Performative Ethnographies / Špela Petrič (SI). Photo: Špela Petrič

Performative Ethnographies

Špela Petrič (SI)

Nomination

spelapetric.org/#/ethnographies
spelapetric.org/#/aixxnosographies

Performative Ethnographies (PE) are an artistic methodology and ongoing non-disciplinary research created as a response to the multiple layers of exclusion of laypeople from spaces where advanced technology is developed, even though their bodies are affected by it.

As a hybrid between a participatory performance, workshop, and tactical intervention, PE is a guided visit to a site of concern, during which the participants are asked to embody amateur ethnographers, observing the site and the local experts who present their work and challenges. The participants try to make sense of the technological undertaking from the particular perspective of observation they choose at the beginning of the action. After the tour, the participants’ field notes are recorded as testimonies that become part of an ever-growing archive of insights into opaque technological infrastructures, as understood through the countless perspectives of concerned amateurs.

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Repurposing elements of ethnography, a scientific method that champions knowledge production through first-person experience, and role play that invites participants to explore unusual vantage points, PE positions laypeople as those whose pluriversal values form the basis of making sense of new technologies.

Credits

Concept and execution: Špela Petrič
Camera and editing: Rob van Pelt, Carla Zamora, Parisa Yousef Doust, Reon Cordova Dramaturgical advice: Ira Melkonyan
Conceptual advice: Agnieszka Wołodźko
Assistance: Reon Cordova
For list of hosting organizations please visit: https://www.spelapetric.org/pearchive

Support received from: Creative Industries Fund NL and Deutsche Telekom.
For an extensive list, please visit: https://www.spelapetric.org/pearchive

Biography

Špela Petrič (SI) is a hybrid media artist with a background in the natural sciences. Her artistic research and practice combines biomedia and performativity to enact strange relations between bodies that question the underpinnings of our (bio)technological societies. Recently she has been busy with looking closely at automation of care in agriculture and medicine. Petrič has received several awards, such as the White Aphroid for outstanding artistic achievement (SI), the Bioart and Design Award (NL), and an Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica (AT).