Paper short abstract:

‘Because Goddess is Never Enough’ is a 10-minute poetry film, inspired by dancer and choreographer Tilly Losch. The film represents the intersection of poetry, film, dance, spoken word and collaborative artistic practice. But what if it had been made with an anthropologist too?

Paper long abstract:

‘Because Goddess is Never Enough’ is a 10-minute poetry film, inspired by dancer and choreographer Tilly Losch. The film represents the intersection of poetry, film, dance, spoken word and collaborative artistic practice. But what if it had been made with an anthropologist too?

Tilly Losch was a Jewish Austrian dancer and film-star who worked in Europe and the US, and was at the peak of her fame in the 1920s–40s. Research on Tilly drew from historic newspapers and photography, including Vogue and Tatler, and contact with her biographer. The film explores a woman who has fallen into the footnotes, lost from history as many women’s stories are, seen only through a patriarchal lens. It examines self-worth, the authentic self, and the credibility of creative women. The parallels of Losch and the way women are still portrayed in the 21st century, forms a thought-provoking statement about female identity.

With hindsight, there was potential for a far greater understanding to underpin this film. This paper proposes that an anthropologist is the missing link that would have helped answer questions raised by the research material. The film is a personal response, but is it appropriate for filmmaker and writer to avoid or skirt around social and cultural aspects of their subject? For example, Tilly’s film appearances as an ‘exotic’ dancer made-up as a race other than her own. In collaboration with an anthropologist, could this film have navigated the issues more effectively and could more questions have been answered and understood?

Film: bit.ly/tilly-film

Paper short abstract:

Drawing from manifestos of convivial methodologies (Berg & Nowicka 2019) and the play ethic (Kane 2011), we propose a playful exploration of a range of collaborative methods, a “menu” from which to choose or start further collaborative search with our research participants/partners.

Paper long abstract:

While collaboration has become nearly a prerequisite for considering visual research worthwhile, collaborative visual research can mean many different things and a line between collaboration and exploitation is often thin. In this paper we want to think both creatively and critically about collaborative visual methods. Drawing from manifestos of convivial methodologies (Berg & Nowicka 2019) on the one hand and the play ethic (Kane 2011) on the other, we propose a playful exploration of a range of collaborative methods, a “menu” from which to choose or start further collaborative search with our research participants/partners.

The aim is to design research which is not “ethical” in the sense of ticking boxes of ethical commissions preoccupied with legal responsibility, but moral, in line with our own consciences. As the play ethic is about having the confidence to be spontaneous, creative and emphatic, we would like to use a research design that is centred around the passions and enthusiasm of our research partners and ourselves. Getting ready for work with migrant and trans-border workers within our project, we are interested in “non-linear ways of knowing and transmitting multiple worlds” which will be useful and fulfilling both for us and the people with whom we will research.

Coming from a convivial perspective that focuses on the art and practice of living together in solidarity despite differences, we are interested in how visual output can contribute to transmitting the multiple life-worlds of mobile workers, finding proximity to wider audiences, and working towards more sustainable communities.

Paper short abstract:

Nine Earths is a project about climate change, collecting video of young participants in 12 countries. A visual ethnography produces films situated between documentary and art film, focused on daily consumption practices, enabling cross-cultural comparisons and analysis of power relations.

Paper long abstract:

Nine Earths is a collaborative project investigating consumption and climate change, involving participants from 12 countries. We commission artists and filmmakers in each country to film an average day of a young person aged 18-34, viewing their daily practices through the lens of climate and consumption.

I have been conducting a visual ethnography of this footage, to produce films situated between documentary and art film, which address the following questions: What can video collected by artists and young people in different countries tell us about global consumption? How feasible and suitable is remote ethnography for illuminating specific local contexts and making cross-cultural comparisons about consumption practices in relation to climate change?

As an example of what Mead and Métraux (1954) called The Study of Culture at a Distance, the project raises issues of power relations between Eurocentric paradigms and remotely located participants, and between scientists, filmmakers and informants. I will present findings arising from my analysis, regarding what should be recorded and how, and about issues of ‘telepistemology’ in which the ethnographer is separated from the reality of social phenomena, observing and comparing multiple cultures through a process of multiple mediation.

The project investigates ‘decentred subjectivities and the geographical complexities that arise when intimacy no longer necessarily implies proximity’(Law, 2004). The findings will be presented through film clips from various countries.