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.