ANTHR 420: Visual Anthropology
Assignments
Assignments
Seminar Participation
This should be obvious. Come to class having read or watched the material for that day, ready to discuss that material or other material you have found on your own (see Media Reports below), and be a regular contributor to discussion and debate, and you will do well on this portion of your grade. Failure to do so may not only result in the lack of credit on this portion of your grade, but the rest of your grade in the course as well. In a word, seminar attendance and participation are paramount.
Completion of Reading and Technical Trainings
You will report on the completion of the readings on the syllabus as well as a series of technical trainings related to post-production, including editing photographs in Lightroom, editing audio in Audacity, cutting film in Final Cut (or Premier), color grading, etc. While entire courses are taught on any one of these tasks, you will gain a basic knowledge of each in this course in order to help you complete the major assignments. But his portion of your grade will reflect the extent to which you read and undertook these trainings.
Media Reports
Media here refers to any medium of ethnographic analysis or documentation (sound, photo, video). For each of these critiques, I will provide you with an ethnographic piece (a photo essay, a soundscape, a film, etc.). Â You will analyze how this piece portrays something about the human condition that written words alone could not capture. Be specific about how the piece reveals or portrays something about human experience because of the very affordances of the medium. Provide a brief synopsis (a paragraph at most) of the piece you analyzed (along with the complete citation for the piece), and then describe and critique (in approximately 400 words) the unique ways that the piece provides insight into some element of human experience through the interplay of medium and subject matter. You will turn these in for credit, but in any given week when these are due, you need to be prepared to share your synopsis and analysis of the piece in class.
Ethnographic Photo Essay
​You will produce a photographic essay on some cultural phenomenon, reflecting your original ethnographic data collection. This photo essay must include a series of images, along with any writing that is necessary to contextualize (but not replace) the images. The photo essay should stand on its own as a "thick depiction" of the cultural phenomenon that you chose to depict. But you will also include an Appendix that provides a summary of post-processing of photos (including justification of exposure methods and post-processing techniques—explicate your decision-making process), and a précis that details how these images, in your mind, accomplish some ethnographic purpose that words alone could not. ​ Parameters for the assignment include the following: ​ 1. You must take original photographs for this ethnographic photo essay. In terms of topic, pick some cultural phenomenon that can be depicted photographically, and use your skill as a visual anthropologist to undertake that depiction. ​ 2. For each image, please provide caption identifying the image (e.g., "Figure 1" or "Landscape 1" etc.) in the photo essay, and in the Appendix, please provide a) the exposure settings for the image and why you used these (ISO, shutter, aperture, resolution of the final image), b) the post-processing work you undertook with the image, and a description of why you made the decisions you did. This Appendix will also include a brief analysis of how the still images communicated meaning in ways that words could not. ​ 3. Your photographic essay should include at least 6 images, and at least 800 words. There is no maximum for the number of images or words to include in the essay, nor a required ratio of number of words to include in the essay per image. As we saw in the examples we discussed in class, photographic essays vary on these fronts. You need to include enough substance to make an ethnographic point, or to thickly depict some cultural phenomenon, but also not clutter the essay with so many images that it waters down the impact of the best, most meaningful images. Use the text to provide context to the reader/viewer of your essay and help them understand the impact of your images and how they contribute to understanding the human condition. Your writing that accompanies the images should entail sound anthropological thinking that helps make the images meaningful. Write clearly, avoid grammatical errors and vague or imprecise descriptions, and think critically about the interplay of text and image in the essay as you compose it. ​ 4. You have several options in terms of how you arrange and submit your photographic essay. You can produce a PDF that you submit for the assignment (if exporting to PDF from another software package, do NOT compress the images); you can design the essay on a photographically oriented website (Exposure.co has a free period, Wix.com allows a free version of its web design platform with several photographically oriented templates around which you could build your essay, etc.); you can also use Adobe Illustrator or InDesign to produce a photo essay with advanced tools to design the layout that you want to employ in order showcase them. Get creative, and consider the aesthetic impact as well as the anthropological uptake of your essay. ​ 5. Regardless of the platform that you use to design the essay, by the due date, you will upload a PDF document with either the essay itself followed by the required Appendix, or a URL or instructions as to where I can find the essay, along with the required Appendix in the PDF. Please submit it to Box by 11:59pm on the date that it is due, and name the file accordingly: "Lastname_Firstname_Photographic_Essay.pdf"
Ethnographic Soundscape
