Paper Short Abstract:

In this presentation, the “fog” is positioned in the central role of ethnographic research. This study examines the influence of fog on the culture of communal living, relations of production, the bonds established between animals and plants, and its role in guiding the ethnographer's perspective.

Paper Abstract:

For an extended period, ethnographers have presented the world through a limited and hegemonic framework that centers on human beings. However, humans have been able to create distinctive cultures through entangled relationships with non-human others in their environments. Multispecies ethnography invites the consideration of all natural actors as stakeholders in our research. The inclusion of non-human beings in research while observing the flow of everyday life offers diverse and creative methodological approaches. However, research with animals, plants, fungi, microbes, and other natural actors presents unpredictable situations, challenges, and obstacles.

In this presentation, the “fog” is positioned in the central role of ethnographic research. This study examines the influence of fog on the culture of communal living, relations of production, the bonds established between animals and plants, and its role in guiding the ethnographer's perspective. These investigations are based on ethnographic observations and examinations conducted as part of ethnographic research in the high plateaus of Artvin Province in northeast Turkey during the previous summer. The ethnographer's camera is not only a record of existing phenomena, but also an indicator of how the researcher perceives the world. In this presentation, the play between fog and a camera is proposed as an experimental way of doing research and writing with non-human others.