Digitising Knowledge: Anthropology and New Practices of Digitextuality

Abstract

This article examines the subject of digitisation of cultural knowledge in light of the new intertextual possibilities within visual anthropology made possible by digital media. The article argues that new media present several challenges and opportunities for decolonising anthropological research through processes of documentation, visualisation and collaboration. These aspects will be examined by concentrating on a collaborative documentary video produced with the participation of indigenous Mapuche media-makers in Chile. The final product — a 48-minute documentary — was in part an attempt at testing how visual sampling and remixing of authored footage could be conceived as a novel form of collaborative storytelling in practice-based research.