The Atlas and the Film

In this article I refer to my fieldwork in Boston's North End to explore the implications of using film and media annotating software as two complementary conceptual tools and representational strategies. I elaborate on Warburg's notion of the "atlas" as an analytic device. I propose the Atlas on the one hand and Montage on the other as two complementary formal principles that allow us to take full advantage of the dialectic nature of the sources we encounter in visual ethnography, as well as of our own capacity for visual engagement: on the one hand a potentially infinite analytics, on the other our own storytelling engagement through film-making.En este artículo me refiero a mi trabajo de camo en el North End de Boston para explorar las implicaciones que conlleva el uso de software de anotación de cine y de media en tanto que herramientas conceptuales y estrategias representacionales complementarias. Elaboro mi reflexión a partir de la noción de “atlas“ de Warburg, que tomo como dispositivo analítico. Propongo el Atlas y el Montaje como dos principios formales complementarios que nos permiten sacar pleno provecho de la naturaleza dialéctica de las fuentes que encontramos durante la etnografía visual, así como de nuestra propia capacidad para interaccionar visualmente (visual engagement): por un lado, un análisis potencialmente infinito, y por el otro lado nustro propio compromiso narrativo a través de la práctica cinematográfica.Dans cet article, je fais référence à mon travail de terrain, réalisé à Boston, afin d’explorer les implications inhérentes à l’utilisation de deux outils conceptuels complémentaires le film et les logiciels d’annotations qui ensemble favorisent les stratégies de représentation. Je développe la notion d’Atlas proposée par Warburg comme un outils d’analyse. D’un côté, je propose l’Atlas et de l’autre le montage comme deux principes formels qui nous permettent de saisir pleinement la nature dialectique des sources que nous rencontrons en ethnographie visuelle ainsi que dans le cadre de nos propres compétences visuelles: d’un côté une analyse au potentiel illimité et de l’autre nos propres capacités à raconter des histoires à travers la réalisation filmique

Skilled Vision

Global Challenges (FSW

Ecologies of Belonging and the Mugshot Aesthetics

Based on an ethnographic approach as well as on cultural critique of relevant digital projects, this article confronts visual ‘ecologies of belonging’. Building on my ‘skilled visions’ approach, I propose a critical study of everyday visual apprenticeship of social and cultural stereotypes about looking. The main finding is that the act of looking and categorizing self and others should be understood as a form of relational and situated learning, rather than as a problem of (facial) recognition. The self-assertion with which we orient ourselves in a social environment on an everyday basis is telling of the enchanted quality of ‘making-believe’, as our own skilled vision makes us believe that it is indeed possible to sort and chart sociocultural groups on the basis of phenotypic classifications. However, the evidence of such ‘mugshot aesthetics’ is at best ambivalent. The mugshot view reduces our social abilities of reading complex and cultural cues to standard mechanisms, and ‘makes us believe’ that a perspicuous view of human types is achievable and indeed operationalizable in technologies of vision. The article proposes a more complex attitude to this issue based both on ethnographic interaction – including fieldwork, in-depth interviews and visual analysis.Fondé sur une approche ethnographique ainsi que sur des réflexions critiques émises dans le cadre de projets numériques pertinents, cet article confronte les différentes modalités visuelles de "l'écologie de l'appartenance". A partir de mes recherches sur " les compétences visuelles", je propose une étude critique de l'apprentissage visuel des stéréotypes sociaux et culturels propres au "regarder". Le principal résultat est que l'acte de regarder et de catégoriser soit soi même soit les autres devrait être compris comme une forme d'apprentissage contextualisé et relationnel plutôt que comme un problème de reconnaissance (faciale). L'affirmation de soi, avec laquelle nous nous orientons dans un environnement social dans la vie quotidienne, nous révèle les qualités d'enchantement du "faire croire" comme nos propres compétences visuelles nous font croire que nous pouvons trier et ranger les groupes socio-culturels sur la base d'une classification phénotypique. Cependant, l'évidence de ces "clichés esthétiques" est plutôt ambivalent. Ces clichés réduisent nos propres compétences, à lire des indices visuels complexes, à des mécanismes normatifs et nous font croire qu'un vision claire des types humains est possible et de fait opérationnelle au sein des technologies propres à la vision. Cet article propose un positionnement plus complexe face à ces questions fondées tant sur des interactions ethnographiques lors du terrain et des interviews approfondis que sur des analyses visuelles.Basado en un enfoque etnográfico, así como en la crítica cultural de proyectos digitales relevantes, este artículo confronta diferentes "ecologías visuales de pertenencia". Sobre la base de mi enfoque sobre las "visiones competentes", propongo un estudio crítico del aprendizaje visual cotidiano de los estereotipos sociales y culturales sobre la mirada. El principal argumento es que el hecho de verse y categorizarse a sí mismo y a los demás debe entenderse como una forma de aprendizaje relacional y situado, en lugar de un problema de reconocimiento (facial). La auto-convicción con la que nos orientamos en el entorno social todos los días da prueba de la calidad encantada de "hacer creer", ya que nuestra visión competente nos hace creer que, de hecho, es posible clasificar y ubicar grupos socioculturales sobre la base de clasificaciones fenotípicas. Sin embargo, la evidencia de tal "estética de la fotografía policial" es, en el mejor de los casos, ambivalente. La vista instantánea reduce nuestras habilidades sociales de lectura de señales complejas y culturales en patrones estandarizados, y "nos hace creer" que una visión clara de los tipos humanos es factible y, de hecho, operativa dentro de las tecnologías de la visión. El artículo propone una actitud más compleja sobre este tema basada tanto en la interacción etnográfica, incluyendo el trabajo de campo, como en las entrevistas en profundidad y en el análisis visual

