- Convenors:
-
Alexander Parkyn-Smith
(Myriad Film Research)
Greg Bankoff (University of Hull)
Liz Hingley
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- Discussant:
-
Shumaila yousafzai
(Nazarbayev University)
- Format:
- Roundtable
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 7 March, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Visual anthropologists have the skills and methodologies to support academics across disciplines to better communicate their research. We will showcase the toolkit of diverse collaborative approaches that can help facilitate the co-creation of imagined futures, in tangible ways, in the present.
Long Abstract:
Visual anthropologists, those employing a background in social science research methodologies alongside a technical and/or artistic skillset, increasingly find themselves working at a nexus between art, academia, applied research and public communication. This roundtable focuses on the process of collaboration - working in the present with the subjects of research and academics from different disciplinary backgrounds - to take research off the page and create visual outputs to reach wide public audiences.
The roundtable format brings together diverse disciplinary perspectives to discuss the myriad ways of working with visual anthropologists. Discussants will illuminate the opportunities, insights and impacts of collaborative practice through examples of completed and active research projects.
Roundtable presentations on:
1. How producing a documentary film with an environmental historian helps communicate past practices in water-level management that might have renewed relevance in tackling the impact of ongoing climate change (Greg Bankoff & Alexander Parkyn-Smith)
2. How processes of mutual making can illuminate the ways that digital photography and smartphone SIM cards connect people and foster belonging for those who have experienced displacement (Liz Hingley)
3. How using photography can help communicate the personal narratives of women entrepreneurs in Central Asia (Shumaila Yousafzai & Alexander Parkyn-Smith)
4. How autoethnographic filmmaking grapples with the "messiness" of being black women in academic spaces (Danyelle Greene)
Visual methodologies often challenge traditional academic communication strategies. They can also be overlooked as superficial add-ons to research and not given fair weight by research communities. This roundtable argues that the future of visual anthropology lies in collaborative visualisation across disciplines.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 7 March, 2023, -Paper short abstract:
A historian’s views on the pluses and minuses of collaborative visualisations in the making of a documentary film on why the past and present management of local water drainage boards is important to millions of people’s lives in England – not an easy task.
Paper long abstract:
Setting out to make a documentary about local drainage boards that people might want to watch is not an easy task and trying, at the same time, to tell their long and rich histories, and why this is important to tackling the impact of climate change, makes it only harder. Teaming up with a visual anthropologist and filmmaker, we tell the story of a generic local water board at five “key” times of the day, as narrated by different stakeholders representing what they do, what they used to do, and who benefits from their actions. The water slowly draining through the watercourse, filmed in different ways and lights, provides the central narrative to the documentary, giving it structure as well as highlighting the central function of water level management now and in the past.
Paper short abstract:
Artist and anthropologist Liz Hingley discusses the experience of co-production on The SIM Project. To consider how processes of mutual making might illuminate the ways that digital photography and smartphone SIM cards connect people, and foster belonging for those who have experienced displacement.
Paper long abstract:
The SIM Project (www.thesimproject.com) combines artistic and curatorial practice, co-design and academic research to explore the relationship between smartphone SIM cards, migration and belonging. Liz Hingley shares the challenges and successes encountered in developing the project methodology during her artist residency within the Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London, in collaboration with Dr Zeena Feldman (2021-22).
The project is shaped by conversations with refugees and others affected by displacement. From these exchanges, smartphone SIM cards emerged as key objects of connection for unlocking transnational as well as local networks, user agency and imagined futures. In this project the SIM card is thus seen as a precious and evolving portrait of intimate relationships – a symbol of ‘home’ and a practical tool for community making.
This presentation will discuss the experimentation and learning required to refine the interactive workshop technique. During the workshops invited participants map the ways SIM cards foster their identities and sense of belonging across time and geography. Participants also share a personal 'screenshot with a story’, which they use to create unique SIM-scale artworks in a process combining early 19th century photographic methods, digital screenshots, QR codes and silversmithing.
The SIM Project has now run 17 workshops in five countries, and is part of the Testing Ground exhibition at the Science Gallery London (September 2022–January 2023). Materials generated from these activities will be shown to inform the future plans for the project, which aim to make it more interactive, generative and sustainable.
Paper short abstract:
Through photographs and written narratives, women entrepreneurs in Kyrgyzstan are brought centre-stage in this multi-disciplinary research project. Using visual methodologies, alongside more conventional social research methods, the women’s stories are made accessible to a broad public audience.
Paper long abstract:
Visual anthropologist Dr Alexander Parkyn-Smith joined Dr Shumaila Yousafzai’s team from Nazarbayev University’s Research Centre for Entrepreneurship (NURCE) in their research into the experiences of women in Kyrgyzstan engaged in Community Based Tourism (CBT) initiatives.
This discussion covers the processes involved in incorporating visual methodologies into a wider academic research project – in this instance outside of social scientific disciplinary borders. The presentation explains the potential benefits of bringing a social scientist into a business studies research group, the ethical and practical challenges of adapting fieldwork to incorporate space for creative practice, and the institutional barriers faced when trying to incorporate visual methods in research structures traditionally centred on written outputs.
The final part of the discussion explains the multiple outputs (photobook, public exhibition, and journal articles) which evidence the value-added benefits of bringing visual practitioners into diverse academic research contexts.
Paper short abstract:
Co-creators of “Documenting Twice As Hard” discuss their episodic documentary as an autoethnographic reflection key to their ongoing process of grappling with the “messiness” of being black women in academic spaces and using critical creative practice as central to their research.
Paper long abstract:
“Twice as hard” is a phrase that carries with it the weight of neoliberal ideologies, Eurocentric standards, perfectionism, and white supremacist external and internalized racism. It encompasses the idea that as a black person, especially a black woman, living in white America one must work twice as hard to get half as far—striving mentally, physically, and emotionally to access equitable social, economic, and career levels. “Documenting Twice as Hard” is a co-created, autoethnographic, episodic documentary project inspired by the creation and presentation of our 2018 art installation titled, “Twice as Hard.”
In this presentation on the project, we, the co-creators, discuss our ongoing practice of autoethnographic reflection as key to the creation of the art installation and the process of editing “Documenting Twice As Hard.” Our discussion draws from triple consciousness theory which posits that, beyond W.E.B. Du Bois’s double-consciousness, black women wrestle with the messiness of viewing ourselves through the lenses of Eurocentrism, blackness, and womanhood while at the same time recognizing ourselves through our own internal logics. In the creation and presentation of this project, we also find ourselves wrestling with the importance of creative practice as central to our academic scholarship and academic expectations for research publication in traditional outlets. In line with Tamura Lomax’s use of ‘ugly readings’ to reconcile dynamic and often contradictory perceptions of blackness, our presentation grapples with the politics of our frontstage academic selves, social and institutional expectations, and our backstage preparations as demonstrated through “Documenting Twice As Hard.”