The last week of class we had a very thoughtful set of presentations on each group’s final project. More than anything, watching presentations, really helped our group have a clearer understanding the direction we wanted to go in regarding our own project. I really liked how a few of the groups used a more metaphoric approach in how they planned the flow and analysis of their project. For example, one group (I forget who it was exactly) mentioned applying a “turtles all the way down” approach when mapping out their analysis, while another planned on a more Geertz-like presention, which included adding layers of interpretation and thick description. I thought this was particularly interesting, because not only are these groups generally analyzing their media/data and then seeing what papers can apply, but their entire project is built around, and practically through the lenses of these anthropological methods/perspectives. With that in mind, I think that it would be particularly helpful our group to adopt a similar technique, as it would help with our overall flow, organization, and would really help us in mapping out our entire project, initially. As one of our main issues has been knowing where to start, this way of thinking about the progression of our project is quite relevant and helpful. Now the question, which anthropological perspective/paper would be the most helpful in creating this project flow. My first thought is to use Mitchell’s notion of reality vs. representation to guide us in our analysis and project flow. The “representation” would be the initial showing of the PSA’s and analyzing what/who they are representing/ what they are implying about COVID culture. This can then be into conversation with the “reality”, which is presented through Johns Hopkins data regarding the pandemic.
This is great, Maya, that the other presentations were so helpful in thinking through the design and layout of your group’s site! Why not combine the layers and turtles all the way down approaches in your site design? Geertz himself is using the “turtles” story to illustrate the idea that there is no final or fixed bottom layer of interpretation or outside of culture. Now with that idea in mind, how would your group’s site indicate how the “reality” of the data” is also a layer in this series? That is, that selectivity and interpretation are entailed in that layer as much as the layers for “representation.”? What will we see at the “bottom” of the page? This is a rich creative and anthropological challenge!