Personal Information
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Given name: Yen Yen









Surname: Woo









Email: yenyen.woo@lasalle.edu.sg









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Your contribution
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Title: Sonic Thick Description: Using the Food Podcast Docu-Dramedy to Re-Sense the Singaporean Voice









Format: Other format (7)









Main language: English









Abstract:
While the global podcasting industry has experienced exponential growth, the Singaporean scene remains a site of intense cultural negotiation. Local digital discourse frequently dismisses domestic productions as "cringe" when measured against "overseas" benchmarks. This presentation challenges these aesthetic hierarchies, positioning the food podcast—derived from sensory ethnography—as a radical performance of linguistic diversity in a landscape otherwise flattened by decades of linguistic regulation.

Using my own Singapore-based food podcast, Eat by Ear, as a primary case study, I lead a listening circle and a comparative analysis against a sampling of local food media to map the current linguistic terrain. I argue that the "cringe" label is often a byproduct of unexamined postcolonial anxieties regarding local vernaculars and identities. By integrating theories of postcoloniality and critical pedagogy, this session explores how the medium of podcasting, with its affordance for emplaced ethnography, can be used for "culturally re-sensing" our languages.

The presentation features an immersive audio component, utilizing episode playback in a listening circle to demonstrate how "sonic thick description" can disrupt a sanitized linguistic environment. Through the interweaving of ambient hawker sounds and the textures of local languages—delivered via a humorous and novel docu-dramedy form—podcasting emerges as a method to "rewild" an increasingly flattened linguistic landscape. I propose that sensory-driven podcasting functions as a vital intervention: a means of recognizing and valuing local voices and their inherent lived histories within a linguistically constrained media landscape.












Image: https://www.sar2026.ie/system/files/webform/submit_contribution/175/EBE%20Lockup_w%20pink%20BG_small.png









Short biographies of the presenter(s):
- Associate Professor Woo Yen Yen leads the MA Arts Pedagogy and Practice Programme at LASALLE College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore. A specialist in blending creative practice with academic research, her work spans film (Singapore Dreaming), comics (Dim Sum Warriors), and community festivals (Kampung Halloween). Her creative projects have been featured on Netflix, HBO, and at the Smithsonian Institution, and have toured 26 cities across China. Dr. Woo’s scholarship on creative practice research is published in Educational Researcher, The Oxford Handbook of Methods for Public Scholarship, and Arts-Based Research in Education. Her current project is Eat by Ear, a docu-dramedy food podcast.










Previous presentations or iterations of the research:
While a my food podcast was previously exhibited at The Listening Biennial, this presentation offers a debut critical analysis of the work’s contribution to Singapore’s linguistic landscape. In a national context where media is highly regulated and dozens of vernaculars have vanished within a single generation, the podcast functions as a radical performance of linguistic richness.














Requirements
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Additional information:
This session will be in the format of a demo-lecture in a listening circle, combining curated audio samples from a podcast I created, with the delivery of a paper, providing attendees with a multi-sensory experience of the research data.










Spatial and technical requirements :
Audio: High-quality stereo speakers (capable of capturing the nuance and "texture" of ambient field recordings).
Visual: Projector with a connection for a laptop (HDMI preferred).
Room Layout: A U-shape seating arrangement is requested to foster a communal, "listening circle" atmosphere and to encourage dialogue during the post-playback analysis.











Potential risks or ethical concerns:
None










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