{"id":556,"date":"2026-04-14T00:32:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T22:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/multimodalappreciation\/?p=556"},"modified":"2026-04-14T11:33:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T09:33:56","slug":"hopscotching-with-the-multimodal-appreciation-kit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/multimodalappreciation\/2026\/04\/14\/hopscotching-with-the-multimodal-appreciation-kit\/","title":{"rendered":"Hopscotching with the Multimodal Appreciation Kit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Maka Suarez<\/strong>, University of Oslo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 2025, the authors of the Multimodal Appreciation Kit heard I had used (and adapted) the digital version of the Kit while teaching a PhD course on Multimodal Ethnography at the University of Oslo. They asked me to share a short reflection on what that experience looked like. This is my attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was growing up, one of my all-time favorite books was Julio Cortazar\u2019s Rayuela<\/em> (Hopscotch). Its experimental, non-disciplinary, musical-like literary movements were attractive not only because they went against the usual rules of reading, but because you were allowed into the backstage life of Horacio Oliveira and his Paris and his Buenos Aires. In the novel, you are given options for reading the book and, while your choices will not change the overall plot, your experience of Cortazar\u2019s writing will be different if you engage in one way or another with the novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I first received a PDF copy of the Multimodal Appreciation Kit<\/a>, it felt like a Rayuela moment. You can use it as is, in the order arranged by the authors and with the instructions they have provided; or you can manipulate the different elements of the kit and rearrange it, co-participating in remaking the kit for a different kind of appreciation story. I\u2019m not comparing Cortazar\u2019s masterpiece and the Multimodal Appreciation Kit, but I do believe the latter is infused with the experimental spirit of the former, an active engagement potential for non-linear usage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


I was really happy to hear, from one of the authors, that this is partly their intention, when I explained how I hopscotched around the Kit while teaching a PhD course on Multimodal Ethnography<\/strong> at the University of Oslo<\/strong> with my colleagues Marianne Brodersen<\/strong> (Nord University), Emil R\u00f8yrvik<\/strong> (NTNU), and Jorge N\u00fa\u00f1ez<\/strong> (University of Amsterdam).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The course centered on multimodal ethnography and its uses for reimagining how we, anthropologists, do fieldwork, analyze our data, and communicate our findings. While multimodality is an umbrella term for a growing field of experimentation with more-than-textual forms in anthropological knowledge production, the course aimed at treating creative work not as a secondary project to our research, but multimodality as integral to the way in which we do ethnography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the assignments for the course was to appreciate<\/strong> the MA student exhibit that was taking place on one of the days of our course. For the past four years, I have curated yearly ethnographic public exhibits where the students in an advanced anthropological methods course develop multimodal projects instead of a final written exam. These projects are developed before students go on six-month fieldwork trips as part of their degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multimodality allows the MA students to create a bridge between the classroom and the field, expanding methodological understanding of anthropology while opening space for new questions and explorations (Alvarez Astacio et al. 2021; Dattatreyan and Marrero\u2010Guillam\u00f3n 2021; Suarez et al. 2024). These projects experiment with data visualizations, sonic archives, performances, film, game design, painting, poetry, zine-making, installations and more; they are then presented at a public exhibit at the end of the semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the intentions of a multimodal student-led exhibit is to redefine what counts as a classroom and who belongs in it (Suarez n.d.). On that afternoon in December, at the MA exhibit, the PhD students and a broader public attending the event were as much a part of the \u201cclassroom\u201d as were the MA students showcasing their research projects. The multimodal appreciation kit was the perfect companion for co-learning and co-thinking about MA students\u2019 future fieldwork. In the process, the kit also allowed PhD fellows to engage with others about their own research as the dialogical elements of the kit meant academic hierarchies were also disrupted, allowing research to take center stage in a collective, generous discussion environment. PhD participants spoke about the course activity with MA students and in the process, presented part of their own projects. In turn, MA students were grateful for the attention and interest in their individual projects and the feedback they received, as well as excited to learn about how PhDs framed their own research proposals and dealt with fieldwork material. The kit mediated interactions and invited a new approach to teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We used an adapted version of the kit because we were appreciating MA students\u2019 work, which was not intended for publication and was only part of their work for the methods course. Thus, our objective was to devise mechanisms for appreciation that taught us something about MA students\u2019 work while giving back to the students a critical reflection of their piece. Below, I\u2019ve copied the instructions for the Dialogical Appreciation<\/em> that PhD participants completed and the adapted version of the Evaluation Process in case others teaching with the Multimodal Kit