The Multimodal Promise: Toward a Politics of Ethnographic Encounter
No. 59 (2025-04-18)Author(s)
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Isaac Marrero-GuillamónUniversitat de Barcelona, SpainORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7888-3769
Abstract
The ongoing debate on multimodal anthropology has created a vital disciplinary space for reflection, exchange, and experimentation. Within these discussions, the diversification of ethnographic fieldwork methods—alongside innovative ways of presenting research findings, such as exhibitions, audiovisual pieces, theater performances, board games, digital interfaces, drawings, graphic novels, radio dramas, and video clips—has been closely tied to the pursuit of a more collaborative, public, and engaged anthropology. This article contributes to the theorization of multimodal anthropology by focusing on the effects of expanding the modes of encounter and relation that sustain ethnographic practice. Drawing inspiration from the work of Sara Ahmed (2019) and Marina Garcés (2023), I introduce the concept of the “multimodal promise,” understood as an aspiration for the future that is anchored in a present commitment. I then analyze two multimodal projects, Bordando cuerpos que escuchan and Cocinar Madrid – Poéticas del Gusto, which, through embroidery and cooking, developed a politics of ethnographic encounter centered on listening, care, and hospitality. In both cases, an embodied and feminist research approach fostered co-learning processes that challenge the dominant forms of knowledge production in anthropology, urging us to rethink the frameworks through which research is valued. The article concludes by positioning the version of multimodality advocated throughout the discussion within broader debates on the ethics and politics of research, as well as recent conversations in collaborative, multimedia, and multisensory anthropology.
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