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Visual Culture, Ethnography, and Interactive Media

The chapter examines the holistic and wide-ranging characteristics of “Visual Culture” as an area of study and argues that this approach is especially pertinent to the visual representation of ‘other’ cultures. It considers the role of visual representation in forming community identity and in fostering social cohesion. In this context it considers the congruence of the visual with the performative. The chapter focuses on a case study of the author’s digital ethnography “The Interactive Village” and examines the theoretical ramifications of representing both the historical and contemporary dimensions of the village carnival through visually-based computer technology. It argues that the very nature of carnival (as espoused by Bakhtin, for example), closely coincides with the multilayered multi-vocal narrative potential of interactive media in which the central characteristics of carnival can be used as a metaphor for the Internet itself. Indeed, the type of interactivity brought about by computer technology may be creating an innovative 21st-century form of engagement with the artwork and revising modes of perceiving the world. Diverse cultural phenomena can be compared contrasted to a variety of depths of engagement to suit individual users. Consequently widening the scope of ethnography and extending the range of the term “Visual Culture”.

Traditionally, the relationship between anthropology and visual arts has not been easy. In the context of The Companion to the Anthropology of Europe, the chapter presents a case for applying innovative and experimental approaches to visual representation forming part of a recent blossoming of a diversity research methodologies applied to anthropological study. In this context ‘new media’ can play a central role as a dynamic and flexible research tool as well as contributing to redefining traditional fields of study.