would like to take a look, modify, or re-use. The assignment was intended as a pedagogical exploration as much as a multimodal appreciation. Participants were required to read through the kit\u2019s manifesto with particular emphasis on point #9 Multimodal evaluation is dialogic, interdisciplinary, and emergent<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Done in pairs, the exercise was centered on appreciating and not on evaluating. I altered the Evaluation Process in the kit and turned it into an Appreciation Process (image\/file below). In addition, and because our time was limited, participants were required to choose four values (though they could use more) from the Values Inventory<\/em> to focus on their appreciation assignment. Based on the values selected, part of the appreciation was performed individually, and part of the exercise was a joint narrative of the MA student\u2019s work the PhD pair had chosen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comments such as \u201cthe exhibition was also a really enjoyable experience and I can imagine myself using the toolkit a lot!\u201d or \u201cIt would have been nice to have more dedicated time for […] the multimodal kit\u201d came through in PhD participants’ anonymous evaluations of the course. Through informal conversations I also learned that both PhDs and MA students had a very positive interaction during the exhibit, and in the conversations that an exercise on multimodal appreciation made possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three-day intensive course on Multimodal Ethnography was a great venue for experimenting and adapting the Multimodal Appreciation Kit for teaching and learning as a group, in pairs, and individually. When we taught the course, the full kit was in its final stages of production, so we received a PDF version. A few weeks later, when I received the physical version of the Kit, I knew I would use it again in multiple settings, including inside the \u201cclassroom.\u201d The colors, shapes, instructions, and its malleability, made materially evident in a hopscotch-like, beautiful setup, made evident that the multiple parts of the kit were meant to be manipulated and used in ways that a PDF alone made harder to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I highly encourage those curious and intrigued by multimodal experimentation to pick up the kit and hopscotch your way through it!
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alvarez Astacio, Patricia, Ethiraj Gabriel Dattatreyan, and Arjun Shankar. 2021. \u201cMultimodal Ambivalence: A Manifesto for Producing in S@!#t Times.<\/a>\u201d American Anthropologist<\/em>123 (2): 420\u201327.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dattatreyan, Ethiraj Gabriel, and Isaac Marrero\u2010Guillam\u00f3n. 2021. \u201cPedagogies of the Senses Multimodal Strategies for Unsettling Visual Anthropology<\/a>.\u201d Visual Anthropology Review<\/em>37 (2): 267\u201389.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suarez, Maka, Jorge N\u00fa\u00f1ez, and Mayra Flores. 2024. \u201cTeaching the Politics of Numbers with EthnoData: Ethnographic Experimentations through Statistics in Ecuador.<\/a>\u201d Engaging Science, Technology, and Society<\/em>10 (1\u20132).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suarez, Maka. Under review. \u201c\u200b\u200bMultimodal Praxis: Teaching and Thinking through Mixture in Times of Authoritarianism\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dialogical Appreciation Exercise<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This activity must be completed in pairs though certain sections are done independently<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Read the Manifesto (in the digital version in Canvas). For this assignment, one of most salient aspects of the Manifesto is point #9: Multimodal evaluation is dialogic, interdisciplinary, and emergent<\/em>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. As the authors highlight, \u201cdialogic evaluation creates a generative space where new understandings of what constitutes a \u2018good work\u2019 can emerge\u201d (p.30). In this exercise, in order to appreciate an MA student\u2019s work, you will conduct parts of the appreciation with a colleague with whom you will co-construct a narrative. The focus is less on what the work \u201cis\u201d and more on how the student work functions, what it does in relation to their research project, who it speaks to, how it allows the student and the public to experiment and think differently about a topic.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. For this we will use primarily the \u201cValues Inventory\u201d from the Multimodal Appreciation Kit and an adapted version I have created of the \u201cRudiments of a dialogic evaluation protocol\u201d in order to best understand: What the student aimed to do; the choices they made; the affordances and limits of their chosen medium.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    As part of this activity, you will submit in Canvas a copy of your appreciation. It should contain at least the following 3 sections based on the adapted section \u201cRudiments of a dialogic appreciation\u201d in the handout. Your submission should contain the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    1. Evaluation of at least 4 chosen aspects of the Values Inventory that you independently record in your answers (more are welcome).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. A shared narrative (co-written) of appreciation for the creative project you chose as a pair. This should be based on the Values you chose and be narrated as a form of constructive criticism in a spirit of solidarity, thinking about furthering students\u2019 work, practical and theoretical knowledge, and supporting the effort to communicate their project multimodally.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. A short section reflecting on the process of appreciating multimodal work independently and in dialogue with someone.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n