Technology, Design, and New Media in Ethnographic Engagement

Technology, Design, and New Media in Ethnographic Engagement 

 

CHAIR: CHIN, Elizabeth (Art Ctr Coll of Design), 

PANELISTS: DURINGTON, Matthew and COLLINS, Sam (Towson U) Creating an Applied Networked Anthropology; 

MARZEC, Morgan, MCCRAE, Cayla, and ZENG, Tina L. (Art Ctr Coll of Design) Caminemos Juntos: Designers’ Ethnographic Journey with Homeless Youth 

KITNER, Kathi R. and DE WET, Thea (Intel Labs) Smart Phones, Dumb Anthropology: Re-thinking Ethnography and Mobility in a South African Urban Landscape 

BARBOSA, Erika (U Manchester) Concrete Ecology: Sensing Change along the Los Angeles River KALVEN, Betsy (ACCD) Street Corner Ecology 

 

DISCUSSANT: WALI, Alaka (Field Museum) and CHIN, Elizabeth (Art Ctr Coll of Design) 

 

ABSTRACT: Concrete Ecology: Sensing Change along the Los Angeles River. Media provides a new dimension to traditional ethnographic research by allowing different forms of knowledge to arise and circulate in aesthetic forms; these can extend beyond the limitations of text in depicting the corporeal experience of vision and hearing, practices of wayfinding, mobility and tactile interaction. This project deals with the social and material changes taking place along the riverfront of Los Angeles, California. As new patterns of social immersion arise, I look to the history of social connections forged with the River, questioning how the changing functions of place will effect traditional perceptions and reactions to the River environment. 

 

Session took place in Albuquerque, NM at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2014.