The moving and shifting concept of culture

Today, anthropologists, ethnomusicologists, cultural, and gender scholars are interested in culture not only as it is performed, but as it is continuously done, constructed, maintained through acting, musicking, talking, dancing together. Culture lives, and its elements—or aspects, if you wish—are constantly converging, and articulating into new, moving and shifting formations. In this paper Järviluoma discusses the different ways of understanding the concept of culture, interweaving the ideas with the early twentieth century forms of music making in her own grandmother’s home village in northern Finland. She discusses how the new ‘culture’, within the ‘civilising’ social movements converged with the old ways of life and musicking

Vanhenevien kansalaisten äänimuistot radion keskusteluohjelmassa

Sonic remembering of older citizens in a live radio show An interactive three-hour live radio programme Äänien ilta (“Evening of Sounds”) is composed of phone-in requests on environmental sounds and callers’ narratives on their personal memories of historical and contemporary sonic phenomena from diverse settings. Fulfilled requests are accompanied by discussions between callers and studio personnel aiming to elicit further information on emotionally and intellectually exceptional sounds and soundscapes. The Finnish radio format was developed into a transnational programme in collaboration with B-Air – Art Infinity Radio. Creating Sound Art for Babies, Toddlers and Vulnerable Groups project to raise awareness in diverse sound cultures in European countries. By analysing the phone calls and fieldwork material collected among the older citizens, the article will present how sound memories and the acts of remembering are constructed in radio live shows and in an interview situation. Specific attention is paid to the sounds of media, transforming everyday soundscapes and how different machines and engines are represented in speech. The article draws from the theories of individual and social remembering and clarifies the scholarly origins and conceptual discussions in soundscape research in Finland and abroad