[Last modified: November, 22 2024 04:55 PM]
This week we spent time outside in a peri-urban space between the park and the road. We explored a range of ideas and created ‘An Ethnography of Winter’ this included, ‘cold’ maps of our heads, video, photos, and a collage sketch. We also explored representing the same object in a number of formats for example we took an etching of the textured wooden table and also photographed the grain of the same piece of wood.
Our facial cold maps were a two dimensional representation of our feelings of temperature and sunlight.
Having created an oval as a representation of our head, each member of the group added circles to indicate areas that were cold and crosses to indicate areas where the sun was striking through the leaves of the tree.
Our collage sketch featured a pigeon which we also videoed as well as abstract representations of the wind, sound and the metal rail fence that separated us from the lush evergreen vegetation of the park.
The pigeon was interesting because the static two dimensional sketch did not reveal the way the bird moved in staccato paces with its head-bobbing. The head-bobbing has two phases, A ‘Thrust Phase’ followed by a ‘Hold Phase’ and is apparently interesting from a biomechanics standpoint.
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There was also the sound of the wind and the sound of the traffic including a passing JCB!
The session helped me to think more broadly about how I can represent my fieldwork other than in a purely textual form. I was particularly interested in how representing the same thing in various modes revealed different aspects and characteristics of that thing. For example, surprisingly, our etching of the wooden table created a better representation of the three dimensionality of the wood’s grain than did the photograph. I think I would like to experiment more with using soundscapes, video, sketches, photos, maps, etchings, poetry, etc. to all represent that same thing. For example, a tree. This could take the form of both a diachronic and synchronic representation of its form, sound, shape, light and texture. When applied in an ethnographic context I believe this would give a truly holistic feeling of the subject.
I also found the concept of framing helpful and will reflect on how framing creates a postionality that is not evident without a wider context.