Learning to move like a crab: what I have noticed as a former designer studying as an anthropologist
Zoy Anastassakis
(Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro)
In this communication, I comment on how, while I was trained in anthropology, I learned to move like a crab (Das, 2020): becoming able to hesitate, to stay exposed, vulnerable, thinking and experimenting a little bit more about the relationships between design, anthropology and education.
Paper long abstract:
In her most recent book, Veena Das describes her thinking with the figure of crab-like movements: "my thought seems to proceed in crab-like movements, forward and sideways, rather than being able to run for the finishing line" (2020, xiiii). In an interview about the book, she returns to the figure of crab-like movements to comment on how, in her way of thinking and writing, ethnography, biography and autobiography intertwine: "some thought or idea goes in one direction for years and then it can happen that I don't know how to move forward. And then, sometimes years later, that idea that was blocked comes back, and this can include thoughts from my childhood, for example, or something that is triggered in a classroom, or something that is triggered while walking in the street, or reading a book" (Das, 2021: 789). In this communication, I intend to trace some scenes that I took part in in the classroom, as a student and later as a teacher, in a design school. Among these scenes, I note how the study of anthropology allowed me to learn the arts of noticing (Tsing, 2015), and so, how it allowed me to stay a little longer with what matters when we think about education, preventing me from moving forward into the world armed as a designer, in order to, while I was training myself in anthropology, to become able to stay exposed, vulnerable, in hesitation, thinking and experimenting a little bit more about the relationships between design and education. Among the commented scenes, I realize how the study of anthropology, to which I dedicated myself in the interval between my training, in that school, as a designer, and my return to that same educational institution, as a teacher, de-immunized me, pointing out paths not to move forward, but, rather, so that I could learn to notice, and, thus, allowing myself to stay a little longer with what troubles me: so, my training in anthropology allowed me to learn how to move as the crabs invoked by Das: one step forward, another sideways. In this communication, I observe how the study of anthropology allowed me to return to the educational environment of a design school, and there, no longer as a designer, but as a former-designer quasi-anthropologist, I found ways to stay with the troubles (Haraway, 2016), reconsidering and reclaiming what can be the adventure of education: not as immunization or conformation, but, as bel hooks would say, as a practice of freedom (hooks, 1994); or, as we could also say, with Tim Ingold (2018), as exposure, disarmament, and vulnerability.
Accepted Contribution:
Contribution description:
Paper long abstract:
In her most recent book, Veena Das describes her thinking with the figure of crab-like movements: "my thought seems to proceed in crab-like movements, forward and sideways, rather than being able to run for the finishing line" (2020, xiiii). In an interview about the book, she returns to the figure of crab-like movements to comment on how, in her way of thinking and writing, ethnography, biography and autobiography intertwine: "some thought or idea goes in one direction for years and then it can happen that I don't know how to move forward. And then, sometimes years later, that idea that was blocked comes back, and this can include thoughts from my childhood, for example, or something that is triggered in a classroom, or something that is triggered while walking in the street, or reading a book" (Das, 2021: 789). In this communication, I intend to trace some scenes that I took part in in the classroom, as a student and later as a teacher, in a design school. Among these scenes, I note how the study of anthropology allowed me to learn the arts of noticing (Tsing, 2015), and so, how it allowed me to stay a little longer with what matters when we think about education, preventing me from moving forward into the world armed as a designer, in order to, while I was training myself in anthropology, to become able to stay exposed, vulnerable, in hesitation, thinking and experimenting a little bit more about the relationships between design and education. Among the commented scenes, I realize how the study of anthropology, to which I dedicated myself in the interval between my training, in that school, as a designer, and my return to that same educational institution, as a teacher, de-immunized me, pointing out paths not to move forward, but, rather, so that I could learn to notice, and, thus, allowing myself to stay a little longer with what troubles me: so, my training in anthropology allowed me to learn how to move as the crabs invoked by Das: one step forward, another sideways. In this communication, I observe how the study of anthropology allowed me to return to the educational environment of a design school, and there, no longer as a designer, but as a former-designer quasi-anthropologist, I found ways to stay with the troubles (Haraway, 2016), reconsidering and reclaiming what can be the adventure of education: not as immunization or conformation, but, as bel hooks would say, as a practice of freedom (hooks, 1994); or, as we could also say, with Tim Ingold (2018), as exposure, disarmament, and vulnerability.
Anthropology as education
Session 1