How to experiment with the modes of public engagement, as well as with the necessary equipment to research in confused and confusing times?
What could we learn from this puzzlement, the strangeness, the confusion of the last weeks?
Might there be something to explore and experiment in this mess we’re in?
– A manifesto in 30 tweets
– Also including an added Disclaimer (10 tweets), reflecting on ‘why this now??!!’
0.
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 30, 2020
This is an attempt at exploring anthropological uses of twitter, exploring modes beyond (1) public critique or (2) the archive of experiences – like in the great recent threads by @allegra_lab and @somatosphere or @kaisirin ’s field-note experiments https://t.co/JJIqEE2X2W
2.
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 30, 2020
Of course, we all want do to… something
Something, yeah, because, er, something is a lot more than nothing… ain’t it? pic.twitter.com/dv1xTWZNQl
4.
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 30, 2020
But, dunno, is that it? Shouldn’t we feel concerned to participate in the worlding of the world as it unworlds unworldly
Hmm, we would really like to undo the doings of the, wait, you’re gonna love this one: the Anthro-po-cene.
Say it again, please. The an-throooo-po-seeen pic.twitter.com/o0MTzH12QP
6.
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 30, 2020
(silence)
No, no, sorry, it should be the… oh, bummer, now this is a difficult one: th-k… oh dear, ch-th… Damn. The ka-th…
Ah, I know what you mean: You’re saying it * wrong * it’s the chth-hoo-looooo-seen?
There you go, that…
* Cough *
Right, that! pic.twitter.com/nRzqbE2P2E
11.
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 30, 2020
Oh, really? Tell me more…
So, we do, we do a lot of hashtags, #-this #-that and we do open – fancy, fancy, yeah – access?!
Wow, I like the sound of it too.
Yeah!
Let’s u-n-d-o it a lot, a lot! pic.twitter.com/eFWvPovg7p
Hey, what happened to 10??
13.
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 30, 2020
“I don’t know about you, but I am completely out of tune”
“Well, I’m gonna say this, I’m spaced out. Rather, I’m burnt out”,
“I’m burn out too”
All (chorus):
“burnt-out too, burnt-out too, burnt-out too, burnt-out too…”https://t.co/RaJPaeL7Sz
15.
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 30, 2020
Well, if you feel a bit meh, like that, if you also are confused by the contemporary state of affairs in which ‘we’ are…
Greetings, traveler, you’ve come to the right place!
Let's start with a proposal, a manifesto: What if we tried to remain in confusion TO-GE-THER?
17.
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 30, 2020
Er, palate it, taste it. Not wanting to go too far away from it, but also not remaining stuck in – oogh! – it. Because otherwise we could go bzzzzzzz or grrrrrrrr, and nobody wants that, do they?
(Silence)
Mmm pic.twitter.com/RaNR14tlng
19.
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 30, 2020
We don’t tend to pay too much, er… attention (Yeah, that thing we lack now)
I mean, we regularly don’t pay much attention to speculating (except the financial kind)
It’s true, most of the times it’s as if already knew w-h-a-t-t-o-d-o, and… https://t.co/EuFIP3U20H
21.
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 30, 2020
I know, when we do, well, the eyes of confusion stare back at us, and we suddenly become very little, and we lose o-u-r v o i c e
(gasp) pic.twitter.com/3lfvrafCnM
23.
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 30, 2020
Maybe we just need to try… I mean to, to, to find… like the appropriate way, the route, the… manifesto (like boats had one) for the task at hand and not to, er…
Well not to err, that’s for sure.
(long sigh) pic.twitter.com/K7T0HQADs0
25.
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 30, 2020
Join!
We could have fun, and perhaps someone will say something interesting (or not). That’s even better than the regular Q&A of any single conference you might have attended lately…
(silence) pic.twitter.com/YaTthCI9EX
27.
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 30, 2020
What kind of equipment, what sort of devices (ethnographic, fieldwork, or otherwise) should we repurpose, import, or devise to address ‘this’? Or… none at all?https://t.co/adDrJQVDnM
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 30, 2020
Thx to #colleex @eevabee @adolfoestalella for their comments & their continues encouragement to experiment with anthropology's adventure of relevance (cf. @SavranskyMartin ) documenting & archiving our attempts: https://t.co/jmhmY7asSq | https://t.co/hFGeU4NipA
DISCLAIMER
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 31, 2020
i. This is NOT a call for ‘nihilism’ or ‘doing nothing’. It is also not a critical or distancing move. Rather, it mobilizes humor and puzzlement to experimentalize our modes of engaging with an unfolding emergent situation…
iii. This call for speculation stems from the European situation of confinement or lockdown – with dispersed loved ones & peers in despair – trying to think about the major political and epistemic challenges this poses to anthropological endeavours (practical care issues aside)
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 31, 2020
v. Also, morality is a political technique that knows what happens, an analytic of path dependency, an epistemic technique of principled action particularly ill-equipped to deal with ‘the new’. What politics is needed for the emergent here and now?
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 31, 2020
vii. Being in lockdown highlights the relevance of some ethnographic skills & techniques over others: hermeneutics of online documentary analysis; ‘grounded’ (pun intended) self-exploratory meditations (auto-ethnography?). A new golden age of digital ethnography?
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 31, 2020
ix. We are forced to operate within heavily scripted state and expert discourses within media whose algorithmic agenda setting & material rendering we suspect, but practically know very little about… How to do research through platforms that engineer their unresearchability?
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 31, 2020
END *
— Tomás Criado (@tscriado elsewhere) (@tscriado) March 31, 2020
And now for better readability: As a blog posthttps://t.co/kRWutMQrGa