visual ethnography

This course unfolds the many issues involved in studying everyday urban culture via ethnographic research methods.

As a participant or observer, what kinds of information do we collect from the field? How does the medium employed to collect data and make field notes impact on what we learn and what we know?

Are the different creative media tools only? What can we learn from history and current practices the variety, diversity and complexity of ways. When we present our findings via visual narratives, such as a documentary, what are the implications? How have documentary makers so far tackled these issues? What other insights are there beyond the realm of documentary?

Visual ethnography is NOT just about studying the field using visual media such as photography, sketches, maps and video. It is ALSO ABOUT investigating cultural objects and artifacts that are themselves highly organized visual representations with embedded meanings, or that organize our everyday life indirectly because of its visual presence. A signicant portion of the course will focus on these issues, from the study of family photos, a photo album, video games, stamps, posters, maps, to organized space such as a living room or a kitchen with specific display.

The FOUR key subjects in visual ethnography that form the research-creation of this class are:
A. Deploying audio-visual media in ethnographic research;
B. Researching and collecting visual/audio objects to gain insight into culture and everyday life;
C. Ethnography and/for/in art-making: from ethnography to creative collecting; collecting and art-making as creative intervention; and
D. Moving beyond visual representation to form refreshed views on things, objects, systems, and archives