Short Abstract:

Despite the increasing ubiquity of digital technologies and arguments for multimodality, some anthropologists are still choosing to work with analogue media. This panel will highlight the work of practitioners who embrace the creative possibilities of analogue media for research and representation.

Long Abstract:

What positive roles can analogue media play at a time when anthropology is full of hype surrounding the possibilities of new digital technologies? Often framed as multimodality or transmedia, the use of digital media has become ubiquitous and, although it offers many advantages and opportunities for collaboration, some visual anthropologists are nevertheless choosing to work with analogue media in new ways. We do not want to split analogue and digital into any oppositional duality divided by hard lines - attention to the material and analogue dimensions of digital media is vital – but we want to explore a range of contemporary work that creatively embraces the materiality of media through analogue formats in film, photography, textiles, and other physical forms.

Practitioners will discuss recent and ongoing projects that engage with analogue media and the creative possibilities they offer, for example in fostering a range of material connections with peoples, places, other material forms, and contexts. What are the differences between working with analogue and digital media, not only in terms of outputs but also the processes and methods of media production in the field? What are the affordances and challenges of analogue forms? What fieldwork relationships do they foster? Is there a risk of fetishising the analogue by replacing the hype of the new with nostalgia for the old? And if analogue forms must ultimately be converted into pixels for presentation and dissemination via screen-based channels, what is the point of all the extra work?

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