No longer content to theorize the ends of the discipline and possibilities of new media, new locations, or new methods of asking old questions, Ethnographic Terminalia is working to develop generative ethnographies that do not subordinate the sensorium to the expository and theoretical text or monograph. The terminus is the end, the boundary, and the border. It is also a beginning, its own place, a site of experience and encounter.
Ethnographic Terminalia was a curatorial collective grounded in a commitment to pushing the boundaries of anthropological scholarship and contemporary art through interdisciplinary exhibitions. Between 2009 and 2019 the collective (Kate Hennessy, Trudi Lynn Smith, Fiona P. McDonald, Craig Campbell, and Stephanie Takaragawa) curated group exhibitions and projects in major North American cities. These projects demonstrated how contemporary artists, anthropologists, and institutions are engaging with ethnographic methodologies and art. The majority of the exhibitions were mounted as ‘para-sites’ or ‘off-site installations’ to the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association. They facilitated and championed works that explore new media, new locations, and new methods in anthropology and cultural studies.
The collective worked with more than 140 artists and anthropologists over more than 10 exhibitions and projects, generating ongoing creative collaboration between anthropological researchers and practicing artists. Our exhibitions and the works in them were widely reviewed and publicized in both discipline-specific journals and the popular press. In 2015, we were honoured to be awarded the American Anthropological Association Council for Museum Anthropology’s Michael M. Ames Prize for Innovative Museum Anthropology.
Ethnographic Terminalia, 2009, Crane Arts, Philadelphia, PA. Photo by Fiona P. McDonald.
Ethnographic Terminalia, 2010, DuMois Gallery, New Orleans, LA. Photo by Craig Campbell.
Ethnographic Terminalia: Field, Studio, Lab. 2011. Eastern Bloc Centre for New Media and Interdisciplinary Art. Montréal, QC. Photo by Rachel Topham.
Audible Observatories: Ethnographic Terminalia, 2012. SOMArts + Alley Cat Books, Distributed locations. San Francisco, CA. Photo by Trudi Lynn Smith
Exhibition as Residency– Art, Anthropology, Collaboration. Ethnographic Terminalia 2013. Arts Incubator at Washington Park, Chicago, Il. Photo by Rachel Topham.
Zoe Bray: Seeing Ethnography. Presented by Ethnographic Terminalia. Margaret Mead Film Festival, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY/ Photo by Fiona P. McDonald.
The Bureau of Memories: Archives and Ephemera. Ethnographic Terminalia 2014. Hierarchy Gallery, Washington D.C. Photo by Trudi Lynn Smith.
Ethnographic Terminalia Presents: Aeolian Politics. 2015. Emmanuel Gallery, Denver, CO. Photo by Trudi Lynn Smith.
Terminus: Archives, Ephemera, and Electronic Art. Ethnographic Terminalia 2015. ISEA 2015, grunt gallery. Vancouver, BC. Photo by Reese Muntean.
The Photo Essay is Dead, Long Live the Photo Essay! Workshop, Zine Publication, 2015. Minneapolis, MN
At the Terminus. Ethnographic Terminalia, 2019. Centre for Digital Media, Vancouver BC
Ethnographic Terminalia Curatorial Collective Publications and Reviews
Catalogues
Ethnographic Terminalia 2014: The Bureau of Memories: Archives and Ephemera. Hierarchy Gallery, Washington D.C. Arlington, VA: Society for Visual Anthropology. [Amazon.com]
Ethnographic Terminalia 2013: Exhibition as Residency–Art, Anthropology, Collaboration. Arts Incubator in Washington Park. Chicago, IL. Arlington, VA: Society for Visual Anthropology.
[Amazon.com]
Ethnographic Terminalia 2012: Audible Observatories. SOMArts and Alley Cat Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Arlington, VA: Society for Visual Anthropology. [Amazon.com]
Ethnographic Terminalia 2011: Field, Studio, Lab. Eastern Bloc Centre for New Media and Interdisciplinary Art, Montreal, QC. Arlington, VA: Society for Visual Anthropology. [Amazon.com]
Ethnographic Terminalia 2010: New Orleans. DuMois Gallery, New Orleans, LA. Arlington, VA: Society for Visual Anthropology. [Amazon.com]
Ethnographic Terminalia 2009: Philadelphia. Crane Arts, Ice Box Gallery, Philadelphia PA. Arlington, VA: Society for Visual Anthropology. [Amazon.com]
Zines
Terminus: Archives, Ephemera, and Electronic Art was produced in a workshop of the same name at the 2015 International Symposium for Electronic Art in Vancouver. It was printed in limited numbers and distributed at the grunt gallery. It is also available as an e-publication along with documentation of the workshop and related exhibition ARCTICNOISE by Geronimo Inutiq, curated by Britt Gallpen and Yasmin Nurming-Por.
(2015) Terminus: Archives, Ephemera, and Electronic Art. Ethnographic Terminalia and Tarah Hogue (Eds.). grunt gallery and Ethnographic Terminalia. [E-book and workshop documentation is available here]
(2016) The Photo Essay is Dead, Long Live the Photo Essay! was produced in a workshop at the 2016 Meetings of American Anthropological Association, printed in collaboration with Minneapolis’s Beyond Repair (Sam Gould) and disctributed at a closing event at the conference.
