A look into the meaning of „work“ in children’s and adolescent’s lives in urban Bolivia. An audio-visual ethnography and the impossibilities of picturing the other’s reality.
Supervisor: Prof. Michaela Schäuble
In Bolivia, child labor is not only omnipresent, but it is also anchored in cultural roots. The focus of my research is dedicated to the largest but most invisible group of society, represented by the working children’s organizations.
Through observation, video workshops, interviews and other mixed methods, I attempt to create a picture of the life realities of young people who had to start lucrative activities at an age Western understanding of childhood would qualify as too early.
As much as some child and youth worker’s lives are observed and analyzed, the external gaze is questioned: from the Eurocentric and Western discourse on “child labour” to my own gaze as a researcher, videographer and Western person. The latter is being described thickly, enumerating the ways, challenges and fails of attempts to uncover people’s life realities using audiovisual tools.
The research project is part of the SNF-funded research project “Research Video” at ZHdK. The project aims to explore the use of video in practice-based research and develops a tool for publication of research results through audiovisual material and video-annotation.
From the research material, a series of videos will emerge, exploring different aspects of childhood, youth and work in Bolivia, navigating between reality, fiction and performance.
Part of the SNF project: RESEARCH VIDEO - annotated videos as a new standard of publishing practice-based and artistic research
