Short Abstract:

This lab invites you to share and collectively explore a series of particularly significant moments from your research and engagements with political movements, whether they be captured in images, sound, video or words.

Long Abstract:

Like many anthropologists doing research during and since the global ‘mass protest decade’ of the 2010s (Bevins 2023), we have come across moments within broader struggles when possibilities seem to open up. Such moments are often charged, intense, visceral – whether they be personally or collectively recognised as pivotal. As critical junctions they can bring sudden clarity and purpose in often unexpected ways. They become etched in people’s memories and resurface in the recounting of heightened periods of collective action, as if standing for the whole experience. Fleeting moments of connection remain intimately significant and participate in creating insights and narratives about movements and their ethos and demands. When caught and broadcast they may also motivate wider publics to lend their support, maybe even join those whose actions they witness on their screens. In many cases, these moments also cross linguistic and national borders, forming the foundation of wider solidarities and galvanising the spread of revolts.

This lab invites you to share and collectively explore significant moments from your research and engagements with political movements. These might take the form of static images, video or audio recordings. They might have been captured in scratch notes taken in close proximity to the moment described, or in text messages to loved ones. They might describe one protestor’s eureka moment, or they might already have been mediated by yourself in collaboration with movements or groups. We will reflect together on what to make of these moments and what to make from these moments.