Paper Short Abstract:

This paper explores sketching as a process of becoming-with the world, that is imaginative, risky, and collaborative. In unstable and volatile places it can be a kind of horizoning work (Petryna 2018), where habitable futures are explored.

Paper Abstract:

This paper explores how ethnography can be guided by the sketches of others, against the back- and fore-ground of the Anthropocene. My interest here is more specifically on community groups who visit, attend to and care for their surroundings through sketching. These are sketches by others about others in turn, including humans and non-humans, buildings, infrastructures and environments.

How are boundaries between these subjects made or unmade in people’s sketches, both in single drawings and over time as they travel to different locations? What does it mean for sketches to be partial and open-ended, and yet part of a community narration of an unstable place?

By drawing on theories of the Anthropocene, I propose sketching as a process of becoming-with the world, that is imaginative, risky, and collaborative. When living with volatility (Krause and Erikson 2023), sketching can be a way to find meaningful horizons of thought and action (Petryna 2018). To develop this argument I draw on participation with community sketching at an urban coastline, where decisions to ‘hold the line’ or manage realignment are being made in the face of future sea-level rise.