ENDNOTE

The Sensuous Market and Sense of Place is my first attempt to do ethnography. I have encountered many challenges, but also learned a lot in the process. I am happy with my project in that it shows rich ethnographic materials and comprehensive analyses with reference to related academic concepts and frameworks. But this project is not an academic paper and it targets both academic and non-academic readers. So I manage to make it easier to read and comprehend. For example, I try to use less formal language in writing, explain the basic anthropological terms (such as ethnography), and make every paragraph shorter in order to accommodate more readers.

 

On the other hand, I think there is a lot of space for improvement. As a non-native English speaker, I have encountered many challenges in interviews. In conducting interviews, merely reciting the prepared questions is not enough. I have to accurately understand interviewees’ meaning, come up with new questions according to their answers, rearrange the order of questions, and give proper response. It should be more like a conversation rather than Q&A. When the topic drifts away, I have to guide to conversation and make sure the interview covers all the intended subjects. It’s difficult for me to do the above things altogether in my second language. For many times, only when I read the interview transcripts did I realise: I should have said/asked that.  

 

Besides, looking for participants was even more difficult. In my initial plan, participants should include a street performer and a street food vendor. But when I started recruiting participants in February, I seldom met street performers in Camden. Later I guess it might be because the weather was too cold at that time. And the street food stalls were always busy no matter weekends or weekdays. I didn’t want to disrupt their business so I gave up the plan. Finally I recruited three shop owners and a visitor who are very generous, gracious and helpful. Here I want to express my sincere gratitude to Lucas, Michael, Blake and James. Thank you all for taking your precious time in participating in my project, for kindly making allowance for my limited English vocabulary, and for making the wonderful contribution to this project.

 

In the middle to the end stage of the project, the difficulty lies in the analysis or interpretation of the ethnographic material. The biggest challenge is the uncertainty in ethnography. Before entering the field, the research questions were only based on very shallow pre-research. After several interviews, I found that I have to modify my research questions. As the research questions change, the approach and framework of analysis also needs reconsideration. And to be honest I still think the discussion about digital technology is a bit isolated from the rest two. How to come up with valuable research questions and adjust in face with the uncertainties have to be addressed in the future.

 

Although aesthetics and techniques are not marked in this coursework, I do think they are very important in digital anthropological projects. Because they largely determine the way of presentation, therefore determine the effectiveness of conveying information. One of the purposes of adopting digital technologies in presenting ethnography is to challenge the traditional text-only approach. So I try to incorporate immersive interactions in displaying and demonstrating my ethnographic materials. But the lack of techniques restricts the effect. The website shouldn’t be just an advanced power point slide. Digital means should be more than just text plus image (or video and audio). And aesthetics is important because it decides user experience, and influences how engaging the website is. The valuable knowledge deserves to reach as many audience as possible. An aesthetically pleasing website can have much better communication effect.

 

Another issue about digital anthropology is the anonymity. Although I have removed all the traceable textual information in the project, the images taken in participants’ shops are not 100% unsearchable. This is the nature of digital. But if I am not using any of the images or videos in their shop to guarantee complete anonymity, it would be less effective to illustrate the sensory experience and further weaken the functionality and effectiveness of the digital means. So I think there’s a contradiction between the traditional anthropological ethics of anonymity and the nature of digital methods. New paradigm is needed to address the issue, otherwise it might be a limitation of digital anthropology.

 

*All the names of participants are pseudonyms. All the photos and videos in the market were taken with the permission of shop owners and performances. They are fully informed of the purpose of the photos/videos.