{"id":709,"date":"2013-09-13T06:53:28","date_gmt":"2013-09-13T06:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=709"},"modified":"2014-10-28T17:26:58","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T17:26:58","slug":"ncis-visual-ethnography-maybe-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/ncis-visual-ethnography-maybe-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"NCIS & Visual Ethnography … maybe or not"},"content":{"rendered":"

My favorite television program to sit down and enjoy is NCIS.\u00a0 Reading Doing Visual Ethnography <\/em>by Sarah Pink, I was reminded of an episode some years ago (yes there probably is a connection between writing this blog post and my desire to sit down, turn off my brain and watch a NCIS re-run).\u00a0 In this particular episode Special Agent Tony and Agent Ziva have gone to Paris to bring back the wife of someone who is in danger (of course!).\u00a0 Upon their safe return Tony is showing Abby (the lab wiz) photos from the trip.\u00a0 There are photos of these buildings and those buildings.\u00a0 They are all properly proportioned and in order. Taking one look at Tony\u2019s photos Abby remarks that he\u2019d taken these like they were crime scenes.\u00a0 Which of course is exactly one of the things Tony does, from time to time.\u00a0 What you may ask does this have to do with reading a book about Visual Ethnography?\u00a0 In fact, what is ethnography?<\/p>\n

Truthfully I did not know what ethnography was, nor was I pronouncing it correctly (eth-\u02c8n\u00e4-gr\u0259-f\u0113).\u00a0 I knew I would have a steep learning curve to grasp, be it ever so slightly what Sarah Pink is bringing for consideration and practice.\u00a0 Webster\u2019s dictionary provided initial footing, \u201cethnography is the study and systematic recording of human cultures; it is the descriptive work produced from such research.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 It is pretty fascinating to think about the breadth of human culture that exists, let alone the variety with which it may be studied.\u00a0 When I hear the word \u201cvisual\u201d images and pictures come to mind.\u00a0 Growing up I remember looking forward to three magazines arriving in the mail, The Saturday Evening Post, Life Magazine and National Geographic.\u00a0 The photos in these magazines drew me into the articles written word; perhaps more importantly they told a story that made the written word have context and meaning.<\/p>\n

Pink defines visual ethnography \u201cas an approach to experiencing, interpreting and representing culture and society that informs and is informed by set of different disciplinary agendas and theoretical principles.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Key words for me are approach, experiencing, and representing.\u00a0 Rather than something static visual ethnography includes the ethnographers own experience, one that is vested in the process of creating and representing knowledge.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Tony\u2019s crime scene, aka-working vacation, photos had elements of ethnography present.\u00a0 They contained a certain realist perspective.\u00a0 However they were not necessarily representative of Parisian society, culture or individuals.\u00a0 Focused on buildings, they did not evoke particular meaning or interest beyond personal scope.\u00a0 Rather than be a strictly objective process (which in some sense Tony\u2019s photos were), visual ethnography invites subjectivity, recognizing that one does not stand unemotionally attached amid their research.\u00a0 Reflexivity is an approach whereby the researcher is aware of their own identity and its representations \u2013 their gender, age, ethnicity, class and context as well as an awareness of their research subject.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

This is fascinating as it introduces us and reminds us that we seldom have everything under our control.\u00a0 Two years ago my husband received an overseas short-term work assignment for Australia.\u00a0 Within six quick weeks we found ourselves dropped off at our apartment complex just outside Melbourne\u2019s city center.\u00a0 While I would not consider myself a visual ethnographer, it was the visual images that I paid particular attention too.\u00a0 I studied the people, tried to learn the culture and how to function as a foreigner in a new culture, where everyone around you had this delightful accent (except I was in reality the one with the accent).\u00a0 If I had known what ethnography was I could have taken an intentional approach to research a particular aspect of Australian culture (Australian Rules Football anyone?).<\/p>\n

As it was I unexpectedly developed a deep appreciation for a historical church within the city business district committed to be a church for the city.\u00a0 To visually research how they live that out would provide the perfect opportunity to use photography, video and written word together in such a way that each informs the other.\u00a0 To some degree I have experienced exactly what Pink references in her book.\u00a0 She documented how a researcher can become a part of what they are researching.\u00a0 In her research on bull fighting she found herself photographed, which was revealing about that particular culture. She was living proof that those she was learning about were also learning about her, even fitting her into their categories, project or agenda.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Learning to see sums up much of what is involved in the process of visual ethnography.\u00a0 Understanding and becoming aware of why I do what I do, my presence and bias, even my expectation are essential, knowing that even how I bring words to explain what has been discovered will in someway, shape or form be understood by the reader on their terms.[6]<\/a> Learning to see is also an invitation to collaborate with the other.<\/p>\n

This is rather humbling because I realize that I may form an opinion based upon a photograph and text.\u00a0 Loaded with my expectation I may miss the vital contribution and insight of the one I am studying.\u00a0 Finally do the visual texts, written word, even the spoken word stand in relation to one another?[7]<\/a> Tony\u2019s photos needed meaning.\u00a0 As I consider the Church, anticipate research areas and prepare for the upcoming DMin Advance to London I am beginning to process and wonder: What will I see?\u00a0 What stories will I hear?\u00a0 What is London going to teach and reveal?<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> http:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/ethnography<\/a>.\u00a0 Accessed 9\/9\/13.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[2] Sarah Pink, Doing Visual Ethnography, <\/em>2nd<\/sup> Ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Safe Publications, Inc., 2007), 22.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[3] Ibid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[4] Ibid., 24-25.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[5]<\/a> Ibid., 82.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[6] Ibid., 167.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[7] Ibid., 183.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My favorite television program to sit down and enjoy is NCIS.\u00a0 Reading Doing Visual Ethnography by Sarah Pink, I was reminded of an episode some years ago (yes there probably is a connection between writing this blog post and my desire to sit down, turn off my brain and watch a NCIS re-run).\u00a0 In this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[276],"class_list":["post-709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lgp4-dminlgp","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2903,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions\/2903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}