Feral Feelers, Promiscuous Probes. On (Dis-)Assembling Our Toolboxes for Unruly Research

Vortrag | Lecture
Workshop "Exploring Unruly Sites of More-Than-Human Entanglements", AG Umweltethnologie | Environmental Anthropology, Berlin & Online, May 19-20 | 19./20.05.2022

It should be a simple equation, shouldn't it? Methods are chosen according to our research, according to our subject, and according to the questions we want to ask. But then it is all but self-evident how to make our choice. Methods and their applications are not only connected to concepts, and to disciplines, but also to tools and instruments, and to their uses. And there are rules at any level we are happy to apply. Skill comes with practice, and so does routine. At that point, traditions and conventions count in. Sometimes we even forget about not only having a choice, but the task to make it. Fortunately we are reminded to the latter whenever we find ourselves in situations and contexts that invite us or that demand to cross the borders of our disciplines, that are challenging our toolboxes, and thus also us to rethink, unlearn, undo what until then seemed to be certain, solid and fixed.

Actually it should seem like "unruly sites of more-than-human entanglements" are by definition sites, spaces and places where we find us almost immediately becoming unruly ourselves as researchers, of finding us confronted with this very challenge. And the contested zones of urban ruderal worlds should seem to be good starting points indeed to accept it as an opportunity – if only to discover later that it has been our professional blunting that had suggested there are sites, spaces and places not counting into that category. However, what does this mean exactly for our research practices? Where can we find, how can we develop, invent, and build appropriate methods and tools for an unruly research? Fortunately, over the past decades – and also before that – there have been many efforts we can build upon. So let us take a closer look both on the latter, and let us enter the field, in order to seek and find inspiration for (dis )assembling our toolboxes for unruly research. And let us give it a try.

tags: alltagskultur, alltagstechnologien, art & science, biosciences, biowissenschaften, communication, ecology, everyday culture, everyday technologies, green, grün, knowledge cultures, kommunikation, kunst & wissenschaft, material, material culture, materielle kultur, media, medien, ökologie, perception, tools, urban cultures, urbane kulturen, wahrnehmung, werkzeug, wissenskulturen