Anne Harris
Title
Ethnocinema as Method
Abstract
Ethnocinema is a practice-led research approach based in intercultural exchange and video as method. It is one of a number of emerging intimate video methods including vlogs, social media, and everyday visual ethnography that comments on the aesthetics and politics of visuality in contemporary times. Ethnocinema brings together a range of critical sociocultural theories (Appadurai, Williams, Braidotti among them) with practice-led research strategies and tools (Harris 2014; Barrett & Bolt 2014). Unlike other video-based or video-informed research methods, ethnocinema (and ethnovideo) involve collaborative making practices amidst cultural exchange. It facilitates an exchange between ‘researcher’ and ‘researched’ as a creative collaboration, rather than a traditional ethnography in which video records ‘the Other’, or video as a standard qualitative tool. Informed by visual anthropology and the work of Jean Rouch, it critically interrogates the notion of culture itself, and video methods that assert truth-claims. That is, ethnocinema demands that it be used as both a method and a methodology – it is a tool, a practice, a relationship, and a critical theoretical and epistemological frame which informs the collaborative making that ensues. This talk provides instructional and epistemological foundations for those wishing to take up this method or to adapt it to new contexts.
Robert Willim
Title
Video and Art Probing
Abstract
Video can be used in a mixed practice of art and ethnographic cultural analysis, and as part of an open-ended explorative process of art probing. Practices of art probing is based on an extended open ended exploratory process that goes beyond the scope of specific research or art projects. Art probes have a double function. Firstly, they can instil inspiration and be possible points of departure for research, and secondly, they can be used to communicate and twist scientific concepts and arguments beyond the scopes of academic worlds. The talk will be combined with audiovisual showcasing of art probes developed during the last years. The shown art probes will be video works that have been crafted to move between the expressive and the subtle. Multi-layered and affectively dense audiovisual compositions have been combined with statements to spark associations, questions, reflections and emotions. The art probes have been used in collaboration with different stakeholders, to present specific concepts or as tools for elicitation. The aim with this talk and presentation is to evoke inspiration to further mixes of art and ethnographic cultural analysis, and to advocate that artistic and scientific output can be seen as companion pieces of an evolving set of provisional renditions.
Adam Fouse
Title
Designing Tools to Support Analysis of Multimodal Temporal Data
Abstract
Technological advances have enabled digital recording of activity in new settings, with an ever-increasing quantity and variety of data. To fully take advantage of these expanded recording possibilities, tools are needed to allow researchers to combine multiple sources of data and develop new ways of analyzing the integrated data. In this talk, I will share insights gained from the development of ChronoViz, a software tool for analysis of multimodal temporal data. This discussion will address two key questions regarding tool development in this area: How can powerful and flexible tools be created to support researchers in a variety of settings? How do different visual representations affect researchers’ ability to navigate and understand data? I will discuss a number of topics related to these questions, including the co-evolution of tools and practice, lessons learned from the participatory design process, combining different visualizations to enable flexible data navigation, and using interactive visualization to enable collaboration.
Paul McIlvenny & Jacob Davidsen
Title
A Manifesto for Big Video
Abstract
Big Data has recently become the buzzword across many disciplines. As an alternative, we propose a Big Video manifesto that moves away from quantitative big data analytics in order to develop an enhanced infrastructure and workflow for qualitative video analysis with innovation in four key areas: 1) capture, storage, archiving and access of digital video; 2) visualisation, transformation and presentation; 3) collaboration and sharing; 4) and tools to support qualitative analysis. In this keynote, we will place Big Video in the context of a critical history of scientific audiovisual technologies, discuss the assumptions and aporias of qualitative video-based research since the 1950s, and challenge the ‘black box’ mentality and algorithmic normativity of default functions that undergirds data collection in much contemporary research. Then we will propose a set of tenets for Big Video to rethink epistemological and methodological assumptions and provoke new directions for qualitative video analysis. Finally, we will illustrate current and future trends in Big Video with examples from our own data collection in complex everyday settings using a variety of new technologies and enhanced methods. We focus, in particular, on methods close to our heart such as ethnomethodological conversation analysis and video ethnography.