Multispecies Storytelling

Multispecies Storytelling is about becoming with. Becoming with is not a finite state, but rather a constant growing web of relations due to interacting, understanding and learning. It forges a world for non-humans to exist independently of humans. Non-humans are removed from the narratives that suggest they are only important in relation to what human's desire in turn giving them agency and purpose. This allows for the story of non-humans to be told without human intervention. This also feeds into the argument that telling non-human stories from the human perspective can be considered selfish, entitled or dismissive. Multispecies Storytelling allows room for humans to learn from as well as understand non-human without impacting on them, instead, it allows them to be co-authors of history. A student added that non-humans have lived along-side us for a while and just as we have put meaning to things like birthdays, Tuesdays or even Ground hog day, who is to say that other species haven't assigned some type of meaning to things too. I thought the idea of other species having their own destinies was interesting as I never think about non-humans beyond what they can and can’t do for humans. I was immediately reminded of an experiment done by CrowBox. The experimentation platform designed a bird feeder with the loose intentions of autonomously training Corvids to help collect garbage or sort through discarded electronics. It uses a system of four stages that eventually lead to the corvids depositing coins they found on the ground in exchange for peanuts. Posed as an ‘elegant machine that may form a new bond between animal and human ‘, the long-term goal for this exchange is to eventually put Corvids to work. It is interesting to think of the relationship between giving other species agency and intervening on the lives of other species to better the quality of life for humans.  

Digital Witnessing and my Practice

Digital witnessing is birthed from Technoology allowing instant access in to places that have previously been under represented in the media, controlled or given limited coverage or hard to get to. Nishat Awan, writer of Digital Narratives and Witnessing, states ‘Whereas in the past, such places would remain out-of-sight and out of our consciousness, increasingly they reveal themselves to us’. The growth of technology, such places are being discovered for the internet-sphere to see, discover and react to. 

Awan mentions Clouds Over Sidra, a virtual reality film ‘credited with increasing the amount of aid pledged to the cause by world leaders. It depicts a vlog style journey of a young Syrian girl around the Za’atri refugee camp in Jordan. The author cites Harris (2015) suggesting that Virtual reality, fundamentally, is a technology that removes borders... Anything can be local to you. This work figures witnessing at a distance taking Harris in to account by allowing us to be in her shoes, see what she sees and move when she moves. Even further computation helps nearness in the film as all her movements are felt, from the small jitters she experiences moving her head left and right to the long gazes she takes. Through the digital we witness her point view. 

Anwan goes on the suggest that it relies ‘on the notion of witnessing to mobilize passions’, like Michael Buerk’s seminal report broadcasted by BBC in 1984. Centered around the famine in Ethiopia, it is said to have been ‘instrumental in shaping the politics of compassion that humanitarian responses in the West rely on’ using prompting visuals. With immediate access to such imagery, ‘there is an authenticity and immediacy … but at the same time they are easily exploited, misinterpreted, and hijacked by powerful actors. Two different modes of witnessing are present here, one was presented by a trusted face and the other was shown through the lens of ubiquitous of imagery. Anwan poses the question ‘Whose witnessing could be trustworthy enough?’  her answer is ‘yourself and yourself alone’. The point of view filming style adopted in Clouds over Sidra would suggest that we should trust what we are seeing as we briefly become the young lady; As we are walking through, VR lets us see the living conditions and we should trust what we see with our eyes. Even with digital witnessing putting hidden places on display, this VR lens ‘places the burden of proof on the refugee, in this case a twelve-year-old girl, who has to show us her destitution and her will in the face of it’. 

Digital Ethnography and my Practice

We were given a lecture by Pete Jiaong Qiang that detailed his work, his connection to his heritage and his thought process.  I particularly enjoyed the visual aspect to his work; the colours, vibrancy and brashness are enticing. The visuals are so impactful that you can’t help but stare; you are continuously captivated by new elements.  I was introduced to the term ‘maximalism’ which he described as visual excess as well as a reaction to minimalism. His turn to VR from architecture seems like less wild considering his explanation on musical and visual maximalism being about texture, amplified volume and spatial relationships between material, craftmanship and variation. 

From what I gather ethnography is the study of people; Digital ethnography is seen as the ‘natural evolution’ of ethnography and '‘qualitative research, supporting projects centered on the end user or the development of analytical reports’. This could be because many people interact with some form of digital on the daily, most obviously Phones. We connect ourselves to the vast networked worked world through our devices so using said device to observe us with purpose and direction is not implausible.   

As I have no practice as of right now, my takeaway from this is that Digital Ethnography can aid an iterative process. The feedback can continuously inform and be used to develop and shape quickly. The digital also aids a more intuitive observational/feedback process as you don’t have to sit in front of the participant. It can be done remotely easing the pressure from being face to face; responses may also be more accurate from this ease of pressure.