CISA–Anthropology of Sound
“Mapping an Existential Territory: An Autoethnography of a Sound Researcher”（Jing Wang）
Through a reflective account of my personal stories, this autoethnography seeks to explore how changing geographical and cultural milieus affect the crafting of subiectivity. how one connects and dis connects oneself from one place and another through human and nonhuman affective ties, and what elements come to shift one’s perception of who one is and to change how one is.（pp.497）
While this definition may sound similar to social constructivism that defines subjectivity as a matter of social and linguistic negotiation, it differs from social constructivism by describing the existential territory as sui-referential. A sui-referential existential territory is what I make, where I retreat to, and where I achieve a self-feeling unicity. To achieve a self-feeling unicity, one may search for a commu-nity. But more often, a self-feeling unicity is realized through a self-distancing from a certain community or a certain dominant cultural mechanism.（pp.498）
One leaves home to be at home. But the first home is fundamentally different from the second one. Similarly, what one leaves is never the same as that in which one arrives. I call that in which one arrives “existential territory.”（pp.500）
Ethnographic held is home in the sense that one has to leave in order to arrive.
Existential territory is subjectivity that carries earth from geographical places. It emerges out of those moments after which one no longer finds one’s way back. Every flight is a rupture. At the moment of rupture, self matters. Joy accompanies pain. The passive becomes active. It’s a moment when one acutely feels ones affective and existential state of being. Only a leap or a shift can free oneself. And it is at these moments that a sui-referential territory emerges and exbands
Self-reinvention is not a linear operation. （pp.500）
Review：
The author deconstructs the existence of himself, decomposes his identity as a sound researcher into his own life experience, where he has been, what experience he has had, and the transformation of his heart. All these transformations together constitute the current him.
The linkages and disconnections among various locations that influence how one views himself. The idea of a “territory of being” is presented, which refers to a realised self-constructed space. This sense of self can be attained by seeking out and separating oneself from the group or cultural mechanisms. The idea of leaving home to find a new home is examined, highlighting the transformational nature of this journey. Moments of separation, introspection, and self-reinvention are linked to the creation of an existential territory. Self-reinvention is characterised as a non-linear process that involves rediscovery and interdependence on the environment and parts of one’s existence. In the end, self-reinvention is viewed as a technique of achieving a rootless yet developing field of being.