Contribution short abstract:

The process of 'unmasking' is an art-based ethnographic method in the becoming, which seeks to enhance the dialogue between social and natural sciences and more than human actors under threat of extinction. It works along contested relationalities and methodological tools in becoming.

Contribution long abstract:

The wolf mask provides an illustrative example of how the crafting and wear of a mask can be employed as a means of articulating hitherto unheard, unexpressed, or unseen narratives concerning the relationship between hunters or ecological engineers and wolves. We are engaged in an experimental process of crafting and wearing masks within a context in which different actors are seeking to identify solutions for the return of large predators in the Italian Alps. The masks are becoming a tool for communication with professionals and their contested relationalities whose roles involve the protection of animals, including ecological engineers, shepherds, wildlife monitors, hunters, and others. These masks "create agency" (Gell 1998) as the act of crafting and subsequently wearing these masks imbues their creators and wearers with the capacity to challenge existing public polarisation and to bring alternative, hitherto unheard perceptions to the fore. However, it remains still unclear to us which actors are emerging. Our contribution aims to present a methodological tool and describe the process as well as shift in perception and narrative of the actors involved. It ascertains how the relation with the wolf is experienced by examining what has not been mentioned, touched upon, seen or heard in ethnographic interviews conducted prior to this process with the same actors.

The process of 'unmasking' is an art-based ethnographic method in the becoming of our collaborative research project DSooE, which seeks to enhance the dialogue between different disciplinary perspectives and more than human actors under threat of extinction.