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Paper short abstract:

In this paper I discuss how the combination of visual art and ethnographic fieldwork can be useful not only to disseminate anthropological research in a creative way, but also to slow down thinking. The researcher cannot not rush assuming the form of the phenomena she studies.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I discuss how the combination of visual art and ethnographic fieldwork can be useful not only to disseminate anthropological research in a creative way, but also to slow down thinking. The researcher cannot not rush assuming the form of the phenomena she studies. Any concept once named starts functioning as an object, which in turn delimits our exploration. Since sharpening our observational skills deeply shapes our way of knowing and thinking we need to develop methods to nurture a reflexive act of seeing.

Between March and November 2021 I carry out an ethnographic fieldwork to examine how the research subjects used social media and their experience of being an artist with minority background in Norway. During the fieldwork I developed a series of artistic fieldnotes that consists of digital drawing and short literary texts which turned to an art travelling exhibition at the end of the fieldwork.

The travelling exhibition, ARTivisme, travels through public libraries starting at one of the most cultural diverse parts of Oslo. ARTivisme is a complex project with different goals. The main aim is to explore: 1) how to create anthropological representations outside academic texts, 2) how to intervene in a very polarised digital and non-digital public conversation about the politics of belonging in Norway. Which lenses are best suited to approach racism, belonging and exclusion? Are the lenses of emotions, reason, own experiences or the experiences of others? Is it creativity, is it academic argumentation, empathy, closeness or distance?