Transcending from visual to virtual ethnographies: Using ‘social media’ as a field for ethnographic observation of various ‘Themed Installation Art-Based Durga Pujas in Kolkata’

The 'Durga Puja in Kolkata', a UNESCO ICH today is a curated display of what creative aficionados refer to as 'Themed Installation Art' - the making process of which requires a 'well-versed team of professionals' from 'installation artists' to 'hired workers' to 'club officials', and so on. This paper investigates this making process of 'Themed Installation Art-Based Durga Pujas in Kolkata' via an 'ethnographic research design'. But it's not as easy as it seems. This 'event' is a 'secret in itself'. Throughout their making process, only 'insiders' are allowed access to these different themed installation art sites. Thus, conducting ‘visual ethnography’ results in a violation of the ethical code of conduct. Here's where 'virtual ethnography' comes into play. By advocating this method, a pool of existing videos shared by potential informants on their respective publicized virtual channels (YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram) was surfed, out of which videos entailing the making process of themed installation art at puja pandals were selected for study. These informants were from West Bengal and their videos were in Bengali. As a result, these videos were transcribed by translating their subtitles from Bengali to English. Following this, these transcripts were subjected to codification via. ATLAS.ti - an Al-enriched QDAS that offered a catalog of codes and sub-codes that were rigorously customized and converted into themes and sub-themes by the researcher. Finally, they were visualized as an interrelated network that displayed relationships within and between them unearthing a holistic picturesque of the ‘Themed Installation Art-Based Durga Pujas in Kolkata' - drivers of creative industry today. The practical implication of this paper lies in the employability of virtual ethnography as a more efficient method of conducting ethnographic research that resolves the ethical concerns associated with visual ethnography and provides a faster, technical, and scientific approach to qualitative research.