Open call for participants

Ethnographic drawing makes it possible to translate ideas to lines, making them visually sharable in a way that might be more accessible than words. More than that, however, drawing entails the possibility of exploring in a non-verbal way, directly through craft. In this seminar, we examine the potentials of ethnographic drawing as a tool to think through during fieldwork, analytical processes and the sharing of academic work. We ask how the temporality of the craft of drawing influences the analytical process and what the implications are, when the body becomes actively engaged in the drawing process. What is added and what is missing in the visual interpretation? And how might drawing help us explore and communicate potentially sensitive subjects such as violence and enable different ways of engaging with its documentation? We examine questions of closeness, distance and imagination.

We explore the potential of artist collaborations and of academic debates based on graphic novels rather than text-based articles. As an undercurrent beneath all of this, we examine the rich potential of shifting between and combining different modalities, drawing, texts and more, to explore unforeseen meanings emerging in the cracks and spaces between them – the liminal space known as ‘the gutter’.

The workshop will be a mix of practical exercises and presentations – amongst others by anthropologist Mette Lind Kusk and political cartoonist Khalid Albaih.

Interested in joining us? We would love to hear from you. Read more

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