This unit is a lot more academic than the specialisations we chose, as we have to complete an 8 minute audio paper, to be seen as a trial for our final year dissertation in which we are able to produce an audio essay instead of written one. The idea of not having to physically write an essay definitely sounds appealing to me.
For the first lesson we went through different types of documentary ‘modes’, which I have written down and included in the pictures of my notes above. After the class, someone mentioned that in reality all of these modes are a paradox as you can never document anything without any bias at all. Even if you are coming from the most objective angle, you are always going to write/record what you are speaking on through your own lens ultimately. I feel like the main point of the lecture was that you simply have to be aware of your bias and therefore treat your approach to your research as a cycle of investigation, interrogation and understanding of the topic you’re focusing on.
There are still many things that confuse me about ethnographic writing, but the overall idea is that it is as much about representation of a topic/culture as it is an investigation. As I move forward into researching, I think it is important that I choose a topic that I can immerse myself in and empathise with, rather than something that may be more ‘important’ but doesn’t allow me to fully immerse myself in because of my current location/access to information.
For now, I will put some thought into figuring out what route I want to go down and how I might go about researching.