Visual Anthropology
I am planning to experiment a bit with doing ethnography-like research and presenting it on the web using a mix of media (video, audio, text). There is a history of using video and images in anthropology, but there is still little work being done (that I know of) on using the web to what I think is its potential in presenting ethnographic research.
I’m looking for examples - tips welcome. visualanthropology.net seems a good starting point. Visual studies seems an interesting publication as well - you can see a sample online but you have to get a free login. (They’re good about providing linking options with each article.)
I have a documentary photography background, so I am all for using visual techniques. What I also want to do is to publish interviews and such, and annotate them, online. I want to publish unfinished, not-very-interpreted results of the study, so they can be re-interpreted by other people. I haven’t seen examples of this online yet. I say not-very-interpreted because I am well aware of the problems with trying to be objective - I won’t even try to be that.
A nice example of having extensive source material online and reinterpreting it through an ethnography is Looking at discipline, looking at labour: photographic representations of Indian boarding schools (PDF, 3M). (I think this direct link should work.) The ethnography looks at the documentary pictures of Indian boarding schools. A fascinating read, check it out. (A lot of classic documentary photography was commisioned by the USA and is freely available online.)
Photographs have the strange property of gaining meaning over time - the older they are, the more we can easily re-interpret them. Video may have the same properties.
More:
- Visual Anthropology Papers
- Understanding What We See: Subject, Author, and Audience in Visual Anthropology, which includes this quote:
“All over the world, on every continent and island, in the hidden recesses of every industrial city as well as in the hidden valleys that can be reached only by helicopter, precious, totally irreplaceable, and forever irreproducible behaviors are disappearing, while departments of anthropology continue to send fieldworkers out with no equipment beyond a pencil and a notebook. (Hockings 1975: 4)”
Also (this nicely illustrates the reluctance anthropologists seem to have with visual media) : “”Ethnographers worship a terrifying deity known as Reality, whose eternal enemy is its evil twin, Art. They believe that to remain vigilant against evil, on must devote oneself to a set of practices known as Science. Their cosmology, however, is unstable: for decades they have fought bitterly among themselves as to the nature of their god and how best to serve him. They accuse each other of being secret followers of Art; the worst insult in their language is ‘aesthete’.” - Eliot Weinberger, The Camera People”.
Here are some more thoughts on the same issues. A brilliant explanation of the history and issues in ethnographic filmmaking.
August 24th, 2004 at 11:57 pm
Interesting. I’ve been recording the Maya since 1980, between working a day job in the networks, Discovery, National Geographic. My wife has her doctorate in visual anthropology, and we both studied with Jean Rouch, father of cinema verite and ethnographic filmmaking. Met Drazen last year, want to start putting my archive (both edited and not) on the web.
But so far I’ve kept my web stuff (the Daily Glyph) and video stuff separate. Now looking into RSS, videoblogging, the whole convergence. Check my recent post where I linked to your Videoblog category. And let’s stay in touch. I’ll keep an eye out for your ethno work.
September 20th, 2004 at 5:45 pm
Sarah Pink has written a great book about visual anthropology : “Doing Visual Ethnography
Images, Media and Representation in Research”
Here’s a description I found on the internet : Doing Visual Ethnography explores the use and potential of photography, video and hypermedia in ethnographic and social research. It offers a reflexive approach to theoretical, methodological, practical and ethical issues of using these media `in the field’ and `in the academy’. The book follows the research process from project design planning and implementing and practising fieldwork to analysis and representation suggesting how visual images and technologies can be combined to form an integrated process throughout the different stages of research.
(by the way . Great blog - I have followed your web activity since your colombia days - I was in colombia too a couble of years later)
/Lars, Denmark
June 8th, 2005 at 2:22 pm
As a recent graduate of a masters program in visual anthropology (Uni. of Manchester, UK), I too, have been trying to integrate the non-linear quality of the web with the visual ways of learning that can greatly be expanded upon within visual anthropology. I have not done much research or experimentation on this thus far, but I have managed to get my own work on-line… so please check it out and give me feedback: my film is called “a small light” and the weblink to watch it can be found at: ww.asmalllight.org.
I will definitely watch this space for your further developments! good luck!
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if anyone knows any thing about visual anthropology courses plz let me kno……. i am really intrested in visual anthropology and i am myself doin my masters in anthropology……..if u have nay information regarding this please let me kno my email id is manumaheshwar@yahoo.com