Not all research is done solely with words. Some are drawn in images, others unfold in maps, films, or visual notebooks. There are investigations that demand voice, gesture, surface, and movement. It is in this territory where anthropology approaches art, literature, and cinema that the Anthropological Laboratory of Writing and Image (Teardrop), linked to the Department of Anthropology of the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH), has built a path marked by experimentation.
Created in 2015, the group will hold, from April 15th to 17th, the “10 Years of La'grima Symposium: Contributions of Writing in Anthropological Experimentations”, which will bring together researchers, teachers, students and guests around a question that runs throughout the history of the laboratory: in how many ways can knowledge be produced, narrated and shared?
Throughout its first decade, La'grima dedicated itself to the investigation of writings and images. For Fabiana Bruno, researcher and one of the group's coordinators, the laboratory has established itself as a point of experimentation on ways of producing knowledge. "Writings function less as a theme and more as a way of thinking about research," she says. "Anthropology is a discipline historically very much guided by writing and description, and the laboratory has helped to broaden this perspective."
The researcher explains that her research focuses, for example, on family photographs. “Understanding photography not only as an image surface, but in relation to orality, memory, and other forms of writing. Anthropological writing is also central and is not seen in opposition to images, but always in relation to them,” she explains.
With hybrid programmingThe event will be held in the Fausto Castilho Auditorium, in the undergraduate building of the IFCH (Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences), with online streaming via the Institute's YouTube channel. YouTubeThe program includes discussions and a showcase of La'grima's productions, which can be viewed at [website address]. digital file "Line Writing"
The symposium's opening will be led by Professor and researcher Suely Kofes, coordinator of the laboratory since its creation, with the panel "We painted the voice on the stones, and what gave sanctity to our words was the song of seeing: writings and lines, ten years later."
Ways of narrating
According to researcher Daniela Feriani, a member of the group since its founding, one of the strongest hallmarks of this trajectory is precisely the openness to unconventional forms of writing and research. She emphasizes that this experimentation appears not only in the content of the research, but also in its material form, with works that go beyond the linear structure of the page, incorporating surfaces, images, drawings, and visual devices as part of the thought process itself.
Feriani, a researcher on dementia and neurodivergence, points out that more and more theses and dissertations are experimenting with different writing styles. “Without losing scientific rigor, we seek a language that can reach wider audiences, whether through more poetic, essayistic, visual, or audiovisual writing,” she states. “A film, for example, is much more accessible than an academic article.”
“During my postdoctoral studies, I created a website myself with research materials, specifically thinking about how to present these visual materials beyond purely academic writing. It's a way to make the research reach other places,” the researcher adds.
Feriani cites examples of what is developed at La'grima, such as the "Cinema Room" project, which features screenings of films with ethnographic content. "We choose a film to discuss. We watch the film, promote discussion, and, when possible, invite the author or director to participate," she says. She also highlights the reading seminars, in which a work or theme is chosen for discussion. "This semester, for example, we are working with the theme of dreams," she says.
Professor Mariana Petroni from the University of International Integration of Afro-Brazilian Lusophony (Unilab), also part of the La'grima research team, highlights the laboratory's constant openness to new ideas as one of its main achievements. "The fact that it's an experimental laboratory allows us to incorporate new languages and changes without losing our commitment to scientific and anthropological rigor," she observes. "If we stop experimenting, we lose our essence."
Currently based in Salvador, Petroni maintains projects in dialogue with the group and emphasizes the strength of the network built over the decade. According to her, the La'grima experience has enabled exchanges between universities and new forms of knowledge production, especially in research related to photography, image, and visual anthropology.
"My research works with Indigenous photographs taken by and about Indigenous people, in this dialogue of writings, in order to understand both the production and the image itself, always from an anthropological perspective," she adds.
new generations
The La'grima team has observed a growing interest from younger generations in the laboratory. “Undergraduate students have been seeking out the group to develop research that engages with film, image, drawing, and other modes of writing. It has also been very interesting to see the growing interest from younger students, especially undergraduates,” says Bruno.
The coordinator emphasizes that, in addition to scholarship recipients, many student collaborators seek out the laboratory because of their interest in issues of writing. "They want to develop undergraduate research projects based on images, other modes of writing, and even film production. We feel a very strong force in this interest from the new generations."
Bruno also highlights that La'grima's trajectory has been marked by a broad network of dialogue with other research centers, both in Brazil and abroad. Among the so-called "cousin laboratories," with which the group maintains constant dialogue, are Sensolab, at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia; the Laboratory of Image and Sound in Anthropology (Lisa), at the University of São Paulo (USP); the Center for Visual Anthropology (Navisual), at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS); and the Urban Traces Study and Research Group, at the Federal University of Ceará (UFC). "These partnerships are fundamental for the exchange of research and for the circulation of researchers between institutions," he states.
For her, experimentation “is, above all, about raising questions” and reflecting on how to share information to make it more accessible. “We are not a laboratory of ready-made answers. La'grima reflects theoretically and epistemologically on anthropological practice, and therein lies a future. We have a solid foundation of questions and, at the same time, an open horizon,” she adds.
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Access the digital archive "Grafia em Linhas" (Writing in Lines).
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