sensory ethnography, and collaborative thinking and writing in higher education. EBE is a publicly distributed food podcast that tells the stories of chefs of hawker dishes in Singapore. In relation to existing scholarly accounts of hawker culture, the author reflects on an ethnographic process aimed at cultural re-sensing through on-location presence, the hawker-chefs’ own voices, and slow sonic sensoriality. This paper also reflects on a few unusual choices. First, the choice to present sensory ethnography findings for public listening in a novel form, the docu-dramedy – part documentary, part drama, part comedy. Second, the choice of socio-affective collaboration – in the relationship between the researcher and the subjects, and in the writing and reflection process.