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Lab short abstract

A hands-on lab to prototype a dialogic “critical glossary” across anthropology and art. Participants will experiment with entry formats (eg. paired voices, frictions, image/text responses), map key terms, and leave with a shared editorial template and possible draft entries.

Lab long abstract

Over the past decade, collaborations between anthropology and the arts have expanded rapidly, yet concept work often lags behind method talk. This lab proposes a practical, collective step: prototyping a critical, dialogic glossary that does not stabilise definitions, but holds tensions, parallel genealogies, and productive frictions across art and anthropology.

The session is structured as a working studio for concepts. After a short framing, participants will (1) identify “sticky” terms that travel between art worlds and anthropological work; (2) experiment with shared entry formats in small groups/pairs, so that each prototype links a concept to at least one ethnographic case and/or one artwork, and (3) test ways to visualise relations between concepts (constellations, cross-references, response-notes, image counterpoints). The lab is open to anthropologists, artists, curators, designers, and hybrid practitioners; early-career colleagues are welcome.

By the end, we will produce: a draft editorial template; 6–10 potential “starter entries” or entry-skeletons; and a shortlist of terms + proposed interlocutor pairings to potentially take forward as a collective publication project.