Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

How can physical collages and their constituent images be transformed into digital formats that keep their intended fluidity and motion? Can anthropologists not trained as graphic designers or artists manage to produce shareable graphic novels? Visual diaries, collages and more will be discussed.

Paper long abstract

Anthropologists are not always trained as visual artists, but our lack of training need not keep us from experimenting with non-logocentric strategies for rendering our ideas. This paper begins by discussing an effort to use a graphic novel format to share the experience of traveling around Lugu Lake in southwest China with women from a nearby village. In collaboration with a talented Winter Term student, I worked to transform three physical panels into a digital, visual-first format. How to render vertical scale, how to preserve circularity and flow, and what visual style to use were all difficult elements to work through. Eventually, we resolved these problems, but the project period ended before all images could be completed. This unresolved, partially completed project taught me important lessons about conceptualization and role-clarification, including how to conclude projects when they aren't quite done.

The collage/graphic novel project is a decidedly post-fieldwork endeavor, undertaken long after returning home. The second form of visual rendering to be discussed is produced during the fieldwork itself. Many anthropologists include sketches as part of their fieldnotes. With twin inspirations from a Lijiang-based artist (2024) and an Oregon-based preschool teacher, I created "visual bedtime diaries" with both of my children as they accompanied me during my China fieldwork. These extended visual diaries functioned as daily opportunities to record a visual representation of the day's events, as part of the end-of-day bonding ritual of bedtime. They were far from perfect artistic creations, but captured important details and moods, nonetheless.