Short Abstract:

We propose a two-part hands-on exercise that encourages collaborative thinking around the integration of sensory data in ethnographic research. We argue the need to understand how auditory, visual and tactual data can reproduce a white gaze by technologies engineered in the Global North. You can register for the lab here: https://forms.gle/KBzifR8Wm6EhNKfeA Looking forward to meeting you!

Long Abstract:

As technology-driven creative practices develop, evermore intimate parts of our lives are captured by multiple devices, and a multitude of data points are created. Ethnographers are increasingly interested in sensory methods, capturing more of lived and shared experience (Pink, 2015). At the same time, significant and critical work has focused on the need to decolonise data, datification and data science; identifying the ways in which they reproduce colonial paradigms of domination and oppression (Birhane, 2020; Gangadharan, 2020). We argue that similar effort should be directed towards understanding how auditory, visual and tactual data can reproduce a white gaze by technologies engineered in the Global North.

We draw from work of artists like Ibiye Camp (2022) whose work illustrates how cartographic tools contain eurocentric visual biases: okada’s, keke’s, and stalls at the Balogun Market in Lagos appear distorted when scanned. We propose a two-part hands-on exercise that will encourage collaborative thinking around the integration of sensory data in ethnographic research. The first part is a collection of visual and auditory media that has replicated the white gaze. The second part is to better understand how soundscapes and visual analysis can come together to tell us about live experience. How can we think critically about the ethics of collecting sensory data and their limitations? We will walk the participants through a research scenario and ask them how they’d incorporate sensory data. We consider how sensory data may reproduce certain visions of the world, but also provide a basis to reimagine potential futures.

You can register for the lab here: https://forms.gle/KBzifR8Wm6EhNKfeA

Looking forward to meeting you!