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 be introduced to contemporary practices of ethnographic field design and research to develop their critical and artistic ethnographic research and practice. They will learn about precursors to art/anthropology work in relation to feminist and critical interpretive reactions to positivist ethnography. They will study recent collaborations between artists and anthropologists and carry out hand-on experiments in ethnography using a wide variety of media, such as writing, drawing, photography, painting, audio and video recording. They will practice interview techniques and devise performances and participatory works. A series of experiments across diverse media and modalities will be paired with readings and discussions that will examine ideas of "experience" and "truth" as well as introduce students to methodologies for art/ethnographic work. As they develop individually and collaboratively authored works through their ethnographic research, students will examine issues of authority, power and the ethics of diverse modes of engaging collaborators and participants. In their final project they will draw on their research using ethnographic design methods to curate a site-specific exhibition and/or performance on the campus.