Observational Ethics in Audiovisual Ethnography 

Carlo Cubero,Tallinn University 

This talk describes the teaching approaches developed at the Audiovisual Ethnography Programme at Tallinn University. The programme worked as a collaboration between the Documentary Arts and the Social Anthropology graduate programmes. While students were exposed to a range of disciplinary orientations, observational approaches represented the core principle of the programme. Our approach to observational ethnography emphasises on the ethical, rather than aesthetic, characteristics of conducting fieldwork. With an emphasis on observational ethics, the programme produced a variety of works that emphasised on ethical consistency over the technological aspects of filmmaking. 

The palette or the brush? Contemporary conundrums in teaching ethnographic practice. Reflections from a teacher in Visual Anthropology. 

Martha-Cecilia Dietrich, Department of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam 

Anthropology has long distinguished itself as a discipline that thinks through practice with a dedicated word, ‘ethnography’, delineating the realm of engagement from which ideas and theories arise. Today’s anthropologists’ increased confidence in ‘doing as a form of thinking’, also known as the multimodal turn, has opened the ethnographer’s imagination and fostered methodological innovation while posing new challenges to teaching practice. Do we best equip our students to examine and navigate social worlds by sensitising them to how the field determines our methodological choices (the palette) or by acquiring skills in a specific explorative form (the brush)? In this presentation, I discuss experiences in research and teaching as an audio-visual ethnographer to invite fellow panellists and the audience to reflect on the relationship between craft, skill, and the future of ethnographic practice. 

Exploring Sound: Research, Theory, Collaboration, and Pedagogy 

Pedro Neto, University of Lisbon 

In this talk, I will present four pieces that outline my journey into using sound as a means of ethnographic research, both as a method and as an output, the collaborative experiences it has fostered, and the theoretical insights it has generated. I will explore the affordances of sound as a research medium and discuss the challenges of connecting theory with practice. Additionally, I will share how I have incorporated these sonic explorations into the courses I teach, highlighting the pedagogical strategies I've employed. I will conclude by reflecting on the future potential of multimodality and its role in transforming teaching and research.