This is a supplement to “Ethnographic Installation and ‘the Archive’: Haunted Relations and Relocations” by DEBRA VIDALI AND KWAME PHILIPS. Read the article here.

During social distancing times—or not—there are many dynamic ways that we can experiment with processes of collection and display. Here are three creative activities that you can do to further explore and apply the arguments in Vidali and Phillips’s article.  You can do these activities as class exercises or independently. Optional: Create a short video, PowerPoint presentation, and/or installation to share your thought processes, what you found out, and what you envisioned creating! 

Vidali and Phillips’s article argues that ethnographic archives and collections are rarely organized in neat ways, and in fact are necessarily messy because of the many relations and resonances surrounding the material and the way that it was collected. They argue that experimental ethnographic installations can be used to foreground these complex relations between fieldwork, collections, archives, and relocation. The following activities and questions help you to apply the article in a hands-on way.

table covered with archival materials sich as cassett tapes and papers

Activity #1: Reflecting on a Collection

First, identify a collection of physical objects. This could be your own collection or someone else’s. It could be fieldwork material (e.g. fieldnotes, audio recordings,  digital document files, paper files, etc.) or it might be a personal collection (e.g. stuffed animals, Magic cards, foreign currency, movie ticket stubs, family photographs, etc.). Alternatively, you might remember a collection that you had in the past. Or, perhaps you have some things that could be a collection, but they are not organized as such. Maybe you have an “aspirational” collection.

Now, reflect on these questions.  Take notes as you go through the questions. 

  1. Why do people (including you) have collections? What does collecting mean in your culture?

  2. For the specific collection you wish to analyze:  Where is this collection located?  Make note of the different locations (e.g. on a computer, in a cabinet, displayed around your home, etc.). What is significant about the location(s)? How is the meaning of the collection connected to where it is located? 

  3. How is the collection organized? Are there labels and categories? Are items cross-referenced?  Who decided the mode of organization, and why does it matter? Create an itemized list for the items. See Figure 2 in the article for an example. 

  4. How is the collection disorganized? Is the collection unruly? Or maybe it doesn’t need organization? Which “centrifugal forces” pull the collection towards disorganization? [see pages 68–69 of the article for a definition of “centrifugal forces.”] Can you think of some reasons why disorganization might be important or valued? 

  5. How are various relations and resonances attached to different items in the collection?  What do they mean to you?  Is anything “haunted”?  Could a person who doesn’t know you see and feel these resonances of “vibrant matter”? [see pages 68–70 of the article for discussions of “haunted relationality” and “vibrant matter.”] Why or why not? 

 

document of archival material

Activity #2: Making a Physical Installation

You can work through these questions as a class exercise or independently. 

  1. How might you design a physical installation that allows people to experience the resonances of “vibrant matter” in the collected material that you analyzed during Activity #1?  What is in the exhibit besides the collected items? How are visitors guided to interact with the material? Create a rough sketch of the exhibit space. See Figure 6 in the article for an example. 

  2. Think about how your physical exhibit conveys insights about the objects, as well as about the nature of collecting. 

  3. Pro question A:  Is there a way you can also provide visitors with some access to the ‘backend’ of your research, including the tensions between organization and disorganization in the material?

  4. Pro question B:  What is gained by this approach to ethnographic knowledge production?

 

Architectural drawing of possible gallery sapce with various rooms

Activity #3: Making an Alternative Installation Space

You can work through these questions as a class exercise or independently. 

  1. How might you design an alternative installation space - like a period room - that provides a fully immersive experience for visitors to experience the collection you considered in Activities #1 and #2?   What is in this space? How are visitors guided to enter and use the space? What are they supposed to do?  Create a rough sketch of your immersive room.  See Figure 9 in the article for an example. 

  2. You might think about ways to relocate or embed the physical display that you created in Activity #2.  Or, you might create a very different kind of space and experience.

  3. What ethnographic realities does the space convey?  What stories does the space convey

  4. What experiences and insights could you generate by allowing some kind of participation inside the space? 

  5. How are you remixing as you create?  What does remixing achieve?

 UPDATED JULY 5, 2020