Seite - 71 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Band 3/2017

Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 3 2o17 Agata Stanisz | Tractor unit acoustemology 71 meates our bodies. We are surrounded by sounds which propagate all around us and come from far and wide all at the same time. In other words, sounds set us in the very centre of the world (Ong 1981). Additionally, sound resonates, which is particularly relevant in  the  context of my studies. Resonating is the key phenomenon for the acoustic environment experienced by tractor unit drivers. It is also recognized as the basis for broadly defined sensorial experience. Sensation is not possible without vibrations and resonance, regardless of whether we talk abo- ut sound, light or texture (Deleuze 2003). Elisabeth Grosz makes the following comment on the topic: sensation is nothing else than vibrations which resonate inside our bodies – in our internal organs and the nervous system (Grosz 2008, 62). In  this very sense, moving around in tractor units is organic, physical and strongly linked to sound as movement in these vehicles is sonic and vibrant at the same time; every activity has a  sonic dimension and the produced sounds are droning, intense and noisy in nature. Sound also reveals the context and facilitates documenting and describing the dynamics of ambiance owing to its aforementioned physical properties. Therefore, field recording constitu- tes an effective method of ethnography of senses. It is crucial to understand that one cannot experience sound without time which it is constitutive for. Sound embodies the  meaning of time: when we record or listen, we inevitably feel its passing, its rhythm. According to Henri Lefebvre (1984), it is impossible to understand the atmosphere of a given place without its rhythm. Research practice reflected in anthropology of sound actually mirrors the lifestyle of drivers whose activities, work and everyday lives are concealed in the periodic mobility. While listening to ambiance, we primarily hear how it is generated as it is in a constant process of formation and transformation owing to various social practices. Therefore, it is not just a space and it does not exist without human activity. In the face of that, ambiance is always collective and reflects certain parts of social life. Thus, the acoustic dimension of a single tractor unit cab constitutes one of many possible atmospheres of this space. It is an example of how the context of drivers’ everyday life can sound, and how the multilocalness in  mobility can sound. Exploring the world through sound is different from exploring it with one’s eyes. The preva- lence of the latter in the western culture often means that  experiencing through other senses is filtered by vision. It is no coincidence, though, that  I  have supplied the collection of ambiences in the Transportodrone project with  descriptions, extracts from field notes, satellite maps and pictures of particular places which had a  certain sonic value at a given moment. Understanding sounds which are taken out of the  spatial and situational context is impossible, especially with reference to the industrial audiosphere whose overall acoustics is largely homogeneous and not easily assimilated by its recipients, mainly due to its pejoratively evaluated noisiness. There is no possibility for  recognizing the nature of acoustemological processes without visual clues. The sound itself does not work. Of course, limiting knowledge to visuality sets limits to our ability to understand the meanings of certain places, events and behaviors. Sound itself does not work. However, in the case of large infrastructures of mobility such as motorways, highways or cargo ports, which are spectacular and sonic at  the  same time, there are no grounds for seclu- ding vision from hearing. Moreover, these places also smell and are physically experienced, so experiencing them will always be a kind of sensual semiosis. Joachim-Ernst Berendt proposed the idea of democracy of senses, where no  sense shall have priority over the other ones (Berendt 1985, 32). It is not about replacing the visual perspective but about emphasizing the signifi-