Visual impressions from the tundra and the sea – Chukotka
Jaroslava Panáková – http://pamodaj.com/
The sub-discipline “Visual Anthropology” has played an important role in the development of my professional expertise. Besides the studies of visual perception and representations, the use of visual methods in data collection and analysis, teaching and public projects (my other family, Yupik Eskimo Symposium), I have produced my own ethnographic films, videos, and photographs. It began with my studies of documentary film-making at the prestigious Film Institute (FAMU) in Prague. At that time, I made two ethnographic films, which resulted from – and had feedback upon –- my anthropological research. These films explore the experiences of Siberian migrants of urban life (Seagull Flying against the Wind, 2005, 15’) and the transformation of a Chukchi- Yup‘ik hamlet into a tourist resort (Being a Tourist at Home, 2009, 38’). I also experimented with various genres, which resulted in an auto-ethnographic diary (faux pas. Fopíčko, 2008, 30’) and an anthropological observational musical (Immigration office Prague ‘07, 2007, 25’). Recently, I made another ethnographic film based on my research on death in Russian Beringia (Five Lives, 2016, 65’). I was also engaged in curating an exhibition on the same topic, Different Colours of White – Eskimo is not dead (2013), which, besides incorporating the work of five artists, also included my double-screen video projection (WHALE dance and Whale DANCE, 3’).
The video impressions on this web site reflect my (visual) brainstorming on the local perception(s) of the tundra and the sea.