Chapter ARTIFACTS 

Artistic methods, multimodal artifacts and devices for fieldwork

Chapter Artifacts, proposes to consider artistic practices such as working with sounds, collective listening and critical walking as artifacts for methodological research tools in ethnography. In the first section of the Chapter, I argue for artistic practices to be considered as multimodal ethnography, emphasizing the role of the artists and cultural practitioners as scholars in social science research. In this section, I move beyond the "innovative" multimodal discourse that risks becoming ‘apolitical’ by emphasizing formality, functionality and aesthetics over the social and political motivations inherent in anthropological research. I propose to use the multisensory and affective aspects of Aesthesis (sensations and emotions) of artistic practices influenced by a ‘decolonial aesthetics’ as an useful approach to multimodality that moves away from a "merely" inventive process in the field. Building on sound, listening and critical walking as the basis for my own fieldwork experiments, in the second part of the Chapter, I explore the potential of the multisensoriality and affectivity of these practices for critical and political methods of engagement with the field, aiming to go beyond traditional ethnography.