VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY LAB


A Visual Anthropology Laboratory has been established to capture the ethnographic nuances around important social issues concerning everyday life of local communities. The laboratory aspires to become the epicenter of documentation, projection and advocacy of anthropological insight at a national platform. Arguing that visual representation is one shade closer to reality in comparison to the conventional ethnography, the presence of Visual Laboratory helps in recording and analyzing history in a visual perspectiveas well as documenting visual imageries of present day life. The visual medium is becoming important genre for unfolding policy initiatives and programme by Development planners and administrators. Visual text and visual archives provide the necessary disciplinary insight in this direction for policy planning and governance.
Faculty-in-charge: Dr. Avitoli G. Zhimo (agzhimo@anthro.du.ac.in)

ACHIEVEMENTS
  • Supriya Pandey (VA 2020 | BSc Class of 2021) won the 2021 Undergraduate Student Award for Outstanding Work for her documentary film A Non WORKING Woman This award was bestowed by Society for Visual Anthropology, a section of American Anthropological Association.

  • Supriya Pandey (Visual Anthropology 2020 | BSc class of 2021) won the poster competition on the theme 'Gender Across Space: Moving from Parity to Parallelism' Organised by - KMC Geographia ( Geography Dept. Kirorimal college, DU) and featured in Bimonthly Magazine of KMC Geographia 2021.

  • Aakriti Thatal (Visual Anthropology 2020 | BSc class of 2021) micro documentary film '5 to 9: Women in Pandemic' got published by Zuban (Through her lens) 2021.'5 to 9: Women in Pandemic' is a micro-documentary attempting to explore gendered roles in Sikkim and how social class and economic stability serve as important factors in determining these roles and responsibilities. The pandemic has not had a neutral effect on all women and Aakriti broach this notion through short interviews with three women who come from different sections of the society.

  • Dr. Avitoli G. Zhimo's film 'The Village on the Cliff' was screened in Sibenik, Croatia during International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) Congress 2020, 14th March 2021.

  • A short film "Being Ansar"conceptualised and edited by Hardik Gaurav won Second prize in Short film competition at Antardhwani festival 2014.

    EXHIBITION & FILM SCREENING
  • Juan F. Cuyás, a PhD candidate Departament D'antropologia Social, Universitat De Barcelona delivered a talk on ETHNOGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHY on 7th February 2023, in the Seminar Hall. UG, PG and PhD students from Anthropology, Education, Law, Mathematics, Germanic & Romance studies attended. Total registered: 100
  • Naduvilpat, Anusree. 2022. ഉസ്കൂൾ(school). Visual Anthropology DU Lab. (Officially selected and screened at New Wave Documentary Short film Festival, held from 5-6 March 2022).
  • Kahn, Alison and Avitoli G. Zhimo. 2021. A visual critique on the 'Secret Museum of Anthropology' (1935). PHOTO OXFORD FESTIVAL (UK), HATCHED2021: Women Creating Landscapes. 4-5 November 2021.
  • Zhimo, A.G. 2020. The village on the cliff. Visual Anthropology Lab. (screened at IUAES World Congress 2020, 14 March 2021)

    PUBLICATIONS
  • Konyak, Eche.W, and Avitoli.G.Zhimo. 2022. 'Body Aesthetics: Contextualizing the Tattooing Culture of the Konyak Naga'. J. Indian Anthrop. Soc. 57(1): 61-77.
  • Zhimo, Avitoli G. 2021. "Animistic Motifs and the Cross: A Visual Narrative on Indigenizing Christianity". Visual Ethnography (Italy) 10(1). ISSN 2281-1605
  • Zhimo, Avitoli.G. 2021. ‘We were the Others: Visuality in Colonial Writings’. In Materiality and Visuality in North East India: An Interdisciplinary Perspective edited by Tiplut Nongbri and Rashi Bhargava. Singapore: Springer.
  • Zhimo, Avitoli.G. and Somen Rath. 2021. 'Tribal Arts and Aesthtics: Saora, Warli and Zeme'. SWAYAM, NRC Tribal Studies.

    ACTIVITIES
  • Ten days Research Methodology Course on "Participatory Digital Methodologies and Ethnographic Filmmaking" was organized for research scholars from 14-24 January 2019. Participants were from disciplines like Media studies, Culture studies, Social Work, Community Health and Medicine, Sociology, Gender Studies, Education. The Course was sponsored by ICSSR. Director: Prof. P.C.Joshi; Co-Director: Dr. Avitoli G. Zhimo. For details Click here
  • The Visual lab is instrumental in editing the lectures delivered by eminent scholars in webinars and virtual workshops organized by the department of Anthropology, University of Delhi. The videos are uploaded on the youtube channel 'Visual Anthropology DU'

    RESEARCH SCHOLARS
  • Eche Wangnyu Konyak (registered in 2016) 'Gender and Embodied Adornment : An Anthropological study of Dress among the Konyak'
  • Somen Rath (registered in 2019) 'An Anthropological Study of Saora Art: comparative analysis between Hill Saoras and Plain Saoras of Odisha'

    DOCUMENTARY and SHORT FILMS DEVELOPED BY UNDER GRAD STUDENTS FROM VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY LAB since 2018

         

         

         


    CLICK HERE for more ETHNOGRAPHIC FILMS / MICRO DOCUMENTARIES: Conceptualised and Edited by Students attached to Visual Anthropology lab.
    • HOME