Migratory Practices: exchanges between anthropology, art, craft and design
5th - 6th September 2006, Manchester Metropolitan University
Introduction
The relationship between anthropology and art has been the focus of a number of initiatives in recent years. In Britain, what began as local interventions into the anthropology and art debate have recently achieved a new sense of consolidation through the staging of several international symposiums, such as the Fieldworks conference at the Tate Modern (2003), larger research projects and publications, most recently, Contemporary Art and Anthropology edited by Arnd Schneider and Christopher Wright (Oxford: Berg). However these initiatives have been more focused on the relationship between anthropology and fine art, leaving the full spectrum of contemporary practice within craft and design out of the interdisciplinary debate. It is therefore the aim of this symposium to redress the balance and to explore the range of relationships between anthropology and art, craft and design.
The symposium has been initiated by an Arts Council, British Council, AHRC and MIRIAD funded project called Here and There, which is a series of artists’/makers’ exchange residencies taking place during 2006-7 in Australia, Bangladesh, Britain, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Information on these events can be found on www.hat.mmu.ac.uk.
The symposium is in partnership with Visiting Arts.
Keynote Speakers
- Tim Ingold, Professor of Anthropology, University of Aberdeen
- Moira Vincentelli, Senior Lecturer in Art History and Curator of Ceramics at the University of Wales
Full list of speakers and paper abstracts.
Symposium topics
This symposium aims to bring together artists, makers and academics engaged in ethnographic study and cultural investigation. Over the course of two days we will explore the relationships between anthropology, art, craft and design practices. Presentations are invited on topics related to the areas outlined below. Contributions in the form of academic papers, artists’ talks or other formats (please specify) are welcomed.
Extending the debate
A dialogue between contemporary art and anthropology has emerged over the last ten years. Has craft and design practice been equally involved in this and if so, has it had to transform to embrace social agendas and action in the field? Are there differences in the ways that art, craft and design have drawn on and been drawn to anthropology, and vice versa? What can we learn from asymmetries of involvement between the different practices?
Making and ethnography
Cross cultural study has been a consistent feature of many makers’ practice since at least the late nineteenth century, but this activity has had little critical acknowledgement. When makers study culture can their research be thought of as a kind of ethnography and on what basis can this be decided? For example, can a ceramic piece convey ethnographic knowledge in itself, rather than as a means to the production of more conventional forms of knowledge, such as text?
Fieldworks
The use of the term ‘field work’ has become a phrase applied to contemporary artistic practice. This seems to align it to traditions of empirical research and taxonomy in the sciences. Is this term adequate to indicate what artists - and anthropologists - are doing ‘in the field’? How do the processes of representation, presentation and analysis of field notes differ between contemporary artistic practice and contemporary anthropological approaches to fieldwork?
The ethics of anthropological and artistic production
Anthropological practice has been concerned with evolving a methodology that is ethical. This may appear to differ from some artistic practice in which methods are used to expose issues through mechanisms that in themselves appear unscrupulous. Does this also apply contemporary craft and design practices? Does an apparent difference between anthropology and artistic/craft practice create a polarisation that frustrates any hope of inter-disciplinarity?