From branding to solidarity: The COVID-19 impact on marketing Strachítunt cheese from Val Taleggio, Italy

Branding, labelling and certification are the principal instruments for marketing heritage cheese in the Italian Alps. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has put considerable strain on these tools. In Val Taleggio, where the Protected Designation of Origin cheese Strachítunt is made, the cooperative of producers suffered a breakdown in access to markets during the lockdown of March–May 2020. Their strategy was to appeal directly to consumers, connecting digitally with solidarity economy networks such as Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale (Solidarity Purchase Groups). Building on long-term ethnography, the article shows how this appeal brought to the surface a shared discourse and understanding of proximity and solidarity, which is not usually employed in the language of certification and labelling

Seeds of Trust. Italy's Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale (Solidarity Purchase Groups)

This article presents a case study of the solidarity economy in Italy: the Italian G.A.S. – Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale, which I translate as Solidarity Purchase Groups. GAS are often conceptualized as "alternative food networks". Beyond this categorization, I highlight their novelty in relational, political, and ecological terms, with respect to their capacity to forge new partnerships between consumers and producers. Introducing an ethnographic study that I have developed in a recent monograph (Grasseni 2013), I dwell here in particular on how the solidarity economy is embedded in practice. I argue that gasistas' provisioning activism is something different to mere "ethical consumerism." Activists use the notion of "co-production" to describe their engagement as a concurrent rethinking of the social, economic, and ecological aspects of provisioning. Building also on a quantitative survey of the GAS movement in northern Italy, I pursue an ethnographic understanding of "co-production." I argue that producers and consumers in GAS networks "co-produce" both economic value and ecological knowledge, while re-embedding their provisioning practice in mutuality and relationality. Keywords: Solidarity economy, solidarity purchase groups, Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale, alternative food networks, provisioning, co-production, Gibson-Graham, Italy

Skill, craft, and poiesis-intensive innovation

What is craft practice? The  purpose of this paper is to contrast the categorization of craft practice with that of skill and innovation. I argue for the relevance of innovative skilled practice to future-making. Both skill and craft play an important part in collective engagements with futuring. With an ethnographic methodology, typical of anthropological fieldwork, I have explored skill in dairy farming, cheese making, and currently food gardening. In all these three realms, the results of ethnographic observation are that ideational processes immediately connect to intimate acquaintance with materials and ecosystems (including flora and fauna, soil, climate, landscape and humans). My conclusion is that craft practice and its outcomes imply a highly localized cosmology of evaluation. I show how comparative ethnography allows the mapping of these relations between people and places, and their more-than-local connections

Introduction. Digital Visual Engagements

Do digital media formats enable new conceptual and collaborative practices? How do they allow us to challenge cinematic conventions or habitual understandings of the spatio-temporal arrangements of both ethnographic narrative and analytic insight? To what avail? This special issue is the result of conversations initiated around these questions on occasion of a co-convened panel at the Manchester IUAES conference in August 2013 (Evolving humanity, emerging worlds). Cristina Grasseni and Floria..

