「丟失的味覺」？人類學拍攝的感官迷失與探索

“Lost Sense of Taste”? Sensory Loss and Exploration in Anthropological Filmmaking

文字和影像在紀錄和表述味覺和嗅覺方面均存在諸多盲點。紀錄品飲過程的影像民族志，如何有效表達味覺和嗅覺、又如何使研究者在運用攝像機的過程中獲得對研究環境較為全面的感官體驗？本文基於作者與茶葉有關的人類學研究，探索有無紀錄拍攝的田野工作給調查者帶來的感官經歷的異同，以及影像民族誌區別於文本民族誌在表徵感官經驗方面的特點。文章呼應感官人類學及影視人類學研究的新興成果，將感官系統視為一個整體，提倡拍攝者和研究者開啟身體的多感官，充分感知田野環境。同時本文強調對拍攝者自身感官經驗的關注與反省，認為拍攝者不僅僅作為感官世界的觀察者和紀錄者而存在，同時亦是構成該感官世界之整體的重要的一分子。運用影像來探究感官經驗的田野調查充滿挑戰，但此過程亦可揭示出潛伏於事相之下並且超越感官的感覺世界的豐富與複雜。 The senses of taste and smell are hard to record and describe by both texts and images. How does visual ethnography, which involves recording the tasting process, meet this challenge and enable the researcher as well as filmmaker to have a rounded sensory experience? This article speaks from the author's investigation on tea, to explore how fieldwork with or without the camera could bring different sensory experience to the filmmaker, and how visual ethnography differs from written ethnography in representing the sensorial environment. Echoing the argument by new sensory and visual anthropological research, the article regards all the sensory organs as unison and calls for the multiple sensory engagement in the fieldwork. Furthermore, the author argues that the filmmaker does not exist only as an observer and recorder but also an important part of the whole sensorial environment. Video-audio recording brings challenge to research on senses, but it also reveals the rich and complex dimensions of the surrounding environment, which would not be reflexed upon if without using the camera.