ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book highlights the importance of “the way we work” for the practices of both anthropologists and artists. Ways of working are central to the sorts of creativity employed within projects, the kinds of collaborations involved, and the production of outcomes whether those are artworks or anthropological representations of one kind or another. The book suggests that “each contribution is informative and expressive, empirical and aesthetic, ethnographic and artistic; by refusing to choose between expression and interpretation, these works speak to the complex, unclassified, essential and yet approachable aspects of the world around us.” The working and research methods involved in the projects presented are probing, exploratory, and often remain fragmentary and open-ended in their results. The process of working with people and materials in ethnographic situations becomes as, or even more, important than the finished product.
