“What If the Public Baths Were the Centre of the World?” Between Artistic Installation and Ethnographic Survey

This paper describes an experiment in creative research within the last public baths in the city of Lyon, proposed by the LALCA association (an informal laboratory gathering architects, researchers and artists). Unlike “traditional” anthropological research, the site was “arranged” as a “sound-scape camp”, a space for recording, creating and broadcasting sound-tracks. The point of view adopted is that of the “unknowledgeable” anthropologist who learns and appropriates an artistic installation. The effects on the methodology of survey and on the interactions with people, most of whom living in very precarious situations, are thus highlighted.