Lab: Ethnographic Echoes: Accessing Embodied Knowledge Through Artistic Methods in Anthropological Research (Performance Lecture and Workshop)

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Abstract

This Lab proposal originates from the interdisciplinary workshop Violence in the Field, organized by Annika Strauss (University of Münster) and Julia Koch Tshirangwana (University of Göttingen) in collaboration with Sonja Keßner and Jeanne Rohleder of the Owdnegrin Performance Collective from Berlin. Held in Münster in September 2024, the workshop served as a critical forum for examining the methodological, ethical, and experiential dimensions of conducting research in contexts marked by violence. Through artistic research and theatre methods participants encountered questions of accessing and processing data tracks inscribed in their bodies and the importance of recognising such embodied knowledge not only as valid but as epistemologically insightful. The aim was to deepen the analytical approaches to their research material and strengthen the networks of bodies that facilitate ethnographic research. To access the embodied information, the participants engaged in various theatre methods - object improvisation, automatic writing, scenic re-enactments, and poetic translations. The workshop inspired organisers and participants alike to create a sustainable network to support each other with deepening their comprehension of processes of accessing, understanding and representing embodied research data in performative ways. It also facilitated the incorporation of artistic methods into their research and analysis. Given the relative neglect of the researcher’s body and senses as part of the process of knowing, analysing and understanding the world within academia, the newly founded network „Ethnographic Echoes“ would like to address that gap by facilitating a Lab during the ENPA conference. Modalities: The Lab will be divided into two parts. In part one „Ethnographic Echoes“ will share experiences and artistic outcomes of their workshop in Münster in the form of a performance lecture. The performance lecture will also include methodological and theoretical background of the endeavour Part two is a practical workshop that offers methods to explore connections between body, emotions and cognition and to access the embodied knowledge around anthropological research processes through artistic practices. Practical requirements are a room that allows for movement, a projector and a bluetooth box or other audio device. Part two is limited to 20 participants, part one has no maximum capacity. People who want to take part in the practice workshop are kindly asked to sign up for both parts. We expect the performative lecture to take about 60 minutes, while the practical workshop will take 120 minutes or longer, if that is possible.

Speakers from the University of Münster

Strauss, Annika

Institute of Ethnology