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- Convenors:
-
Henrike Neuhaus
(NRI, University of Greenwich)
Eilis Lanclus (KU Leuven)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- Room M208, Teaching & Learning Building (TLB)
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 9 April, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Sensors, cameras and other recording technologies influence how sports, martial arts, dance and physical activities are played and performed. This panel thinks with, through and about technologies in a context of multimodal anthropology to look at transformations in movement practices.
Long Abstract:
We aim to bring together ethnographies and multimodal works that engage with moving bodies to scrutinise transformations in sporting, martial arts, dance, audience and movement practices in relation to what technologies in these environments afford.
Inspired by topics that members of the International Network of Sport Anthropology (INSA) research, sports, dance and martial arts practice serve as avenues for examining the intersecting phenomena of societal integration, migration, life course dynamics, and identity construction to emerging body practices and tackles societal (trans-)formations. Exploring these phenomena through sport and movement requires keen awareness of the senses and the pursuit of various modes of investigation. Thus, multimodal anthropology (Dattatreyan and Marrero-Guillamón 2019) allows the scope to experiment with different techniques to understand together with the research participants (epistemic partners) the variegated topics in relation to the presence of technologies. Filming a game from the stands may at first hand appear as a remote activity to the action on the pitch, however, the technology users find themselves in a mesh of performances and rituals which provoke various actions and interactions with the surroundings. Taking (digital) recording devices - smart watches, cameras, stopwatches and sensor technologies in the area of practice - into account, the introduction of these technologies shapes and transforms the practice as much as the practice inspires the development of new technologies (Kerr 2016, Tjønndal 2023).
This panel aims to kindle reflections on transformations in movement practices and technologies through critical, multisensory and interactive presentations.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 9 April, 2025, -Paper Short Abstract:
This research challenges the medicalized view of menstruating athletes. It prioritizes their subjective experiences to foster a holistic approach to care and performance. This perspective offers insights into how technologies of sport transform the somatic practices of menstruating athletes.
Paper Abstract:
Many menstruating athletes experience harm due to a lack of research on practices suited to their bodies. To categorise these harms, sports scientists established the syndrome RED-S to describe athletes who develop osteoporosis, disordered eating, and lose their menstrual cycles. However, this syndrome ignores the complex cultural and technological factors that contribute to that shape their experiences. This research proposes a new understanding of female athlete health by drawing on embodied aesthetics and somaesthetics to centre the relational, sensory, and somatic experiences of menstruating athletes. I propose that sports science is a technology that intersects with cultural beliefs about menstruation to generate knowledge which mandates a normative shape and feel of bodies. Though athletics centres the body, the cultural environment of sports encourages dissociation from somatic experience. This is amplified in menstruating athletes because of cultural beliefs about menstruation as something to conceal and detach from the self. Technologies which are framed as performance enhancing tools further this dissociation by quantifying somatic experiences. Based on interviews with athletes who have the capacity to menstruate and upcoming fieldwork, this research challenges the medicalized view of menstruating athletes by prioritising their subjective experiences to foster a holistic approach to athlete care and performance. This perspective offers new insights into how the cultural and scientific technologies of sport transform the somatic practices of menstruating athletes.
Paper Short Abstract:
The Backyard Ultra format reveals how endurance, technology, and social connection intersect. Focusing on Belgian runners and the biannual virtual Team World Championship, this ethnography examines how digital tools shape experiences and community.
Paper Abstract:
The Backyard Ultra, an ultramarathon format where participants run a 6,7km loop every hour until only one runner remains, offers a compelling lens for exploring the intersection of endurance, technology, and social connection. Among Belgian runners, this format fosters a digitally mediated sense of community. Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed the creation of the Backyard Ultra Team World Championship, a biannual event where over 60 countries connect digitally to compete simultaneously, with each team running in their respective countries. This global event amplifies the interplay between running and virtual interaction, embedding local performances within an international digital framework. This paper presents an ethnography of Belgian Backyard Ultra runners, focusing on how digital technologies shape their experiences and interactions. Drawing on sensory methods, the study examines how runners use smartwatches, live-streaming platforms, and virtual tracking apps to mediate their engagement with endurance, time, and camaraderie. Virtual audiences and global competitors offer encouragement and motivation, while performance-tracking devices are integral to pacing and strategy. By exploring these phenomena, this ethnography highlights how Belgian runners and race directors navigate the blurred boundaries between local and global, physical and virtual, contributing to discussions on how technology transforms social relations in ultrarunning communities.
Paper Short Abstract:
The presentation delves into storytelling modes using the example of the a Taekwondo pioneer's life history.
Paper Abstract:
Reflecting different iterations of a life history, this paper revises a paper under review and seeks feedback on an emerging video essay. Both yields address the problematics of participatory documentary making - portraying a life history as much as a contested history of a sport. The video essay intends to tell the life history of a man who arrived in Argentina without papers in the 1960s and obtained an honorary distinction which was awarded in Congress in 2019 for co-introducing the martial art Taekwondo. The paper discusses situation ethics, power constellations and forms of consent to record and present the collected material. Balancing what members of the club wanted me to tell, what the pioneer themselves asked for and what the data affords, posed to any kind of iteration technical as well as ethical opportunities and impasses. The conference presentation gives insights into the backstage of the academic outputs to explore critically multimodal approaches to telling sporting life-histories.