Short Abstract:

In this panel, we would like to explore the drawing as a method of ethnography and ask to what extent sketching is a suitable means of depicting the realities of anthropocene everyday life. How can we rethink our research fields with and through drawing in a new and fundamentally different way?

Long Abstract:

With the posthuman turn, which addresses the Anthropocene, the horizons of art and science are merging to overcome the limits of what can be thought and said. Drawing enjoys attention in this context, as it produces new forms of knowledge about and engagement with damaged environments (Casey/Davis 2024).

In ethnography, drawings can serve to capture the affective dimensions of everyday life and to engage with research fields empathically, creatively and beyond language. As they emerge spontaneously and in their own temporalities, sketches can depict experiences, moods, atmospheres, non-verbal and non-human communication, and initiate collaboration and encounters with interlocutors. As part of the analysis, drawings can help to organise the empirical material and to visualise thoughts and relations. As a means of representation, drawings such as comics are inclusive, as they can reach people beyond academic contexts and overcome language and age barriers; they also encourage participation, affection and interpretation that varies depending on the recipient.

What role do drawings play in collecting, analysing and representing ethnographic material? What are the potentials, limits and dangers of sketching everyday life in the Anthropocene? How can we think our research fields with and through drawing in fundamentally different, artistic and collaborative ways to respond to the lines of life (Ingold 2016)? The panel invites those who use drawing as ethnographic object and method and would like to discuss the role of drawing in ethnography from a contemporary or historical perspective.

This Panel has so far received 6 paper proposal(s).
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