Experimental ethnography

Experimental ethnography is an approach to studying and interpreting the cultures of everyday life that applies techniques from experimental film and art, including montage, found footage, collage and surrealist devices. Unlike traditional academic ethnography with its claim to objective, detached observation, this approach consciously acknowledges the author's subjectivity and the poetic, fragmentary nature of any cultural description. It blurs the boundary between document and artwork, between research and the poetry of the image. The practice has roots in the surrealists' interest in the "other" and in ethnographic material, and was developed by artists and theorists ranging from structural film to contemporary video art. Artists use archival footage, amateur recordings and personal narratives to question the power relations inherent in the very act of observing and representing. Such a reflexive, critical method resonates with contemporary Ukrainian authors who explore local memory, ritual and identity while avoiding a colonial, condescending gaze.