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- Convenors:
-
Angela Torresan
(University of Manchester)
Michaela Schäuble (University of Bern)
Paolo S. H. Favero (University of Antwerp)
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- Formats:
- Lightning panel
- Mode:
- Face-to-face
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 24 July, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Madrid
Short Abstract:
This lightening panel uses the Pacha Kucha format to look at the intersection of audio-visual and multimodal approaches with abstract, unexpected, and non-observable domains of social life. Contributors will explore ways of doing and undoing anthropology with dynamic multi-sensory modes of knowing.
Long Abstract:
Considering that the term and concept of ‘theory’ derive from the Greek word theorein, meaning ‘to look at,’ to ‘contemplate,’ to ‘speculate,’ this panel asks how non-observable realities can be grasped and theorised through audio-visual means. As theorein combines theion (the divine) and orao (I see) - 'I contemplate the divine' - engaging in theory and analytical practices implies experiencing something through cognition that cannot be directly observed. Audio-visual and multimodal anthropology has frequently grappled with the non-observable and the abstract, not only in terms of making it visible but, more importantly, in terms of making it known. We invite anthropologists to investigate the intersection of audio-visual and multimodal approaches with the abstract, the unexpected, and the non-observable domains of social life by participating in a different form of panel presentation.
We will leverage the lightning panel format, using the dynamism of Pecha Kucha presentation, to disrupt the solidification of knowledge communication and reveal the openness and vulnerability of abstract arguments. We anticipate that the constraints of the Pecha Kucha format (a 6-minute and 40-second presentation with 20 slides, each displayed for 20 seconds) will prompt innovative approaches and stimulate diverse discussions on how to engage with the non-observable. We invite presentations on a diverse range of themes, and welcome a variety of audio-visual and multimodal approaches, from photos, moving images, soundscapes, AI, and different art forms that engage with different ways of doing anthropology.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 24 July, 2024, -Lydia Ginzburg (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Paper short abstract:
Philosophical practitioners infuse philosophical thought with concrete daily experience. It is done by embodied reading of philosophic texts, and experimenting with sound, vision, art and movement. These unconventional techniques presuppose non-observable modes of knowing which reshape philosophy.
Paper long abstract:
This presentation explores the multimodal approach to knowledge in philosophical practice. Rather than creating concepts and solidifying systems of thought customary in academic philosophy, the international movement called "philosophical practice" claims that it aims to liberate philosophy from the constraints of academic thought. This movement that emerged in the early 1980s is striving to transform philosophy into practical knowing and acting accessible to a broader world-wide audience. Based on my ethnographical inquiry into the unconventional techniques of philosophical practice, in this presentation I ask: How practitioners transform the often abstract philosophical knowledge into embodied forms of knowing, and into alternative modes of perception and interaction with environment? To develop an explanation to this question I have conducted a longitudinal multi-sited research at meetings and retreats of the philosophical practice movement in Italy and Norway. My findings suggest that practitioners transform the philosophical knowledge into practice via the unexpected modes of knowing. Thus, rather than relying only on intellectual capacities and treating philosophical ideas as objects of analysis, in the retreats practitioners entwine the ideas and texts into interactive group activities that emphasize visual, auditory and kinesthetic sensitivities as vital aspects of philosophizing. Following the work of Christina Grasseni (2011), I examine the fleeting process of knowledge transformation using Pecha Kucha presentation. Applying the multimodal approach to philosophy, practitioners reshape and redefine it introducing new ways of knowing. My work contributes to the debate on how anthropological reflection on unconventional philosophical activities can reshape or redefine anthropology.
Jvan Yazdani (Sapienza University of Rome)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the use of DIY camera-mounted kites for investigating what is non observable in landscapes and/or results from the interplay of bodies, methodologies, and natural elements.
Paper long abstract:
The layered nature of the landscape is a recurrent theme, often assuming a metaphorical character that emphasizes the search for what is concealed and requires unearthing (e.g., Lefebvre 1974; Benjamin 1942; Casey 2017). At the same time, landscapes undergo transformations through ‘rhizomatic’ processes (Deleuze 1987) that perturb the surface and exceed established boundaries, as in the movements of seeds, vegetation, water, dust, pollution; or the tracks left by machinery, human beings and animals on grass, irradiating from construction sites and other nodes of activity.
