The Playful Anthropology Workshop for MA students in Anthropology at QUB was embedded in the module Advanced Anthropological Methods, convened by Maruška Svašek. The course explores a variety of anthropological methods and ethical issues involved in anthropological research, and encourages students to experiment within and beyond the parameters of standard methodology. The course consists of 10 weekly two-hour seminars:

1. Sound, Silence and Movement in the Field
2. Walking, Talking and Visual Methods
3. Research as (Online) Affective Practice
4. Playful Ethnography Workshop
5. Evocative Writing and the Senses
6. Quantitative Methods
7. Research Ethics
8. Playful Ethnography Online Symposium with the University of Delhi and the Universit of Allahabad=
9. Coding and Interpreting Interview Materials
10. Reaching Audiences through Exhibitions and Performance

The workshop was a collaboration with the University of Delhi and the University of Allahabad, where postgraduate students played the same game in quite different urban environments. The students met to discuss and compare findings during an online symposium, where they presented Powerpoint presentations and showed the films they had produced.

Participating MA Students in Belfast: Arturo Eduardo Zacarias Aldaco, Alice Boyle, Niamh Connery, Anna Hollis, Kadence Hunt, Zihao Li, Muhua Liu, Rebecca Rice, Janette Stuart

Participating Visiting PhD student in Belfast: Selçuk Gündüz, University of Hacettepe, Ankara, Turkey.

Convenor: Maruška Svašek

Procedure: The students met on 13 February 2023 on the corner of Cupar Way and Lanark Way, (https://goo.gl/maps/K2p8jy2euGeZ6CuP9). The module convenor chose this starting point as it is the location of one end of one of Belfast many ‘peace walls’, which separate majority Catholic and majority protestant neighbourhoods. These walls are visible material traces of both the violent history of the region and the ongoing politics of reconciliation.

The starting point: the peace wall along Cusper Way

 

Following the rules of the game, we randomly chose set tasks and added a self-imposed task. The throw of a dice decided whether we would turn left or right. In each street we completed our tasks.

Names	Task	Self-Imposed Task	Image
Niamh and Arturo	Identify three smells in the street, write some notes about their source, and read these out while filming yourself	Bootview video clips 4 seconds and landscape
Selçuk and Alice	Take a photograph of something in the street that is brightly coloured. Film it while singing a few lines of a song	Take a video of movement  in the street
Anna and Jackson	Choose something that is visible in each street and draw it. Then ask a passerby to describe the object of the sketch and (if they allow) record their answer	Take a photo that reminds us of hope
Bex, Jenny and Sophie	Write a poetic impression about the street, focusing on the sounds that you hear	Act out a piece of graffiti or an impression of it
Amaria and Mihua	Ask a passer-by why they are in the street and what they normally do to stay healthy and (if they allow) record their answer	Take a picture of someone’s outfit
Maruška	Take a picture of hair against a contrasting texture	Take pictures of the other players as they are doing their tasks