The Crawfish Circuit

This creative dissertation addresses the process and implications of documenting and exhibiting a musical soundscape, utilizing the culture of southwest Louisiana as an anchor. From an insider's perspective, the scholarly essay interrogates the photographer's privilege and civil contract within a cultural, historical, and artistic framework. This study examines the relationship between music and social welfare, and explores the messages between the photographic image, sound, and memory. The investigation reflects ultimately on the overall creative process as it pertains to the presentation of the visual image and the fusion between sound and documentary photography. The creative project consists of an immersive installation combining photography, music, and other auditory elements to convey the essence of significant sounds, which correlate to indigenous culture. The rhetorical device, ekphrasis, an exercise in using one medium of art to illuminate another, is instrumental to this project. Employing ekphrasis allows for a deeper understanding of the essence and form of the art, and serves as the connection between the mediums of sound and photography within the context of an exhibition space. Essential sounds and zydeco songs accompany a variety of photographs, allowing the viewer to experience an aural-visual representation of the south Louisiana soundscape. Field investigations reveal the importance of sounds to the community and symbolize important moments in the lives of the interviewees as they reflect on the construction of their identities. In the end, this project clarifies the importance of photography as an essential receptacle of memories. Also, it reveals zydeco and other sounds within southwest Louisiana's soundscape to insiders of the community, while exposing outsiders with limited knowledge of the genre.