Paper short abstract:

A colleague gave me the term, storyboard, and thereby contributed to collaborative work in ‘the field’. Through this example, I ask how we might think about networks of collaboration as well as particular relations in specific parts of this more broadly conceived field.

Paper long abstract:

Collaborative practices support all sorts of anthropological work but they are rarely recognised in the form of networks that stretch, for example, from one field to the academy or to other sites of practice. I present a small illustration that indicates how a comment from a colleague allowed me to explicate a field practice I developed during a project that digitalised photographs of mine from the 1980s, which I took back to Ladakh. Many of the Ladakhis I worked with were far more engaged with these images than with words alone and so I made them small books combining images and text, which also provided more accessible and inclusive tools for discussion. My colleague gave me the term, storyboard, with which I am now trying to negotiate the shape of what is and is not appropriate to write or talk about, how it should be circulated, and according to whom. I have found that some images/stories that were firmly censored initially elicited different reactions when they were brought back.

Collaborative networks of support are normally edited systematically as anthropological production shifts from one site to another, and I wonder if it would be helpful to think of sustaining a network of collaborative practices in place of focusing on specific aspects of this field. How might we think about such networks and the care they elicit?