7 September 2009

Lost: the research edition

On moments I want to wrap my mind around something else, like before going to bed, I put a DVD into my laptop. These days I’m watching the episodes of the series ‘Lost’ for the second time. Watching Lost while you know that a couple of meters from your bed are similar palm trees, hills, woods and waterfalls is quite something.

But what’s more… it has crossed my mind several times that my research is quite similar to the way ‘Lost’ is constructed. No, no polar bears jump out of the forest here, I haven’t found secret hatches in the woods and I’m not chased by ‘the Others’.

And still. Here, you’re immediately submerged into local life, like you’re ‘crashing’ into a foreign culture, in a special village, and then are forced to make sense of it all. And doing that one step at a time, is not quite possible. One of the weirdest things in ‘Lost’ were the polar bear and the monster-like thing in the woods. These are things which are initially ‘the big puzzle’, but which slowly move to the background after the first episodes (or, regarding my research: after the first few weeks), even though they do not get solved right away.

Other things appear much later and once they have, it’s never the same again. Like the discovery of the hatch, and in particular the opening of it, or the contacts with ‘the Others’. Conducting a research, there’s potentially a period in which you are unaware – for a humongous period of time – of things that are vitally important, like here: the much talked about reputation Adamorobe carries outside the village, or the fact that the deaf used to be very active in the (military) defense of the village. Or… it comes to you before you know that the theme is potentially very important , but it takes a long while before you are able to investigate it in more depth. An example: the opinions of the hearing concerning the deaf. You start to wonder which elements are still out there, that can make your thesis look completely different; if all those important hatches have already been opened, if the ‘terra incognita’ (‘unknown grounds’) have been revealed.

Sometimes, ‘Lost’ drops a story line to only pick it up again a full season after that. A lot of viewers get impatient: some things finally get meaning after a very long time, but in the meantime, a lot of new non-understandable elements are stacked up and the whole picture seems like an incoherent mess. You sometimes start to wonder if the writers are pulling your leg. But still, ‘Lost’ remains addictive to many: it’s fascinating and frustrating at the same time. Once again, bingo: that’s exactly what it’s like conducting research here in this village, in this culture.

Sometimes you lose track and you have a hard time for a while. You see things you wish you hadn’t, people suffering, people dying. You stumble upon conflicts and fights which can escalate. Sometimes I do not have the mental energy to get out of my room, fearing that I’ll get faced with another gossip litany, round of compaints or argument report for the umpteenth time. However, now and again there are unexpected interesting encounters or surprising bits of information which make my day.

And take the people for example. Adamorobe has 41 deaf. ‘Lost’ initially tells the story of a bit more than 40 people who have crashed. It’s not possible to focus on each of these individuals without getting superficial. The series portrays the stories of a subgroup of 10-15 people, the frontrunners. My research, as well, contains such ‘lead players’ with very diverse backgrounds and ages. However, this does not mean that the other people are as ‘faceless’ as in ‘Lost’. Because don’t you ever wonder how the other 30 survivors experience their stay on the island?

In ‘Lost’, new actors are gradually added: the French woman, ‘the Others’, Desmond, the second group of survivors. Once again, a match. The first months, I solely focussed on the deaf people: they were my starting point, my point of departing, the core of my research. Because and through them, I learned the language, the ‘who is who' and ‘what is what’. Until various hearing started to also take the stage. One of them is currently a very important informant regarding Adamorobe’s culture and history and interviews hearing in the local language of Twi, following my request. He also notes down the answers in English. To open the hatch ‘hearing opinions on the deaf’, this person is and was therefore indispensable.

At the end of the third season, the people leave the island, without all mysteries being solved. Probably – hopefully – it will become a bit more clear to me and be a bit more satisfying. But I’m not left with too much time: the clock is ticking and my lists of to-do an to-double-check, to-dig-in-to-deeper, still-to-ask, still-to-interview and still-to-observe-a-bit-more-indepth are still long…