Multimodal Appreciation is a 18 month project funded by the Volkswagen Stiftung. Its main aim is to study current ethnographic experiments with multimodal forms of description, analysis and intervention which has resulted in a proliferation of more-than-textual forms that are difficult to classify and often at odds with institutionalised modes of disciplinary knowledge production. Despite the important openings created by multimodal works, they are rarely seen as of equal value when compared to articles and monographs. The current situation is problematic but to a certain extent understandable, as peers, reviewers and supervisors are confronted with a complex conundrum: What criteria should be employed to evaluate such multimodal singularities? Our project responds to this conundrum through two experimental moments that correspond to the two challenges producing the current impasse, those of evaluation and institutionalization. The first moment is constituted by a set of documentary and immersive exercises designed to describe and compare the affordances of selected more-than-textual or multimodal research artefacts. The second moment is a set of prototyping exercises designed to produce and test a toolkit to facilitate the evaluation and institutionalization of future multimodal research.
This Workshop #1 is the conclusion of the first moment: A series of sessions in which we will consider the affordances of different multimodal works, each of which concentrates on a particular media form (film/video, sound work, comic/graphic ethnography, play/performance, digital/website). Each session will begin with a period of appreciation of each individual work (i.e. watching 20 minutes of a film, reading a chapter of a comic, considering a play/performance, listening to a sound work) and will then proceed with a conversation split into two moments: the first will consider the affordances and values of the work as a dialogue between the maker of the work and the rest of the workshop participants, and the second will be comprised of a consideration of the value of the work from a scholar/practitioner from outside of anthropology (film studies/production, sound studies/production, comics studies, performance studies/theatre). The aim here would be to elicit evaluation criteria and produce insights to help us to develop our kits.
For hints to prepare your task, see here
Program
THURSDAY, 11 January
TIME: 10-17 CET workshop, 18 CET performance
PLACE: Institute for European Ethnology, Möhrenstaße 40-41, 10117 Berlin ROOM: 4th floor, room 408
PERFORMANCE: location tba
10:00 Arrival
10:30 Welcome note & round of introductions
Moderation Work 1: Andrew Gilbert
11:00 Work 1: Phone and Spear (immersion)
11:40-12:00 Coffee break
12:00-13:15 Work 1 : Phone and Spear (expert response and discussion)
13:15-14:15 Lunch break (Ma´Loa)
Moderation Work 2+ 3: Judith Albrecht
14:15-15:00 Work 2: Maribor Uprising (immersion)
15:00-15:20 Coffee break
15:20-16.45 Work 2: Maribor Uprising (expert response and discussion)
18:00-19:30 Performance – Work 3: Aykash (including immersion)
20:00 Dinner
FRIDAY, 12 January
TIME: 9-18 CET
PLACE: Institute for European Ethnology, Möhrenstaße 40-41, 10117 Berlin
ROOM: 4th floor, room 408
8:30 Arrival
9:00-10:15 Work 3: Aykash (expert response and discussion)
10:15-10:30 Coffee break
Moderation Work 4: Andrew Gilbert
10:30-11:20 Work 4: King of Bangkok (immersion)
11:20-11.30 Short break
11:30-12:45 Work 4: King of Bangkok (expert response and discussion)
12:45-13:45 Lunch break
Moderation Work 5: Tomás Criado
13:45-14:15 Work 5: Ethnodata/Kaleidos (immersion)
14:15- 15.30 Work 5: Ethnodata/Kaleidos (expert response and discussion
15:30-15:45 Coffee Break
Moderation Work 6: Ignacio Farias
15:45-16:25 Work 6: Expedition content (immersion)
16:25-16:40 short break
16:40-17:50 Work 6: Expedition content (response experts and discussion)
19:00 Dinner (Kantine Maxim Gorki Theatre, Am Festungsgraben, 210117 Berlin)
SATURDAY, 13 January
TIME: 10-13 CET
PLACE: Institute for European Ethnology, Möhrenstaße 40-41, 10117 Berlin
ROOM: 4th floor, room 408
9:30 Arrival
10:00-12:30 Podcast Production
12:30-13:00 Farewell
Format structure for each session
30 minutes immersion into the work
15 minutes coffee break
10 minutes writing time (cards)
approx. 75 minutes expert response and discussion:
15 minutes discussion
15-20 minutes expert response
40 minutes discussion
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Picture credits: CC BY NASA 1978 Training suited subject in Water Immersion Facility (WIF), Building 260
