Personal Information
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Given name: Gerard









Surname: Ryan









Email: gerard.ryan@urv.cat









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Your contribution
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Title: Listening to Silence in a Primary Care Urgent Waiting Room: Catalan Listening Operators and Audible Order









Format: Project presentation (2)









Main language: Catalan









Abstract:
This contribution studies silence in a primary care urgent waiting room (CAP, Catalonia) as an institutional atmosphere that organises attention, movement, and uncertainty. The inquiry is situated in a context where Catalan functions as a minoritised language and where language becomes part of the waiting room’s infrastructure: it shapes orientation, hesitation, and repair. Through situated listening sessions and bilingual fieldnotes (Catalan and English), the project documents micro-events that structure the room: the baseline murmur (remor), sustained whispering texture (xiuxiueig), the recorded screen voice calling numbers, the metallic click of a remote lock, and the buzzer and long sustained buzz when a door re-locks. One vignette centres on the announcement “Trenta-cinc, passa al box cinc” and the brief collective hesitation that follows when the announcement language is not shared, even though the number is visible on the screen. A second vignette traces how access is governed through timing and acoustics: the short opening window of the locked door, the pressure of the long buzz, and the return of quiet as enforced attention. Methodologically, the contribution proposes a small set of Catalan “listening operators” (remor, xiuxiueig, torn, contenció, among others) as repeatable prompts for writing fieldnotes and comparing listening sessions. Translation into English is treated as part of the analysis, foregrounding where institutional pressure and vulnerability are softened when situated knowledge is rendered in a standard academic register. The outcome is a systematic, transferable protocol for making silent, non-verbal governance in healthcare waiting rooms describable and discussable through artistic research.














Link to the Exposition :  (https://www.researchcatalogue.net/shared/edef9ebdba87eabaf920f1c8911ab5ec)









Image: https://test.sar2026.ie/system/files/webform/submit_contribution/113/0BF01E35-8B16-41E0-B1A8-CD3A0D1B9E08.jpg









Short biographies of the presenter(s):
- Gerard Ryan is Professor of Marketing and Consumer Studies at Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Catalonia). He works at the intersection of consumer research and artistic research, developing listening-based and practice-led methods to study waiting, silence, and service atmospheres. His current work treats minoritised language and translation as methodological resources for describing institutional soundscapes.










Previous presentations or iterations of the research:
This contribution draws on my ongoing listening-based research on waiting and silence in service environments. The specific CAP waiting-room vignettes and the Catalan listening-operator framework presented here have not previously been presented or published as a standalone project.














Requirements
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Additional information:
The presentation is organised around two short listening vignettes from a primary care urgent waiting room (CAP, Catalonia). Vignette 1 focuses on a recorded screen announcement in Catalan and the brief hesitation and micro-translation it produces when the announcement language is not shared, even though the number is visible. Vignette 2 traces how access is governed through timing and acoustics: a remote lock click, a short opening window, a buzzer and long sustained buzz, and the return of quiet as enforced attention. I then outline the method as a repeatable protocol: situated listening sessions, bilingual fieldnotes (Catalan and English), and a small set of Catalan “listening operators” (remor, xiuxiueig, torn, contenció) used as prompts for writing and comparing sessions. The linked Research Catalogue exposition includes the vignettes, the operator glossary, and two translation frictions that demonstrate what shifts when situated terms are rendered into English










Spatial and technical requirements :
Standard lecture room. Projector and screen. Audio playback (speakers) suitable for short sound examples. No special lighting. A table/lectern.










Potential risks or ethical concerns:
Healthcare context. No identifying personal data will be collected or presented. No names, medical details, or identifying descriptions will be included. Documentation prioritises written listening notes and non-identifying description; any audio use will avoid intelligible speech and identifying information. Recording will be avoided where inappropriate, and potentially sensitive details will be anonymised or omitted.










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