Paper short abstract:

This paper presentation will explore the use of art making in advancing ethnographic research on dreams. It presents two interdisciplinary projects which combined visual art and ethnographic research.

Paper long abstract:

Dreams, as internal and multimodal experiences, pose challenges to ethnographers in translating or conveying these experiences using traditional ethnographic methods. Using examples from two interdisciplinary projects that I created combining visual art and ethnographic research, I discuss the role of art making in advancing the ethnographic research on dreams, and their gallery exhibits as venues to provide alternative forms for transmission of ethnographic experiences. I also discuss problems and issues associated with using this ethnographic approach.

I present the creation and exhibition of Heavens of the Imagination which included 33 paintings I made based on the narratives of dreams of visiting heaven of the Chilean Mapuche. I show how the making of the paintings illuminated my ethnographic understanding of the concept of the küme, the beauty described by the Mapuche dreamers. I also present the creation and exhibition of the installation Atlas of Dreams which included paintings I created of the places where San Francisco residents narrated their memorable dreams, and the audio recordings of their accounts. In both of these examples, the process oriented aspect of art making, involving a series of embodied activities, created stages which allowed me, as the ethnographer/artist, to reflect on and engage in embodied forms of learning. Artmaking also created a vehicle for the sharing of these experiences between the ethnographer and the interlocutors. Finally, these exhibits presented alternative forms of ethnography by transmitting socially embodied forms of ethnographic knowledge to the audiences that differed from the solitary readings of text.