My field research engages with landscape by acknowledging and making use of a further aerial layer, using DIY camera-mounted kites. Sailing the kite, walking while being tethered to it, striving to maneuver the camera while being mindful of where to place the next step, and of the strength and direction of the wind and its interaction with water bodies, cliffs, and the built environment. The concurrence of all these aspects is a deeply kinaesthetic experience that allows one to ‘correspond’ with the air (Ingold 2013) and, in turn, to become cognizant of what is not immediately observable. Due to scale (patterns in the vegetation, archaeology, etc.) or, in the case of wind, specific materialities that become discernible only when interacting with other elements. The imagery and sound obtained, in turn, offer further grounds for investigation: both through what is directly sensed, recorded, and notated, and through the inscription of movements and perspectives into the camerawork, guided by the play of wind and body.
Daniel Lema Vidal (Department of Philosophy at IES Miralbueno)
Paper short abstract:
This communication argues that a phenomenological reinterpretation of certain techniques and processes involving the 'duration of embodied ethno-filmic practices' is valuable for a (pre)comprehensive understanding of ethno-filmic modes of affective knowing.
Paper long abstract:
This communication benefits from the Pecha Kucha format to engage, by means of existential phenomenology, with the non-observable in ethno-filmmaking. Firstly, I propose to look at key theoretical notions coming from Heidegger’s and Merleau-Ponty philosophies, namely being-there and being-in-the-world, and the body-proper, respectively. These ontological notions cannot equate to the Subject, as often assumed in anthropology. They must, therefore, be undone and reinterpreted as either preobjective or presubjective, that is, prior to the distinction of subject and world, for they represent lived modes or existential spaces of relating to, and signifying of, the precomprehensive experience of the world. It is in these existential spaces or lived modes where we can find the coordinates of our embodied and emotionally pre-oriented signification of experience. The existential phenomenological framework is thus the suggested starting point to develop a comprehension of non-observable processes and techniques that produce ethno-filmic modes of aesthetic knowing. Secondly, I propose to reinterpret the simple and modest (yet powerful) aesthetic resources of the audio-visual language we often work with in ethno-filmic methodologies. Thus, processes and techniques like ‘frame commitment’, ‘embodied rhythm’, and ‘shot duration’ will be presented in the light of successful scenes from either independent cinema, contemporary Hollywood, or ethnographic cinema, in contrast to some unsuccessful scenes identified in the rushes of my own ethno-filmic work. In sum, this communication argues that a phenomenological reinterpretation of certain non-observable techniques, which involve the duration of embodied practices, can be valuable to ethno-filmic modes of knowing.
Roger Canals (University of Barcelona)
Paper short abstract:
Imagine you are in a ritual, and someone says: “Images of gods can move and look at us. This is evidence”. How would you film it? This presentation shows different strategies (cinema, AI, acting) to make it visible the moments where images transcend themselves, thus becoming what they “represent”.
Paper long abstract:
Within Afro-American religions, images play a crucial role. And I do not only mean material images placed in the altars (basically statues of gods) but also corporeal images (bodies possessed by spirits) and mental images (dreams, visions, apparitions, acts of imagination). All these images are interconnected establishing a dynamic network of images. Yet there are moments where images become more than mere representations: they merge with what they represent, thus becoming a dispositive of presence.
For instance: imagine you are in a ritual, and, talking about statues, someone says: “Images of gods can move, talk, and look at us. This is evidence”. How would you film it? Or, more broadly, how would you visualize it?
This presentation shows different strategies (cinema, AI, acting) with which I have been experimenting during my research in order to make it visible, and therefore thinkable and sharable, these sort of “miraculous moments” where images transcend themselves and become living beings, with affects and effects.
Cinema has been described as an art of presence. Camera, it has been said, can only record what it is in front of it. This presentation goes straight against this thesis, my aim being to convey the idea that through cinema, and other visual research techniques (AI, drawing, acting), it is possible to grasp, and make it visible, what is not directly observable. I will focus on an on-going research in Puerto Rico. This research forms part of the ERC-Consolidator Gran Visual Trust (2021-2026, www.visualtrust.ub.edu).
Rajat Nayyar (York University)
Paper short abstract:
Aaji, an aging, lower-caste singer and rice farmer from a village in northern India, uses her distinctive voice/vocal traditions to engage with the spirit of the seven Devis (goddesses). This research reveals what multimodal anthropology might entail when collaborating with Devis' spirits.
