Paper short abstract:

Documentary and ethnographic artists are often educators too. How do the classroom and "the field" support and nourish one another in our everyday?

Paper long abstract:

Inspired by the authors' early experiences of teaching documentary and ethnographic media, this presentation reflects on the "how" of putting the classroom in conversation with the field, for educators and learners alike. Teaching occupies much of our time as academics and artists, but we seldom address it in our work. How do the classroom and "the field" support and nourish one another in our everyday? How do we teach experience? How can time and space be used imaginatively towards a relational practice of education? Our presentation seeks to open up a conversation about the value of gleaning from experience, teaching dialectically, in the spirit of documentary and ethnography, with inspiration from Turner's "communitas" and Voegel's "rigorous ambiguity."