Paper short abstract:

Bharath Ananthanarayana is a PhD student at University of Exeter. His research is a 'following' of ginger into its commodity-scape emerging out of the Western Ghats in India. He is an active contributor on the Polyphonic Documentary project.

Paper long abstract:

“Today our problem lies – it seems – in the fact that we do not yet have ready narratives, not only for the future, but even for a concrete now, for the ultra-rapid transformations of today’s world. We lack the language, we lack the points of view, the metaphors, myths and new fables. Yet we do see frequent attempts to harness rusty, anachronistic narratives that cannot fit the future to imaginaries of the future...” (Olga Tokarczuk 2018). Our round table will interrogate this quote through the lens of the Polyphonic Documentary Project. The format will consist of a focused conversation in which we will discuss our approach to narrative and worlding practices. All panel members are either trained in or have a specific interest in Sensory and Visual Anthropology, which will enable us to connect our conversation to core and ongoing concerns within the discipline. Co-creation, de-colonisation, more-than-human, multi-modality, non-linearity, polyphony and uncertainty will be considered as key concepts. At the heart of the discussion will be our central interest in finding ways to explore the transformative potential of the methods and digital tools with which we are working for creating generative dialogue and speculating about alternative futures. Whilst our current focus is on transforming our own awareness and understanding of possibilities, we are also keen to apply what we are continuing to discover into wider contexts and settings. With this in mind, we will open up the discussion to our audience with a view to exploring connections and resonances.