Glimpses of Emergence in the Ayoreo Video Project

Abstract

Drawing upon scenes from a recent Indigenous video workshop in Paraguay, the essay details the emergent forms of perception, imagery, and experience that were unique to the video workshop form. The aim of the essay is to write present‐tense difference through such emergent visual forms rather than through increasingly common aesthetic frameworks of inevitable endings or cultural, technological, and economic determinisms. In doing so, the essay crafts a larger argument about how ethnographic attention to community video workshops and unauthorized Indigenous self‐imagery may offer correctives to the visual economies and political lexicons often presumed to define the present. It asks how Ayoreo remediations of self and world may charter novel axes for ethnographic writing and critique.

Embodying Place

“…Using participatory methods, visual anthropologists have traditionally emphasized the importance of the research processes with project participants as sources of anthropological knowledge (Bessire 2017; Flores 2004; Hemment 2007; Kester 2011; Turner 1991; 1995) and not necessarily as a forum for change among co‐researchers. Meanwhile, critics of participatory art emphasize artistic and visual outcomes as media for social change (Bishop 2012).…”

Environmental Futures through Children’s Eyes: Slow Observational Participatory Videomaking and Multi‐Sited Ethnography

“…What appealed to me about MacDougall’s approach was that it was deliberately “slow,” in that it required a commitment to spending extended periods of time with interlocutors. While participatory videomaking has become an established method in visual anthropology (Bessire 2017; Blum‐Ross 2013; Kennelly 2018), it often relies on the use of mobile phone cameras or simple consumer cameras that are so easy to operate that they often require little thought about how one is filming. MacDougall, by contrast, stressed the value of slow and careful observation during the filming process and of operating the camera in manual mode so as to have full control over it.…”

Shifting Indigenous Australian Realities: Dispersal, Damage, and Resurgence: Introduction

“…We were particularly interested to explore the applicability of Bessire's conception of ‘hypermarginality’ to Australian conditions. In 2 days of lively discussion of draft papers, as well as a presentation of his own recent collaborative film work (see Bessire ), Lucas was a most energetic interlocutor. Lucas’ spirit of critical generosity continues with the afterword he has contributed to this volume.…”