Ethnography by Design: Scenographic Experiments in Fieldwork

Description

Ethnography by Design, unlike many investigations into how ethnography can be done, focuses on the benefits of sustained collaboration across projects to ethnographic enquiry, and the possibilities of experimental co-design as part of field research. The book translates specifically scenic design practices, which include processes like speculation, materialization, and iteration, and applies them to ethnographic inquiry, emphasizing both the value of design studio processes and “designed” field encounters. The authors make it clear that design studio practices allow ethnographers to ask and develop very different questions within their own and others’ research and thus, design also offers a framework for shaping the conditions of encounter in ways that make anthropological suppositions tangible and visually apparent. Written by two anthropologists and a designer, and based on their experience of their collective endeavours during three projects, George Marcus, Christine Hegel and Luke Cantarella examine their works as a way to continue a broader inquiry into what the practice of ethnography can be in the 21st century, and how any project distinctively moves beyond standard perspectives through its crafted modes of participation and engagement. Cover page Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page Contents Figures Preface Acknowledgments Project Credits 1 Introduction Structure of the book Part One 2 On Scenography A short genealogy Scenographic thinking Linkages between scenography and ethnography 3 Productive Encounters 214 Sq. Ft. (2012) Trade is Sublime (2013) Yes, We’re Open (2016) 4 Practices for an Ethnography by Design Collaboration Problem-setting and problem-solving Speculation Materialization Iteration Part Two 5 Unfolding a Process 6 A Workshop Model Participants and expectations Preparing the studio Creating a design brief Warm-ups Prompts and constraints Facilitators 7 Operations and Micro-strategies Scale modeling Technological or material constraints Radical simplification (Social) inversion Alternative frames Forced translation/sensory limitation Proxemic play Aleatory devices Deferred authority Appendix: Games and Exercises Bibliography Index