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Short abstract:

This paper summarises the learnings acquired through the course "Digital Storytelling and Education" at UCL's MA Digital Media. We implemented innovative pedagogical approaches to digital storytelling to encourage students to produce multimodal pieces on issues of environmental justice and feminism

Long abstract:

This paper relates to the transformative experiences and pedagogical insights derived from our design and implementation of a new module entitled Digital Storytelling and Education, on the MA Digital Media at UCL. Focused on socially-driven themes of environmental justice and feminism, the module introduces students to innovative digital storytelling methods. Emphasizing the critical and creative quality of student works, the session will showcase diverse digital media stories produced during the course, ranging from evocative audio narratives to thought-provoking stop-motion animation documentaries and mockumentaries; rhythmic typographic pieces; and interactive narratives using AI tools and Twine.

The presentation will highlight the experimental nature of the course, where students were encouraged to push boundaries and engage with emerging theoretical frameworks and creative practices through various digital storytelling media. Students were also given the opportunity to express their learning through a summative audiovisual essay, as an alternative to the traditional written essay in the social sciences. We reflect on the effectiveness of this form of assessment and pedagogical approach more broadly, both of which link creativity, critical thinking, interdisciplinary collaborative practices and critically oriented media production. Through an examination of the challenges and successes encountered, the session aims to offer valuable lessons for educators seeking to integrate innovative digital storytelling practices into their curriculum in a variety of educational settings and a range of levels. The session demonstrates the potential of digital storytelling as a tool for advocacy, empowerment and exploration, to inspire future generations of storytellers in their navigation of dynamic media landscapes.

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Long abstract:

In the early stages of my primary research on boatbuilding in the Russian North, I was groping for and exploring the tension between so-called ‘drawing’ and ‘flair’. This dichotomy revolves around the tension between using standardised measurements (such as length, width, and angles) versus relying on contextual, intuitive skills ('eye-ball') when constructing the boat. In my paper, I investigate how this tension applies to the fundamental aspects of anthropological work: theory and ethnography.

Theory is a tool that seeks to establish universal principles. At the same time, doing ethnography is an intuitive skill and knowledge passed down through generations of professors, academic supervisors and personal experiences, always rooted in practical and contextual application.

Drawing on a series of interviews and following discursive strategies of professors and scholars in Sociocultural anthropology and my teaching experience, I explore this tension, answering the question of relations between ‘theory’ and ‘ethnographic work’. I argue that traditional ecological knowledge embedded in boatbuilding practices can contribute to addressing issues related to sustainable environments and global warming. What problems can solve the contextual skill of doing ethnography?

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Long abstract:

“Welcome to Kurdistan!” – “Shish. You’re not in Kurdistan, you’re in Turkey!”

Although it remains an imagined project, defining your field-site is not often as straightforward as it sounds. In the region of Kurdish borderlands, it became a complex issue, historically and affectively charged. Was I in Iraq, KRI, or Bashur? Turkey or Bakur?

Aha! Got it: multi-sited! Nope; not even that seemed appropriate as it risked reproducing state imaginaries. After all, I was working within the ‘Kurdish region.' Already during fieldwork, the question of ‘where am I’ began hunting me. Yet, it quickly became clearer it was not only after me, it was possible it infested every mountain, village, and house I set foot in.

Navigating the methodology of ‘field-siting,’ the paper attempts a preliminary discussion on the notion of spectrality as a frame at the interfaces and interlaces of various imagined territorialities. Problematizing the now omnipresent multi-sited approach, I propose spectrality as a heuristic and possible methodological attunement to situating oneself. Drawing from the masters of hauntology (Derrida, 1993; Good et al., 2022) and the study of the negative (Taussig, 1999; Stoler, 2013; Navaro-Yashin, 2020), how can we approach the imagined life of the ‘field-site’ as a spectral presence, in its affective, ambiguous, and unstable nature? With the help of ‘footage-debris’ and stories collected in the field, this contribution will begin a reflection on the role of spectrality in the scientific prescription of defining ‘your’ field-site.’

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Short abstract:

My contribution entails an installation artwork that is still in progress.In this piece, two screens that are placed next to one another play two separate videos at the same time. While one of the videos is modeled by the video essay genre, the other is influenced by autoethnographical cinema.

Long abstract:

By the means of a visual examination of my childhood bedroom followed by a conversation with my mother in audio format and a video essay, my contribution aims to investigate the spectrality of objects left behind along with motherhood in the context of Greece and from an autoethnographical perspective. Even though I moved out of my parents' house when I was eighteen, some of my childhood stuff is still in the space while others were thrown away by my mother without my permission. In addition, the room has frequently been portrayed as belonging to my parents' cat rather than to them. Because of this, my piano serves as the cat's eating area and is situated adjacent to the library, which houses the majority of the books I used for my bachelor's degree in addition to other random objects like childhood pictures and my mother's employee card. Next to the library, there are some old posters from my adolescence that stand in stark contrast to a horribly painted wall whose color I chose when I was seven years old. Additionally, the video essay that accompanies my visual investigation of the room and my conversation with my mother will look at texts by Jacques Derrida, Mark Fisher, Sigmund Freud, Lee Edelman, Andrea Long Chu, and Lauren Berlant, among others, in order to explore the connections between motherhood, clinging to objects that are left behind, and spectrality.

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Long abstract:

While conducting fieldwork in Melbourne, Australia, I decided to shoot 35 mm film photography of dogs and humans; to freeze the temporal and precarious moments of interspecies intimacy my fieldwork was immersed within as well as creating a unique foundation for further interaction with my furry interlocutors and their human owners. I saw it as significant to not only describe but showcase the affection and physicality of my field to the readers of my thesis; to encapsulate visual aspects of sensorial anthropology. Asking for `a quick photo ‘resulted in more than I had bargained for. On most occasions the owners would allow me the privilege and delight of interacting with and touching their dogs while I was preparing the camera for the shoot, granting me access to sensorial impressions commonly limited to the owner themselves. Additionally, unraveling the old and weathered camera from the 90`s while requesting owners to showcase their beloved pets often ended in delighted snickers and inquisitive comments. The initial illusion of division would quickly fade. Behind the lens I was no longer simply a student, or a foreign "academic" from a discipline few had heard of, but transformed into what I genuinely felt like. `Just some silly young girl that likes taking pictures of dogs`.