Ethnography and the Arts

Catalog description

This course is about ethnographic research that engages art production and art that employs ethnographic methods. It associates theory with practice by adopting a combined seminar/studio format. Students will learn about precursors to art/anthropology work and about feminist and humanist reactions to positivist ethnography. They will study recent collaborations between artists and anthropologists and carry out hands-on experiments in ethnography, drawing, photography, audio recording, movement, curating, and devising participatory events in class and around the campus. This will lead to examining ideas of "experience," "immersion" and to reflection on how practice, participation and performance are part of any ethnography and encourage a critical and practical approach to multi-modal fieldwork design and artistic ethnographic practice. Throughout the course students will experiment with individual and collaborative research, reflect on the ethics of field research and the affordances of diverse media and artistic practices both in the research process and in outcomes for diverse audiences.