Corresponding with the World: Orthographic Anthropology and Not-new Methods

Abstract (English)

This paper draws upon my practice of ‘orthographic anthropology’ where a range of inscriptive practices are used to understand the intertwined nature of social life and the built environment.  The key example will be my studies of Japanese festivals. Orthographic anthropology allows for multiple practices of mark-making to be understood as research: not a supplement, illustration, or creative interpretation, but the practice of making meaning in the first place.  I am not alone in this, of course, and a diverserange of Graphic Anthropologies are emerging simultaneously, drawing on graphic novels, sketching, and other inscriptive practices.  Orthographic Anthropology makes explicit reference to the kinds of inscriptive practice routinely used in architecture. Orthographic projection includes the descriptive geometries of plan, section, and elevation drawing, and my practice also utilises parallel projection for three dimensional drawings. Drawings are central to my practice, in addition to mapping, notation, and painting.  Each practice explores the social context and material culture of the context in question, opening it to interpretation and understanding.
 
This is framed by the concept of corresponding with the world discussed by Ingold in Making:
 
‘To correspond with the world through drawing, therefore, is to practise not ethnography but graphic anthropology or, to coin a term, anthropography.’  (Ingold, 2013:129).
 
Ingold’s choice of correspondence implies that the practice enters into a dialogue with the phenomenon it is describing, and this is the case with long-established methods such as ethnography.  The process of graphic anthropology is one of seeking understanding through the practice of drawing and notating: a Laban movement notation allows the researcher to investigate the movement of bodies in great detail, the axonometric drawing is a study of form and materiality, cross-sections describe volumes whilst plans are a matrix of spatial relationships.
 
One might add that by not drawing, research is lacking something vital in its understanding of the world