Computer-Mediated Anthropology
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An Online Resource Center |
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CMA Methodology: Image Elicitation by Noah Porter, 2004 |
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Introduction to Online Image Elicitation "Research in general and evaluation in particular are dominated by methods based on the spoken or written word. Culturally and historically this has to do with the tradition of academia, which has built its foundations on the written word" (Schratz & Steiner-Löffler 1998: 236). This is an experimental form of Internet methodology; consider this an exploratory study in de-emphasis of the textual basis of most data anthropologists collect. I posted this message on a few different message boards: I am doing an independent study this summer that will (among other things) examine what contribution anthropologists have made to the study of cyberspace, and create a webpage that will function as an informational resource for anthropologists who would like to get involved in cyberspace studies. One of the ideas I had for this page is to demonstrate experimental/unconventional methods that can be used to study Internet cultures. One of these unconventional methodologies that I thought of was to ask people to do the following: 1. Create a visual representation of your Internet experience. Would you have any interest in doing this? I don't have any money to compensate you with, but there's a good chance you'll get a decent amount of exposure from this. A lot of social scientists will probably see the page when it's done. And, of course, you'll have my gratitude for helping me out. =) Timothy Asch wrote: "If the film-maker fails to give the audience adequate background and a context for viewing certain activities or events, the film may unwittingly support common prejudices about primitive or isolated cultures, the very misunderstandings anthropologists are striving to dispel" (1992: 199). Substitute web page maker for film-maker and Internet cultures for primitive, isolated cultures, and my reasons for asking for a short explanation of what the artwork means for my informants should be clear. Becker (1998) explains this problem in further detail: ...And, having made these choices, he now had an apparently simple problem: in what order should the images appear in the book? Photographers usually think that this apparently simple problem is crucial and difficult. They understand that a single image is ambiguous. It does not easily and unequivocally reveal "what it is about." Pictures made for such purposes as news and advertising are usually composed so as to definitively avoid this problem, by excluding all "extraneous" detail, everything except the "point" of the news story, or the feature of the product its advertisers want to call attention to. The surroundings of the central feature are carefully chosen to help "illustrate" the story or enhance the product's appeal (See Hagaman 1993; Hagaman 1996). Documentary photographers, however, don’t reduce the surroundings in that comprehensive way. Looking for photographic truth, they let what’s there be there. As a result, most pictures made a “documentary” purpose contain a large amount of “information,” all sorts of details that were in the area photographed, even when those details do not support any simple interpretation of what’s going on in the setting. And though these pictures are carefully composed so that the details are not just random noise, there is so much to look at that the overall picture can be interpreted in a variety of ways, depending on which details viewers (interpreters) emphasize and what they make of them. With all those bits of information, a picture will support more than one story, and certainly more than the simple scripts that inform newspaper stories and advertising spreads. So: how are viewers going to know what's important, what the idea is, what the photographer had in mind, what they are "supposed to get out of this picture?" How can photographers arrange the pictures so that what they had in mind gets into the minds of the people who see their work? [Becker 1998: 3-4] For instance, the first image (below) could be misinterpretted as the person seeking out adult materials rather than being unable to avoid them, thus reinforcing the negative perception that some have of the Internet as a place for "perverts." However, by having him create his own caption, we constrain the possibility for interpretation to be closer to his intentions. Artistic Representations wtih Captions:
"You may be wondering why I've done my piece on the adult sites of the Internet. Well, stuff like that is everywhere on the Net. You're bound to see it whether you want to or not. It's in your e-mail inbox. It's on a pop-up at your favorite site. It's on a banner at a site that someone referred you to. It's plaguing your computer with adware and spyware as you read this. You may even have some downloaded on your computer right now. The adult part of the Net is ever present and hence my piece was created. I used binary in the background to show the transfer of data from the Internet to your computer. The rest of the piece represents a journey. "Where shall we go?" Then "sex" written on keys from a keyboard. And finally, the familiar warning notice." --B. Bader
"Here's the explanation:
"Regarding the image: The subject matter is overwrought to say the least, but the execution, or the focus is undeniably familiar. The work is inspired by a large amount of time spent researching religion on the World Wide Web. Naturally this piece is not indicative of my entire cyberspace experience, yet it does provide a level of immediacy that I believe accurately captures the idea of spirituality online. I believe that a certain level of disconnection and distance is inherent on the internet, despite the claims it has made about bridging individuals closer together. In my opinion this is specifically apparent in the world of religion online." --Eric Nardo - www.mediasuture.com
Discussion Schratz & Steiner-Löffler (1998) write: "Since organizational life is always constituted by multiple realities, taking photographs offers a challenging opportunity to bring to the fore the different layers of reality" (p 246). I would argue that artistic work can serve the same purpose. Historically in visual anthropology, "[a]lthough the subjects of the films were generally co-operative, they were powerless to influence the process of making the film or the final product resulting from their collaboration" (Asch 1992: 197); online image elicitation is a method of Internet research that is empowering for the subjects. However, it should be noted that lack of technology, technical knowledge, and artistic talent can constrain this empowerment. If someone lacks the equipment or artistry, this method will not work; in fact, many of the people I asked to participate felt that while it was an interesting and worthwhile project, they did not feel they had the skills to contribute to it. Mueller wrote "intimate identity of the author with his work has tended to divert attention from the social forces which enter into its formation. It has served to preclude the study of aesthetic phenomena on the same basis as other social phenomena" (1938: 223). I do not know if this trend has continued in the decades since he wrote this article; if the existence of journals dedicated to visual anthropology and visual sociology are any indication, there are many who explicitly concern themselves with the social forces that enter into the creation of a visual image. On the other hand, Arteri (1996) claims that the image is assuming greater centraility in society, and that one manifestation of this is at the epistemic level: "This means that human sciences, technology and research, nowadays produce more and more 'images of the world' rather than systems of cognition. In science, there no longer seems to be an operation of cognitive mediation towards the world, based on rules of truth and authenticity, but instead a self-founded production that makes asking what there is beyond the produced image less important" (p. 56). Is a lack of critical sociocultural analysis no longer confined to art? Should I be probing deeper into the images and captions that were provided for me? Perhaps if this was a more formal study rather than a demonstration of the method, such contextualization would be necessary. Besides lack a lack of time and data, another problem towards contextualizing these materials emerged: In the course of a (admiteddly rather cursory) literature review, I had difficulty finding anthropological articles that relied on methods such as these. To develop this method into theoretical maturity, it may be necessary to draw upon the scholarship of other disciplines (e.g. Silver 2000, Sachse et al 2001) so that an anthropology will develop its own points of convergence and departure. Strong (2003) does provide one counterexample; both an artist and an anthropologist, she notes: "Extinction rates [of cultures], paradoxically, may slow down as recent revolutions in telecommunications technology, particularly the Internet, provide more and more universal opportunities for the presentation of localized cultural traditions and identities. Cultural imperialism continues in predictable patterns for many commercial or government-controlled... Internet sectors, but for noncommercial web locations, there remains a great deal of freedom for both expression and perception. The Internet in its best light is a fertile seedbed for transculturalism through the arts" (p. 154). Perhaps the image elicitation method should not only concern itself with |