Paper long abstract:
Aaji, an aging, lower-caste storyteller, singer, spirit medium, and rice farmer from a village in northern India, uses her distinctive voice/vocal traditions to engage with the spirit of the seven Devis (goddesses). She always notes that her entanglements with the spirit have radically transformed and affected her voice and the vocal repertoires she learned from her mother. At the same time, Aaji highlights how she has long been modulating her singing voice and carefully blending her burping and yawning voice within her vocal repertoires upon the arrival of Devis. Although spirit mediumship is a very common practice in rural north India, Aaji’s practice as a spirit medium is unique in that it is inextricably tied to her mastery of vocal repertoires. Notably, she does not see herself as merely an instrument for the enactment of the Devis’ agency. While speaking about the spirit’s intentions, Aaji highlights how her dialogue with the spirit is filled with negotiations leading to resolutions as they cocreate a nurturing relationship. Highlighting auto-ethnographic details of filming the spirit during Aaji’s rituals through a focus on embodied voice and vocal traditions, our work blurs the boundaries between the physical, spiritual, and digital worlds. While Jean Rouch omitted the spirit from his concept of ciné-trance, I argue that we must begin to think through what filming 'with' the spirits entails, particularly considering the role of voice in guiding the filmmaker through this process.
Essay to be published in the June 2024 issue of The Drama Review journal.
Yoonha Kim (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. inherit. heritage in transformation Matters of Activity.)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the concept of 기 gi (氣 qi), or 'vital energy', through the lens of wearing and making Korean sartorial heritage, hanbok.
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores the concept of 기 gi (氣 qi), or 'vital energy', through the lens of wearing and making Korean sartorial heritage, hanbok. The exploration of the unobservable gi, is crucial as it presents an alternative mode of worlding, challenging anthropocentric views by acknowledging the active role of matter in the transforming world.
Lee Ki-Yeon, an activist and hanbok maker, is central to this study. Since the 1980s, Ki-Yeon has interwoven wearing working-class hanboks into a narrative against neoliberalism and dictatorship. These garments serve not just as protest symbols, but also as sensorial devices influencing one's perception and movements shaped by the dynamic flow of gi.
Understanding gi was complex. When inquired about it, Ki-Yeon first exclaimed it is a headache, then recommended, "Try shaking your wrists." This motion, she suggested, might evoke 몽글몽글(mongle mongle), a soft and rounded feeling. This sensory experience offered insights into the intangible aspects of this phenomenon.
My approach engages with gi through the act of wearing, crafting, and sharing hanbok, adopting Ki-Yeon's perspectives. The structure of these loose-fitted garments, tied at acupuncture points, aids in directing gi flow, while sharing of such garments is considered as an act of passing gi.
Advocating for wearing as an anthropological research method, this presentation will feature garments, fieldwork photos and videos, and an augmented reality hanbok experience, illustrating the multi-sensory exploration of gi through sartorial practices.
Martin Büdel (Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz)
Paper short abstract:
Researching jazz in Madagascar I aim to understand the ways in which music affects social processes. Based on fieldwork methods such as video recordings and participation in musical practice, I discuss the question of how to interpret different layers of the non-observable of aesthetic experience.
Paper long abstract:
Drawing on theories that explore ways of knowing through sensory experience - from Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten's aesthetics to Steven Feld's "acoustemology" - my research on jazz in Madagascar aims to understand how the adaptation of jazz is changing the musical landscape of Antananarivo's music scenes, but especially the ways in which jazz in its musical qualities affects social or institutional processes beyond the musical environment. During fieldwork, I chose different approaches in order to develop a way into an understanding of aesthetic experiences of jazz listeners and musicians beyond solely discursive dimensions, including audio and video recordings, their collaborative analysis with listeners and musicians and my own participation in musical practice. Writing ethnography on the non-observable dimensions of aesthetic experience and its social effects, I am faced with the challenge of interpreting and putting into words the (sensory) insights I have gained together with my research partners.
In the Pecha Kucha presentation, I use photos, audio and video material to briefly bring to life small pieces of this world of musical experience - as best as is possible within this format. I will then explore some aspects of one of the concepts I use in order to better understand the agentive role of music in society: relational aesthetics, that is, a notion of aesthetics as a way of knowing through the relational qualities of musical experience, with the aim to better understand agentive forces of music that link individual and shared perceptions and ideas to social processes.