[Zine and documentation available here]
Exhibition Reviews and Articles
Ethnographic Terminalia Collective.
“Anecdote-ing as a curatorial tactic for the Ethnographic Terminalia Collective” in Anthropologist as Curator, edited by Roger Sansi. London: Bloomsbury Press. Forthcoming Spring 2020.
Ethnographic Terminalia Collective.
“Form and Function: Between Art and Anthropology for the Ethnographic Terminalia Collective” in On Collaboration, edited by George E. Marcus and Dominic Boyer. Cornell University Press. Forthcoming Spring 2019.
Ethnographic Terminalia Collective.
2018. Spanish Translation of “Bureau of Memories” for Antropología Visual. Published by Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UNAL) and Esfera Pública. ISBN: 978-607-8393-47-3. [Link]
Manderson, Lenore.
2016. Ethnography at its Edges: Forces in the Wind. American Ethnologist 43(4):752-754
Buckley, Liam.
2016. Ethnography at its Edges: Bringing in contemporary art. American Ethnologist 43(4):745–751
Stoller, Paul.
2015. On the Margins of Anthropology. Huffington Post. December 2, 2015. [Link]
Houdeshell, Aubrey.
2015. Interactive Art at the Emmanuel Gallery: Anthropology Collective Harnessing the Wind. The Advocate (CU-Denver). November 18, 2015. [Link]
Bray, Zoe.
2015. Anthropology with a Paintbrush: Naturalist–Realist Painting as “Thick Description.” Visual Anthropology Review, Vol. 31, Issue 2, pp. 119–133.
Stoller, Paul.
2015. The Bureau of Memories: Archives and Ephemera. Fieldsights – Visual and New Media Review, Cultural Anthropology Online, March 20, 2015 [link]
Campbell, C., Hennessy, K., McDonald, F.P., Smith, T., Takaragawa, S., and Miller, T.R.
2015. Ethnographic Terminalia––After the Bureau of Memories: Reflections at the Intersections of Archives, Art, and Anthropology. Adami, E. and Ferrini, A. Eds. Mnemoscape Vol. 2 [link]
Scott, Monique.
2014. Exhibition Review Essay. “White Walls, ‘Black City’: Reflections on ‘Exhibition as Residency—Art, Anthropology, Collaboration’.” Visual Anthropology Review 30(2):190-198. [link]
Hazen, Jacqueline.
2014. Review of the 37th Annual Margaret Mead Film Festival, Oct. 17-20, 2013. Visual Anthropology Review 30(1): 92-95. [Download PDF]
Snyder, Rob.
2013. Exhibition Review. ART-THROPOLOGY: Ethnographic Terminalia at the Washington Park Arts Incubator. Southside Weekly. [LINK]
Campbell, Craig, Kate Hennessy, Fiona P. McDonald, Trudi Smith, Stephanie Takaragawa.
2013. Thinking Through Collaboration. Anthropology Now (special online series on collaboration). [LINK]
Butler, Shelley R.
2013 Exhibition Review Essay. Ethnographic Terminalia: Field, Studio, Lab. Museum and Curatorial Studies Review 1(1):116-124.[Download PDF]
Errington, Shelly
2012 Exhibition Review Essay. Ethnographic Terminalia: 2009–10-11. American Anthropologist. 114(3): 538-542. [Download PDF]
Schoemaker Holmes, Jacqueline
2011 Visual ethnography at the intersection of art and science. Council of Canadian Academies.[Download PDF]
2011 – A special issue of Visual Anthropology Review featured a number of articles and reviews. Link below to download the articles.
Brodine, Maria, Craig Campbell, Kate Hennessy, Fiona P. McDonald, Trudi Lynn Smith, Stephanie Takaragawa.
2011 Ethnographic Terminalia: An Introduction. Visual Anthropology Review 27(1):49-51.
Campbell, Craig
2011 Terminus: Ethnographic Terminalia. Visual Anthropology Review 27(1):52-56.
Hennessy, Kate, Fiona P. McDonald, Trudi Lynn Smith, Stephanie Takaragawa.
2011 Ethnographic Terminalia 2010: New Orleans—27 Works. Visual Anthropology Review 27(1):57-74.
Brodine, Maria T.
2011 Struggling to Recover New Orleans: Creativity in the Gaps and Margins. Visual Anthropology Review 27(1):78-93.
Miller, Thomas Ross
2011 Ethnographic Termini: Of Moments and Metaphors. Visual Anthropology Review 27(1):75-77.
Boyer, Dominic
2011 A Gallery of Prototypes: Ethnographic Terminalia 2010, Curated by Craig Campbell, Fiona P. McDonald, Maria Brodine, Kate Hennessy, Trudi Lynn Smith, Stephanie Takaragawa. Visual Anthropology Review 27(1):94-96.
Gomoll, Lucien
2010 Ethnographic Terminalia review. Visual Anthropology Review, Vol. 26, Issue 1, pp. 32–35.