ART-Ethnography Research Lab

The ART-Ethnography research lab focuses on the interface between Art and Ethnography (qualitative research methods), exploring poetry, fine arts (including and moving beyond photography, film, and multi-media to incorporate comics, drawing, painting, printing, sculpture etc), and performance arts (including dance, music, hip-hop, soundscapes etc) as an ethnographic practice, method, and experience. This multimodal research lab offers a shared space for collaboration and inspiration within the School, facilitating experimentation and performative engagements with ethnography in its broadest sense.

The aim of the lab is to look at, and create work situated at the intersection of art and ethnography. This is achieved by a. collaborating with artists, b. working with artists who use ethnography in their work, and c. creating art projects that are the result of ethnographic research.

The Lab stimulates collaborative projects and community outreach, and encourage researchers, students and invited artists, as well as the public, to develop projects together and explore multimodal ethnography as a research method. The lab hosts workshops, exhibitions, and performances in collaboration with MQ Art Gallery, thereby extending possibilities for community participation and outreach.

1.Goals:
-To create a platform for non-academics (craftsmen, artists, public) to present their works and engage in discussion with academics and the public
-To highlight and increase the visibility of creative and performance arts in the academic sphere, and to increase the validation of creative art and curatorship in academia
-To create collaborative projects among the members of the Lab, as well as with students, artists and the wider public, thereby bringing together experience and interpretation, in order to generate awareness, knowledge and understanding on a wide range of social issues, including (but not limited to): homophobia; racism; colonialism; decolonisation; gender-based violence; climate change; ethics and spirituality; identity and place; nation building and nationalism
-To stimulate discussion about using different possible methods, genres and media formats to communicate about ethnographic research, and develop a stronger engagement with a broad range of visual, performative and material representations.
-To create a bibliography on Art-Ethnography