Open AccessBeyond Walking With Video: Co‐Creating Representation
Author(s) -
BEAN JONATHAN
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
ethnographic praxis in industry conference proceedings
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1559-8918
pISSN - 1559-890X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-8918.2008.tb00099.x
Subject(s) - participant observation , representation (politics) , ethnography , object (grammar) , focus (optics) , danish , sociology , visual arts , visual research , computer science , human–computer interaction , artificial intelligence , art , social science , anthropology , linguistics , philosophy , physics , optics , politics , political science , law
This paper discusses a method I used to conduct a study of hygge, a Danish concept that is usually translated as “cosiness.” I wanted to learn more about hygge and how it related to technology in the home. The method I used builds on my experience with spatial ethnography, on Bruno Latour's theory of representation, and on the work of visual anthropologist Sarah Pink. I asked participants to use a video or still camera to help me document their home. With participant and researcher both behind the lens of a camera, I saw a significant remapping of the power relationship between researcher and participant; we were able to focus together on the material home as the object of the research. In addition to reducing the time needed to build rapport, this method offers a way to analyze cultural practices such as hygge that are not entirely visible in the material world.