Ethnostories

Trained in anthropology with specialisation in audiovisual methods, our work focuses on qualitative data collection, interpretation and dissemination. During fieldwork we immerse ourselves with camera and sound equipment to interact with other human beings and explore the ways in which they make their lives meaningful. As anthropologists, we are used to working in a context-sensitive manner and in close dialogue with local communities. When we begin a research we discard our biases and prejudices, and even though we introduce ourselves as researchers, we also introduce ourselves as people with a genuine curiosity towards what we are about to discover. Our fundamental tools are our senses. Listening, observing, participating, engaging our whole sensorial body in human interactions of mutual openness and understanding to establish bonds of trust with the people we work. This, we believe is the best approach to open up for co-creating audiovisual outcomes where people feel represented in a respectful and inclusive way. We understand the audiovisual as a mode of investigation and representation, and as a mode of dissemination and commitment. Our familiarity with audiovisual methods makes us focus our attention in a particular way "focusing on the experimental, the sensory and the forms of knowledge, which cannot necessarily be articulated in words" (Pink & Hogan). That is why we are interested in memory, knowledge and practices that are part of the intangible cultural heritage. We want to take advantage of the technological development and utilise it in support of the ICH, increasing its reach and safeguarding.