You will produce an audio project that seeks to document and aurally depict some significant sonic dimension of human experience. The point is to focus on sound in order to derive new insights into the dimension of human experience that you are analyzing. This must be based on original recordings collected, edited, and cut by you (integrating archival audio is okay, as long as the majority of the audio is captured by you, and you describe the integration of archival audio). Cuts of interview or narrated content are allowable in the soundscape project, but you should not limit the soundscape to the spoken word. Rather, consider the entire aural context of the cultural phenomenon that you are trying to depict, which may or may not include the spoken word. The project will also include a written précis of your analysis and insights that the soundscape provides. This analysis should describe how the medium of sound and an emphasis on the aural context depicted in your soundscape leads to ethnographic insights about this phenomenon that would otherwise not be captured by words or images alone. This analysis should also include a description of your post-production work on the audio that you collected, including a reflection on how this post-production allowed you to accomplish the ethnographic insight that you were seeking to depict. Optionally, this soundscape can be produced as a group project. If you select this option, then expectations for depth of analysis and post-production will be higher as compared to expectations for individual projects, given that you would be combining the efforts of multiple students. In the event that you undertake this project as a group, each member of the group would typically turn in an identical audio (.wav) file and Audition project (.sesx) file, but each member of the group must write their own individual analysis of the project, turning in separate analysis (.pdf) files. ​ Parameters for the assignment include the following: ​ 1. The general length of the soundscape can be variable, but should be at least 4 minutes in length (6 minutes for group projects). You are welcome to include narration in the soundscape audio project itself, or add any narration and analysis in the accompanying document that you turn in with the soundscape project, but the soundscape should include aural context beyond the spoken word. ​ 2. In total, you will turn in the following items: a) A final .wav file, containing the final export of your soundscape project; b) a copy of your .sesx project file in Adobe Audition (zip or compress this file before uploading to Box); and c) a document that provides the analysis and context for the soundscape, as well as a description of the sound engineering that you undertook in the project—members of group projects should indicate at the top of this document who the other members of their group were. ​ 3. By the due date, you will upload the aforementioned files, all of which need to include the words "Soundscape", your name, and "Audio"/"Analysis"/"Project" in the actual file names, as in: "Lastname_Firstname_Soundscape_Audio.wav" "Lastname_Firstname_Soundscape_Analysis.pdf" "Lastname_Firstname_Soundscape_Project.sesx" (compressed as .zip) Please submit these to Box by 11:59pm on the date that it is due.
A rubric for the soundscape assignment can be found here.
Ethnographic Short Film
​The culminating assignment in this course will be to produce an ethnographic short film. This may include a mix of footage, the majority of which must be captured by you. It is acceptable to include archival or secondary footage from other archives or sources, but you must also demonstrate your ability to capture original footage, and produce an ethnographic story about your content, from original capture to post-production. The project will also include a written précis of your analysis and insights that the short ethnographic film provides. ​ Parameters for the assignment include the following: ​ 1. In general, these short films should be 5 to 10 minutes in length. They should embody some of the qualities that we discuss throughout this course that can be reasonably included in what (debatably, of course) constitutes an 'ethnographic film.' ​ 2. Upload your film to your Youtube or Vimeo account, and assign it an unlisted link, and include that link in the write-up that you turn in with the film. 3. Upload a copy of the Adobe Premiere project file to Box. It is strongly recommended that you Zip/compress the project file before uploading to Box. Also, please indicate where the final master timeline for your film is located within the Premiere project file at the beginning of your write-up. The project file should be named "LastName_FirstName_Ethnographicfilm.prproj". If undertaking a group film project, then only one of you needs to upload the Premiere Project file. If this is the case, then please indicate the members of your team on your write-up, and give the name of the project file (indicating the name of the person uploading the file in the filename of the project file will help me located the project file for your group). ​ 4. Your film should be accompanied by a brief write-up that includes the following elements: a) ethnographic context for the project (who, what, when, where, etc.) and the ethnographic significance of the project as you see it, along with a list of citations (other films and academic sources) that relate to your ethnographic purpose in the film project; b) a description of your ethnographic mindset or decision-making process in the project (what makes this film 'ethnographic', and why); c) provide a description of the technical decisions that you made (both during filming in the field and during post-production and editing, including some specific examples), and how these decisions articulate with your ethnographic objectives; d) provide the unlisted Youtube/Vimeo link in the write-up, along with any other instructions (as necessary, e.g., passwords, etc.) to view the film e) upload a PDF of this analysis, including the link to the film at the top of the document, to Box by 11:59pm on the due date, using the following filename with your details: "Lastname_Firstname_Ethnographic_Film.pdf". ​ These films may be produced as groups, and we will coordinate potential group organization in class. While different participants in group projects may specialize (cinematography, sound, editing, etc.), everyone is expected to make a meaningful practical and creative contribution to each element of the project, and to understand the entire workflow, as well as to carry an even share of the work to produce the film. Each participant will write and submit their own independent analysis of the film, based on their contributions to the production and post-production process. Please also include at least one short paragraph describing the contributions of other members of the group across the project.
Note: Each of these projects needs to be accompanied by a written analysis that describes how the medium illuminates the ethnographic material it deals with, including a synopsis of the analysis that the medium provides (ethnographic insights, etc.). It is also advisable to do all three major projects (photo essay, soundscape, and short film) on a single cultural community or related phenomena. The reason for this, as we will discuss, is that ethnographic filmmaking requires a degree of cultural immersion and insight that sets it apart from other forms of documentary filmmaking and multimedia work.
