Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to show a case of open-ended approaches in anthropology. Through the combination of text, image, and sound, the project intends to offer an alternative horizon destabilizing the binaries and boundaries established and maintained by conventional research practices.

Paper long abstract:

Based on the fieldworks conducted in Cambodia, Canada, and Japan, this proposed paper seeks to show a case of open-ended approaches in anthropology. For this, I make two attempts. First, applying the "speaking nearby" position practiced by Trinh T. Minh-ha in her experimental film Reassemblage (1982), I conducted observation, filming, and interviews in the three countries. The initial intention was to investigate how individuals of Cambodian heritage living in these countries sustain networks beyond borders through the application of technology, and what forms of expression using digital and non-digital media are actively practiced on a daily basis. The outcome of the study is a combination of writing, a film entitled The Art of Becoming, and performance within the created film. Such an attempt proposes an approach of applying multifarious angles and informs conceptualization and implementation towards the better practice of anthropologies, taking account of the significance of art, bringing criticality, and acknowledging the complex and diverse modes of being and becoming of people living in the globalizing times.

Secondly, borrowing the concept of "blurred genres" presented by Clifford Geertz (1983), I intend to merge the boundary between art and social science by incorporating text, image, and sound in the study. Through the combination as such, this research project shows what is in-between the written text, the visual material, and the oral her/his-story, and intends to offer an alternative horizon destabilizing the binaries and boundaries established and maintained by conventional research practices.