ABSTRACT
Ethnocinema is a non-representational strategy that pivots on two-way creative and cultural exchange in the research creation process. Rather than using video as an emerging research tool that—either naturalistically or impressionistically-still “captures data,” ethnocinema focuses on the relationships that emerge while the video-based research is being made. The crisis of representation in artistic practice in general has had three main preoccupations: the status of the output, artifact, or artwork; its relation to the viewer; and the relation of the making process to the institution. Documentary filmmaker and cultural critic Hito Steyerl writes on the commodification and corporatization of the art world and digital media. The benefits of ethnocinema include the dynamism of a participatory research methodology grounded in multi-sensory, performative, and relational doing-with.
