Hand-notes, photographs, video images… Which of these tell us more, or better? What do you do with a family photo album? What does it tell us that words don’t? A video camera is sitting in the corner to record…but isn’t it possible that it becomes part of us, moves with us, and participates actively in the everyday setting to make things happen? You interview a person: s/he talks and you receive her/his views. Objects don’t talk, and yet they tell us amazingly a lot. Can our research activities be creative activities that change the world? “Ethnography” means “being there,” bearing eye-witness to human activities, creating documents, and “producing (new) knowledge” about society and culture. Traditional field research relies a lot on note-taking. When our field research involves the use of audio visual tools, we approach and relate to the world differently. This course has two main components: to learn how to study our everyday culture and produce knowledge about the world using visual media, and to study visual objects in our everyday life, such as photographs, movies, maps, posters, materials on YouTube, graphic design etc. to see what they tell us about the world in which we live. This course discusses in depth important cultural theories, history of documentaries, creative impulses in urban studies, and research methods in anthropology. This course is project-based, individual and in groups. Students are expected to be independent learners who are ready to discover more via reading, research and creation.

 

Intended Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

1. Explain the use of ethno-methodologies in the study of urban, everyday culture

2. Give an accessible account of the idea of visual ethnography and its varieties

3. Conceive their own research of everyday life based on informed views in cultural studies

4. Design, conduct and manage ethnography indepently

5. Turn the findings of ethnography, the work of collecting, classification and archiving into creative artistic projects;

6. Deploy audio-visual tools effectively in research and be aware of the difference they make to the research process

Course Requirement:

1. Field Photography: "Things with a Future Tense" (+ 1-2-page essay) (20%)
2. Group Presentation (in-class)
(20%)
3. Annotated video documents of HK folk professions (25%)
4. Contribution to class discussion (5%)
5. Semester-end Project (one from A to D) (30%)

5-A
An elaborate ART BOOK with full documentation of this course's process and your personal research with personal reflection, informed analysis and full annotation. (All fieldwork, creative assignments and assigned readings should be covered.)
5-B
Developing (1) or (3) into a fuller work (with prominent revision or extension) accompanied by a paper of 8 pages (double-line spacing) minimum
5-C
A 10-page ESSAY on any self-proposed topic based on the course's theoretical paradigm (instructor's approval required). This can also be an extended report of (2) with additional research.
5-D

A NEW visual ethnographic project. Choose from the following:

a/ "A Day in the life of ~" (properly edited with artist's statement; no time limit);

b/ A Talking Head series (about 5): video submissions should be accompanied by a paper detailing the reasoned criteria of your choice of subjects, research objectives, and analytical report (about 6 pages)

c/ A project on family photos collection and analysis: properly organized visual portfolio should be accompanied by a paper detailing well reasoned search strategies, research objectives, and analytical report (about 6 pages)

d/ A project studying 5 table/desk tops in domestic settings: properly organized visual portfolio should be accompanied by a paper detailing well reasoned search strategies, research objectives, and analytical report (about 6 pages)

 
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