Paper short abstract:

Drawing on fieldwork, documentary, and participatory visual projects, this paper discusses the potential of the visual anthropological method of data creation and representation, arguing for a combination of participatory video and new media diaries, following the informants in social media.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I discuss the potential of the visual anthropological method of data creation and representation, building on combined video-and new media diaries.

Since 2005 I have worked on participatory documentary projects, as part of ethnographic fieldwork, in Manenberg township, South Africa and since in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Dénis and the public housing area Blaagaarden in Copenhagen, Denmark. I have engaged young people in creating 'Photo-Diaries' with disposable cameras, and since 'Video-Diaries', while simultaneously making a documentary (Manenberg 2010).

In the span of the last five-six years, social media have virtually exploded among the informants I work with, even among those with no access to a computer. The so-called Smartphone is their connection point to the online world. Their interaction with these media and technological tools, form both part of my object of study and constitute an integral part of my methodology. Through their narratives and their actions on- and offline in their everyday life, they are creating their self-image and reality - in dialogue with the network of people, things, physical structures, and ideas that surround them, across on- and offline space and time: This is where I meet them, film, and engage them in filming themselves. By engaging the human sensorium in the quest for an insider perspective in the dialectic between experimental and participatory visual methods and long-term participant-observation, I argue, that new potential emerges for generating data, as well as for the presentation and communication of research results in innovative ways to audiences inside and outside of Academia.