FIELD GUIDES is a collective catalogue-in-progress crafted through simple assignments that encourage us to pay attention to the world; appreciate visual, sonic, and digital ways of being in that world; and share small moments and everyday depictions with one another. It is unmistakably ethnographic—collectively autoethnographic—but it does not involve institutional oversight, filling out forms, or budgets. Nor does it traffic in debates, care what you should have read, or fret about what the reviewers might think. It does involve senses, attentiveness, and the sweetness of low-level, low-stakes mediation. It invites ease in engagement and honors following an urge without second-guessing it. It is unanxious and welcomes both love and fury. The assignments are meant to be easy and quick, and the results unpolished. That isn't to suggest that everything will have to be made bare; pseudonyms, anonymity, secret codes, and misleading clues might be suitable. This could really go in any direction; it doesn't exist yet.
We'll begin with a selection of five assignments. Contributors choose to complete one or more. An assignment should only take five or ten minutes, though getting absorbed for longer is always an option. The assignments have a structure; within these constraints, you should follow your urges: be as wild or sedate, expansive or narrow, concrete or abstract, lethargic or efficient as your impulses suggest.
The assignments can be completed on most folks' phones. Of course, if you want to bring in other tools, just take a photograph, sound memo, or video of the work you've done with your pencil, bronze, play-doh, or maracas.
Folks are encouraged to formulate their own assignments for the group as inspiration strikes and the catalogue develops.
Assignment 3: Field report of sounds in your home.
Create a sampling of sounds from your home.
Title according to the assignment and location ("Field report of_____") and label with name and date.
(This platform doesn't have a sound memo option. You can insert a button and link to a file on google drive; the button will link to the sound clip, not to your entire google page. I suppose using a video file with only audio would work as well. Please post other solutions or work arounds!)
At left, Rooney, a member of the Backe clan
ASSIGNMENT 4: Field report of contents of a drawer or cupboard.
Create a series of images of the contents of a drawer, cupboard, or closet.
Title according to the assignment and location ("Field report of ________") and label with name and date.
Beautiful model on the right is Sarah R's mommy. Virginia Meadows, best ever.
ASSIGNMENT 5: Field report of neglected store items.
Go to a store you frequently visit. Create a series of images of items you have never noticed or considered purchasing.
Title according to the assignment and location ("Field report of ______") and label with name and date.
At left, Sarah R's niece Betheny, Patron Goddess of Neglected Store Items
“Alterlife names life already altered, which is also life open to alteration. […] Alterlife acknowledges that one cannot simply get out, that this hurtful and deadly entanglement forms part of contemporary existence in this moment, in the ongoing aftermath. And yet the openness to alteration may also describe the potential to become something else, to defend and persist, to recompose relations to water and land, to become alter-wise in the aftermath.“ – Michelle Murphy, “Alterlife and Decolonial Chemical Relations” (2017)
As colonial and capitalist histories persist into the present, how do we engage with their violence? We inherit modes of being, knowing, and relating from those who have come before us. They set the groundwork for the worlds in which we live; worlds in which access to resources and security are not equally distributed; worlds in which humans and nonhumans, the tangible and the elusive are messily entangled. But in navigating these inheritances, we are also engaged in our own efforts of worlding. The past year has been defined by a global pandemic, shifting how we carry on with work, school, and relationships. What has not shifted are the longstanging inadequacies in societal infrastructures to support our most marginalized, as evident in the increased urgency to address structural racism across the globe.
We envision this symposium as an opportunity to reflect on how we are responsible and ‘response-able’ (Thomas 2019) to our worlds. To that end, we invite abstracts for presentations that respond to the theme of alterlife. Submissions can draw from ethnographic work, experiences in academia, or everyday musings, but are not limited to these suggestions. In doing so, we hope to foster conversation about recognizing the need to acknowledge and address painful histories while also working towards alternative futures in the now that are not constrained by the legacies of ongoing pasts.
Our annual one-day symposium this year will be a smaller event compared to past installments, with a focus on sharing our work and support intra-departmentally. The symposium will be held virtually on April 9th and presentations will be organized into traditional panels and Pecha Kuchas , with the option to pre-record presentations. There will also be a virtual gallery to present creative works. In lieu of a keynote speaker, the symposium will close with an Anthropocinema event.
Please submit your 250-word abstract for presentations and creative works at this submission form. We invite faculty to serve as discussants for panels. For interested faculty, please fill out this form. The deadline for submission is March 15th, by 11:59 PM EST. If you have any questions, please contact one of the organizers: Jowel Choufani ( jchoufani@gwu.edu ), Srishti Sood ( srishti_sood@gwu.edu ), Sylvia Ngo (sngo19@gwu.edu ).
FIELD GUIDES is inspired by Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July's 2002–2009 series of assignments and exhibitions Learning to Love You More, "both a web site and series of non-web presentations comprised of work made by the general public in response to assignments given by artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher" (project website).