Paper short abstract:

We will collaboratively remix two current research projects: A microphenomenological study of altruism and democracy in Danish welfare work, and a documentary remake of a classic cyberpunk short story translated to Cuba's offline context.

Paper long abstract:

As researchers and teachers who are intimately involved with the Master's track in multimodal anthropology at Aarhus University, we are both fascinated by the idea of creating new ethnographic assemblages and transmedia reimaginations of our current research projects. Keni Hede will bring to the panel several microphenomenological interviews he conducted as part of his PhD project Ildsjæl: A Multimodal Study of Altruism, Bildung, and Mutable Perceptions of Democracy in Danish Welfare Work" which explores encounters between Islam, the Danish National Church, and the Danish welfare state. in the Gellerup neighborhood in western Aarhus. As his research participants in these taped interviews wrestle with verbalizing intense feelings of love and faith, he is excited to see how this material could translate into other modes of representation. Steffen Köhn will bring material from a video installation that intertwines two narrative planes: the dystopian imagination of William Gibson’s Johnny Mnemonic (1981), one of the earliest cyberpunk short stories, and the real-world Cuban “offline internet”, the physical data distribution network El Paquete Semanal. While the work, as a "documentary remake", already constitutes some sort of remix, the work offers many points of connection to current discourses on technological sovereignty, surveillance capitalism, or the anthropology of the future.