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- Convenor:
-
Raffaella Fryer-Moreira
(University College London (UCL))
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- Stream:
- Methodology
- Sessions:
- Thursday 17 September, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
How can anthropology and geography develop new research tools better suited to address the current ecological crisis? This panel explores the role of multimedia methods in ethnographic research on the anthropocene, asking how we can stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration and public engagement.
Long Abstract:
Human beings have changed the face of planet earth. Whether we call this epoch the Anthropocene (Stoermer & Crutzen 2000), the Capitalocene (Moore 2012), the Cthulucene (Haraway 2015), or any of the other terms that have been proposed in recent years, anthropogenic transformations of global ecologies have led to a radical problematisation of the ways in which human beings relate to their environments. As various aspects of human life are called into question - including how we produce energy and food, and how we manage waste - the ways in which scientific knowledge itself is produced must also be subject to scrutiny.
This panel seeks to explore the role of multimedia methodologies - including VR/360 video, sound, photography, projection-mapped environments, installations, drawing and graphic novels, etc. - in producing research that facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration, encourages community participation, and increases public engagement. This panel invites papers which engage ethnographically with the anthropocene through the use of non-textual mediums as part of the research process. Presenters can choose to include a five minute preview of any multimedia output as part of their presentations if they wish.
In the contemporary ecological context, it is becoming increasingly urgent to produce academic research which can dialogue with colleagues across disciplines, engage with more diverse audiences, and disrupt existing models of thought. By exploring the conceptual possibilities of multi-sensorial encounters with global ecologies, this panel aims to contribute towards innovative research practices which are better suited to address the anthropocene's uncertain futures.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 17 September, 2020, -Paper short abstract:
Bees are probably the beings most affected by human exploitation of natural resources. The paper discusses the challenging of doing ethnographic research in beekeeping, and it discusses the opportunities offered by a multimodal approach to communicating the Anthropocene to a non-academic public.
Paper long abstract:
Honeybees — and bees in general — are often described as 'sentinels' of environmental health. In the past decades, the apparently inexplicable bee-losses all over the world, also known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has led media to talk about the 'bee-apocalypse'. While entomologists consider the phenomenon as a multi-factored disease connected to environmental contamination, loss of biodiversity and the spread of viruses, the sociologist Richie Nimmo (2015) has suggested that the CCD can be seen as a form of 'bio-resistance' to the 'Apis-industrial complex'. Whether we agree or not with the term 'Anthropocene' (Moore 2016) beekeeping seems to be one of the practices most affected by climate change, environmental pollution, and natural resource exploitation. Beekeepers advocate for better plans for environmental management, the ban of pesticides, and forms of green economy that respect the life of bees.
Based on the ethnographic research in beekeeping in Italy and Austria, the paper aims at showing how the challenges of doing research in beekeeping urge the anthropologist to seek new ways of doing research and to develop different methodologies to engage with a larger audience.
The paper offers a critical reflection on the meaning of using a camcorder for producing ethnographic material on beekeeping, and it discusses the forms of negotiation of expertise that lead to the development of the blog 'Abieris e abis' (www.fareapicoltura.net). Finally, the paper shows how these tools enable the anthropologist to develop an effective methodology for researching in a field affected by the Anthropocene condition.
Paper short abstract:
This paper is an ethnographic account of artist Cheng Xinhao's art practices from 2014 to 2020. By reviewing his works incorporating ethnographic and geographical methods, it aims to investigate a collaborative framework for interdisciplinary practices between anthropology, geography and art.
Paper long abstract:
This paper is an ethnographic account of artist Cheng Xinhao's (b.1985) art practices from 2014 to 2020. As an artist working as an anthropologist and geologist, he has paid immense attention on the migration of people, plants, rocks, between political and imagined borderlines under the reality of the Chinese modernity. Based on first-hand materials obtained from personal observations and interviews with the artist and analysis of his specific works, including three photography projects, four video works and one solo exhibition on a mis-classified ethnic group in China, it aims to demonstrate one side of the "ethnographic turn" in Chinese contemporary art, emphasising how ethnographic methods are employed and becomes an intersection of cultural critique and art practice for the Chinese younger artist generation.
Cheng's works, which integrates still and moving images of the Mang people living in the mountain area on the border of China and Vietnam, and of himself walking in the mountain areas and on the railways between the two countries, shed light on the problems of mobility, identity, modernity, and the production of knowledge, using local experiences to illuminate the everyday reality of contemporary China. This paper also aims to analyse why and how his works are effective and important in terms of setting up a collaborative framework for interdisciplinary practices between anthropology, geography and art.
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on theoretical movements in both Material Culture Studies and the Ontological Turn, the Multimedia Anthropology Lab aims to develop new forms of practice which can dialogue with more diverse audiences, collaborate with colleagues across disciplines, and disrupt existing models of thought.
Paper long abstract:
Material Culture studies has shown us that knowledge - both anthropological knowledge, and the knowledge of the people we study - emerges through relations to or with the material world, and the materials through which it is produced shape the ways in which it is received. The Ontological Turn has drawn our attention to the importance of ontological translation, where ethnographic engagements with the concepts of others allow us to re-shape the anthropological concepts with which we began. The Multimedia Anthropology Lab proposes to further these theoretical movements by experimenting with a multimedia approach to anthropological research, broadening the materials and languages through which translations can take place. In doing so, we explore experiences of alterity that are not reducible to text, and open space for concepts that cannot be expressed in words. By exploring non-textual forms of communicating academic research, we seek to facilitate new methods of public engagement, ensuring that anthropological research can bring benefit to wider and more diverse audiences; in doing so, we aim to encourage greater interdisciplinary dialogue, fostering collaborative platforms to address the urgent questions of our times; finally, by broadening the legitimate language of academic discourse beyond text, we widen the scope of those able to participate, and the ideas that can be expressed, leaving room for "other anthropologies" to co-produce the conceptual diversity required for an anthropology of tomorrow.