Page - 62 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Volume 3/2017

62 Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 3 2o17 Agata Stanisz | Tractor unit acoustemology Then there are the sounds connected with eating, such as slurping, swallowing, crunching, chewing, eating noisily, blowing on hot food, smelling and all the non-verbalized sounds coming out of the body after consuming too much alcohol (e.g. vomiting). This sound dimension remains significant in the context of my research methodology. It is, thus, important to me as a researcher and it should be analyzed with reference to autoethno- graphic approach (Okely 1992, 1-28). My permanent presence activated the importance of the above sounds. The studies I was conducting equaled cohabitation, cooperation and co-presence. Therefore, the field was instantly materialized, while the concept of participant observation gai- ned a different meaning and I started treating this method with some suspicion. Three square meters of the cab were of course a part of the field, but this part which I was present in all the time. The participation and the said observation were so intensive that the traditional meaning of this study technique was insufficient. The notion describing this specific 24/7 situation was, in my opinion, total intimacy: bodily, emotional, intellectual, ritualized and daily, especially at the level of activities and reactions connected with the context of work. In anthropology, the idea of intimacy is associated with the concept of Michael Herzfeld (as cultural intimacy), which I have borrowed from him due to a few reasons (Herzfeld 2004). Firstly, cultural intimacy seems to be a crucial element of the relations between the drivers who I had an opportunity to meet and observe. Those relations are surely characterized by community cordiality (expressed by not hiding bodily sounds, but for example, rather burping together, or lack of any reservations when farting in the company of others), which I could also identify with to some extent, especially with reference to my nationality. Secondly, this very intimacy and familiarity which took a total, even radical form, describes this research field and its intimate acoustics the best. The acoustic experiencing of three square meters was verging on embarrassment caused by the lack of privacy and the inevitable closeness, including the emo- tional closeness whether it was desired or not. Emotions are often manifested with the body: the way of speaking, reactions, gestures and other incontrollable bodily behaviors connected to metabolism or physiology. Personal, individual privacy was impossible to achieve. Privacy existed only in the arrangement of me and him, my driver, which we could perhaps protect from undesired interference from the outside of our tractor unit’s cab, but this type of privacy was usually impossible to achieve as well (Stanisz 2016, 47-68). This rather small, in terms of measurements, mobile field located on the road or always waiting next to the road, enabled me to gather almost the same experiences as those of the driv- Audio file 6: Waiting, pausing, crunching. Neuenkirchen, Germany, 2011-08-11. https://app.box.com/embed/preview/dulhmlrqil456e18ppfj?theme=dark