Paper short abstract:

The research – art collaboration gauges the potential of the artistic use of new digital technologies to contribute to social science research. A hybrid media geography combines visual data from digital technologies (3D LIDAR scan, photogrammetry etc.) with personal stories and conceptual thoughts.

Paper long abstract:

This paper gauges the potential of the artistic use of new digital technologies to contribute to social science research. It reflects upon the interdisciplinary collaboration “GEOGRAPHY OF GHOSTS Mapping multiple media/meanings of healthcare for refugees“ between the social scientist Wanda Spahl and the new media artist/architect Dominic Schwab (funded by the mLAB, University of Bern, 2022 call for research - art collaborations ON UN/HEALTHY GROUNDS). The project develops a hybrid media geography based on ethnographic research from Wanda Spahl‘s PhD project about forced migration and health in Vienna, Austria. Visual data from asylum accommodations, medical institutions and public places is collected with digital technologies (3D LIDAR scanning, photogrammetry, open source GIS data, etc.) and combined with personal stories, political statements and conceptual thoughts. The project attends to the in/visibility of refugees in the public (health system), to their place in liminal space, and ultimately to the digital experience of these through the lucid, spectral and inconsistent documentation of spaces and materialities.

In asking what role the artistic use of new digital technologies can play in social science research, we want to reflect upon their communicative potential (What new forms of research results communication emerge with artistic digital technologies?), their epistemological potential (What new insights can the artistic use of digital technologies provide? How can they expand the methodological toolkit of social sciences?) and their dialogical potential (How can the artistic use of digital technologies spark comparative research and exchange with research participants, practitioners and the scientific community?).