Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore the use of camera-mounted kites as an experimental methodology in anthropology, for gaining embodied knowledge of the atmosphere and as a resource for playfully engaging with research participants.

Paper long abstract:

My paper looks at the experimental possibilities afforded by camera-mounted kites, both as a means of experiencing landscape and atmospheres through embodied, displaced sensing, and a resource for participatory, grassroots research.

Holding the line of a kite, spooling out and in, feeling one’s weight partially lifted by the wind, adapting the pace and mode of walking, and sensing the landscape and the atmosphere are experiences that make us alert to otherwise latent qualities of the landscape.

When I first decided to adopt camera-mounted kites, my aim was to investigate – through a displaced point of view – what happens at the edges of construction sites: spaces caught between processes of ruination and development, where diverse scales, layers and infrastructural entanglements conflate.

Sailing a kite at the 'edgelands' (Star 199) / 'drosscapes’ (Berger 2006) of a construction site helped me capture diverse scales, layers, and infrastructural entanglements, focusing on what I call ‘rhizomatic’ manifestations of construction: dust deposited on trees and roads, water plumes, lines on grass and soil, footwork, traffic, fencing, traffic diversions, etc. In other words, what exceeds the established boundaries of a construction site and reaches us beyond its fences.

At the same time, the playfulness and DIY character of kites opens up possible uses to engage local communities and design participatory and multidisciplinary research, to interrogate both the aspirations of local communities and the ‘skilled visions’ of those involved in planning and construction, but also the meandering trajectories of anthropologists.