Presentation
The thematic line Visual Anthropology and Arts Laboratory (NAVA) is a platform of debate and research in the areas of anthropology of art and anthropology of performance that revolves around both the still and the moving image, and around the ‘worlds of art’ and their networks of intention. It creates a convergence space within CRIA for all researchers working in anthropology that have an interest in visual research. This interest includes the production, creation, presentation, circulation and reception of artistic and visual production in several different contexts. Within this framework, NAVA seeks to, on the one hand, welcome and encourage ethnographies of artistic and visual practices as well as the circulation and reception of the arts of visual cultures, and, on the other hand, foment and reflect upon a methodological dialogue between art and anthropology.
NAVA also promotes the articulation of these academic interests with film and artistic production, particularly of ethnographic character, enhancing the effort to bridge the worlds of arts and cinema with academia, and vice versa. This approach is characterized by an important process of self-reflexivity. Film production is especially encouraged, and a support network of human and technical resources is available to researchers who want to incorporate visual methods in their projects. In this scope, NAVA works in close collaboration with the Audiovisual Laboratory and actively promotes the participation of post-graduate students of Digital Visual Cultures (ISCTE-IUL) and Anthropology: Visual Cultures (NOVA FCSH).
