Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

In my contribution, I will approximate the visual coordinates of Muslim fashion images in Germany by the practice of drawing. I will essay a graphic approach to the visuals by elaborating on non-verbal artistic strategies to capture the data as experimental auto-ethnographic method.

Paper long abstract

Relying on my hybrid ethnographic fieldwork on Hijbai fashion creators in Germany, I try to reshape conceptions of media atmospheres, digital imaginaries and fashion images on social media by experimenting with non-verbal auto-ethnographic methods. The conceptual thoughts are confronted with my experimental attempt to capture visual data by drawing methods to propose an innovative path towards investigating not only verbalized data, but also the pictorial vocabulary of Muslim fashion Imaginaries on Instagram. As empirical illustration, I use the example of the abaya to show how text-image-layers are constantly reassembled in social media.

Drawing is an interruption of a routine approach to large-scale image analysis. It can support the researcher in looking more closely and perceiving details, but also points of confusion. To draw, the eye must grasp and trace the paths of the lines. After drawing an image, I see it differently, have a different relationship to its composition and individual elements and even towards the aesthetics associated with it. I have internalized it and thus created a new connection to it. This practice has the potential to situatively withdraw from established bodies of knowledge and decenter our scientific certainties. In this way, drawing offers a more intuitive approach to image analysis and, moreover, allows for a concentration on the visual elements and their interrelationships, which can otherwise easily be overlooked in favor of a sociological affinity for texts.