Presentation short abstract

This presentation posits the practice of sketching and making comics as a legitimate PE research methodology, not just an illustration of findings. Research hierarchies are destabilised by encouraging the subject(s) of enquiry to take part in the process of sketching during ethnographic encounters.

Presentation long abstract

Modern systems of power and social control are practised through conscious manipulation of images and the notion of 'gaze'. The objective distance from which this gaze is performed inevitably entails a certain degree of objectification. I use comics as a methodological corrective lens. The multimodal language of comics– image, text, gesture, and temporal flow– captures embodied knowledge, spatial practices, and material entanglements that conventional fieldnotes cannot. Comics making in the field transforms ethnographic observation into collaborative storytelling. Sketching while observing slows down perceptions and allows co-construction of narratives. When I walked the wastewater canals of Kolkata, my initial sketches focused on the piles of refuse and the resulting stench, but the inhabitant children guided my eye towards the biodiversity that thrives in this ecosystem despite the pollution. They also showed interest in posing for sketches themselves. Encouraging the subject of enquiry to take part in the sketching process challenges the hierarchy between the observer and the observed. Back at the desk, fieldnotes sketched in the form of comics need to be analysed and reflected upon, and may be aided by more ‘exact’ forms of documentation like photographs. However, using this comparative visual method is challenging in Europe, where cultural norms and the GDPR make public photography tricky. I found a way around by using realistic sketches to document the setting and comics-influenced supplements to capture more nuance. In this presentation, I will elucidate my arts-based praxis with a focus on how comics can one-up conventional fieldnotes in political ecology research.