Picturing Intimacy

Taking as a point of departure the Italian American community in Boston and its process of collective remembrance surrounding Saint Anthony’s Feast, we addressing the limits and potential of montage. We argue that the multi-vocality and multi-temporality of social networks can be incorporated into the linearity of a narrated film. We discuss how editing found footage into the film Christmas in August (2013, http://christmasinaugust.altervista.org/) was a way to explore the assemblages of diasporic identity and cultural intimacy for Boston’s Italian Americans. We focus specifically on the significance of social networks as mediators, and of montage as a tool to capture the virtual narratives and identities performed in the Facebook Group Page of St. Anthony’s Feast. We look at the Internet as both an archive source and a field of performance for acts of commemoration and remembering, and argue that montage is the most suited editing technique to reproduce the intimacy and irony expressed by the protagonists in their performance of Italian-ness.Prenant comme point de départ la communauté italo-américaine à Boston et les techniques de mémoire collective déployées autour de la fête de Saint Antoine, nous abordons les limites et les potentiels des techniques de montage. Nous prétendons que la multi-vocalité et la multi-temporalité des réseaux sociaux peuvent être inclus dans la linéarité d'un film. Nous discutons de la manière dont le montage de film récupéré/ détourné comme dans le film Noël, au mois d'Aout (2013 http://christmasinaugust.altervista.org/) est une façon d'explorer les modalités de recomposition d'une identité diasporique et d'une intimité culturelle pour les italo-américains de Boston. Nous nous concentrons plus spécifiquement sur l'importance des réseaux sociaux comme de possibles médiateurs et du montage comme d'un outil pour capturer les récits et identités virtuels mises en scène sur la page Facebook des fêtes de Saint Antoine. Nous avons considéré internet comme sources d'archives et un terrain de performance propice aux inscriptions de souvenirs et de mémoires. Nous démontrons que le montage est la technique la plus adaptée pour rendre compte de l'intimité et de l'ironie exprimées par les protagonistes pour exprimer leur "italianité".Tomando como punto de partida a la comunidad italiana americana en Boston y su proceso de recuerdo colectivo alrededor de la Fiesta de San Antonio, abordamos los límites y potencialidades del montaje. Argumentamos que la multi-vocalidad y la multi-temporalidad de las redes sociales pueden ser incorporadas en la linealidad de una película narrativa. Discutimos cómo la edición de archivos encontrados para la película La Navidad de agosto (2013, http://christmasinaugust.altervista.org/) fue una manera, para los italianos de Boston, de explorar las recomposiciones de la identidad diaspórica y de la intimidad cultural. Nos centramos específicamente en la importancia de las redes sociales como mediadores y del montaje como una herramienta para capturar las narrativas e identidades virtuales representadas en la página del grupo de Facebook de la Fiesta de San Antonio. Consideramos Internet a la vez como fuente de archivo y como campo de actuación para los actos de conmemoración y recuedo, y argumentamos que el montaje es la técnica de edición más adecuada para reproducir la intimidad y la ironía expresadas por los protagonistas en su representación de la “italianidad”

Introducing a Special Issue on the Reinvention of Food: Connections and Mediations

This introduction to a special issue forwards “the reinvention of food” as an analytical framework within which to make sense, together, of current projects valorizing “traditional” methods of food production as well as efforts to reimagine more sustainable or transparent food provisioning schemes

Memories of a Dying Industry: Sense and Identity in a British Paper Mill

Frogmore paper mill is a kind of time machine that allows historians of technology and the senses to study mechanized paper-making as it was done one hundred years ago. Before the introduction of instrumentation and automatic process control paper-making depended profoundly on the embodied skills of the workers. This paper will focus on the sensory knowledge and skills required for monitoring and controlling old machinery. Investigating skills-in-use will help to unravel the close link between sensing and acting to keep a continuous production process stable and running. Paper-makers would shift intuitively between different senses and sensory modes of monitoring and diagnosing sensory tell-tales to balance the production process. The importance of sensory knowledge and embodied skills also shaped paper-makers’ self-perception and professional ethos. The paper will examine the impact of new process control technology on the crucial role of sensory skills for the paper-makers’ individual and collective identities