The Multimodal Anthropological Videography (MAV)

This paper presents the concept and practice of Multimodal Anthropological Videography (MAV) as an experimental approach to analyzing and conveying anthropological observations.

Inspired by Sergei Eisenstein's dialectical approach to film form, in which combining two scenes creates a third, new meaning, MAVs are based on experimental video editing that juxtaposes ethnographic media from different sources in a way that promotes dialectical argumentation. Instead of regarding different materials separately, presenting them linearly, or highlighting the value of their totality, MAVs juxtapose two or more of them simultaneously on a single screen in creative and original ways that allow for new analytical observations and can engage various participants in that process.

During my presentation, I will show and discuss a MAV I created based on my ethnographic work in the field of smart cities. By juxtaposing materials created by technology companies with those created by me, this videography illustrates how technology companies re-symbolize urban space as future-oriented and digitally codable, presenting their interventions in urban life as unquestionable and inevitable. More specifically, the videography shows how visualization becomes an invisible coin for these companies in the transformation of urban capitals, both material and symbolic.

I will discuss how methodologically and epistemologically, constructing multimodal videography requires considering which material and modality stand against what and how (visually, analytically, aesthetically, and poetically). In this sense, editing anthropological videography resembles the classic analysis of ethnographic observation, where the analytical process develops through the construction of words (or videos, images, and sounds) into sentences (shots) and paragraphs (scenes).

The MAV method can serve researchers across all fields and career stages, as well as for teaching, allowing various forms of collaboration (with students and research partners), and facilitating a shared effort in thinking about how to best juxtapose different materials and what is afforded by such juxtaposition.