Digital Young

I really want to talk about why ethnography is useful today from my point of view.

Well, ethnography is not just a “thing” that everybody can do. I totally empathize with something that a guy that I like says in a little movie to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aXLD4MfYO0. And that is that ethnography digs up common and everyday realities that we just pass by. Ethnography makes visible what is hidden for common people. How do you do it?

First, in the past, when the researcher was going to an exotic country, a totally unknown field, it was easy for him to spot those things that were different. Ant that because everything was different. From the way that people dressed to the way they lived. And I am talking here about exotic people, meaning persons that live far away from us. Something like that:

So, today, ethnography is more about space that we live in. The researcher has to spot differences and striking things in the world that he lives in. Something like this:

His work becomes more and more difficult. His task requires more and more sensibility from him and a high sense of observation. Of course there are still researchers who prefer to research the Far-Away Others, but I think that what is the most difficult is to study your own culture and, more specific, those everyday practices, actions, gestures, and realities. Like socialization in pubs ( a study made by Raluca Nagy, a very good anthropologist) or drinking and consuming coffee, or eating practices. Those things surround us and become more incorporated in our normal time and space. How do we use this time and space, remains another question that each anthropologist deals with in a specific way.

You might wonder: ok, so I got it, ethnography is about making visible what normal people don’t see anymore; but why and what is its utility? Beside the obvious reason, knowing better yourself, more and more industries have become aware that focus-groups and questionnaires don’t work anymore. These methods don’t bring to the surface but general observations, and there are sector activities who need more than that.

But also, ethnography, from the point of view of a researcher, is strongly interesting and motivating. All his work requires behavioral skills like tolerance, acceptance, flexibility and to be open towards the unknown and the unexpected. If a researcher thinks and expects that everything should be just peachy and nice, that he would research only nice and “safe” things then he is really blind and stupid. A researcher has to dig under the carpet. He has to discover things and in most of the cases, the places where he discovers things could not be so nice and funny.

He also should have some mental skills: high observation sense, predisposition towards reading (cause, yes, he should read a lot). And for practical skills? To know how to film. Tape recorder does not do the trick anymore and neither does the photo. So, he really should go for the camera. And that’s visual ethnography. That’s all I had to say about it for the moment. If I’ll remember something, I’ll be back.

Still about teens in Buzau. Maybe I bother you talking and talking about these guys, but I was really impressed by these teens. You might say that it is something really normal for teens to express themselves through these art forms: dance, graffiti or manga. But I will tell you that in this case it is not so normal after all. These kids have no source where to see these things or to learn how to do these things besides Internet. They also do not have places to express them. They also don’t have other local crews or groups to socialize with or to learn from. So, my question is: how do they do it? Isn’t this a legitimate question?

From these break dancers, I found out that there are teens for whom break dance is not the only art form for expression. It’s like they are a melting pot of urban art forms. Ionut Alexandru (aka Saga), 16 years, is a break dancer, a graffer, an extreme biker, an illegal car driver and he also does volunteering in a ONG. So…how does he deal with all these?

Graffiti sketches…

Graffiti on walls:

And…

Madalina, 16 years, she’s also a multi-functional-maker urban stylist. She’s more into graphics and manga, but she also does graffiti. Here are some of her works.

Manga:

She’s so incredibly talented, so I really wanted to show you what she does and how she does. Both of them, Ionut & Madalina, are witty, smart, interesting and do so many things that make a part of their everyday life. They identify themselves with every drawing, graffiti, or dance that they do. I liked them a lot, I only hope that this incredible talent do not waste and just transform into different art forms.

Ifrim, Cheeta, Alfred, Solo, Mono, Ionut, Venom, Tzaky, Electro, Vladissimo, Tazz, Adriana & Piciu are Crazy Style Crew.

They are really extraordinary. High school kids, they are from Buzau. Buzau is a capital of a departement in Romania, at 2 hours from Bucharest. It’s a very nice town, and here I found these interesting teens.

They are a crew of break dance. I found them rehearsing at Youth Center because they don’t have another place for rehearsals, besides, of course, the park. Starting to talk to them, I found out more about break dance in general and what that means for them.

I was astonished that these youngsters, not having any local contact with urban culture, they make it and create it. They are connected to a global culture and they learn about it from other sources than local ones. For instance, about break dance, it was really chocking for me to see that they wanted to do break dance and no other thing (like a traditional dance or other dance) and they ways that they learned figures and elements from. For instance, they have sites like www.3w.style2ouf.com, www.100pou1000.com or www.breakersmove.com, where they download movies from and try to reproduce them.

As history of their crew, they are now formed from the ex-crew (Icstrim) and the junior one, MDC. They exist for about 2 years, but the ones that formed initially the group left Buzau and came to Bucharest, as students. Therefore they were replaced by juniors.

Talking to them about what break dance means for them, they told me that it is a sport for them and not a dance. And this is my first observation; if outsiders perceive this thing as a dance, insiders see it as a sport. And they told me why: continuous rehearsals (2 or 3 hours by day, at Youth Center or in the park, at Foisor), discipline (in time, way of moving), body transformation (more mobile, more flexible).

Well, when they do these kind of thgs, I start to think that they’re right.

Starting to talk about break dance, they initiated me in their know-how; so, there are styles like footwork, top rock and personal style. Inside of their group, they form themselves in time on different positions: powermover (force elements), tricker (flexible elements), styler (legs elements), abstracts (combining different elements). So, a break dancer has to have some physical characteristics in order to perform, like flexibility, but there are other that, they say, can be obtained in time: balance, force, agility, tenacity, imagination and creativity. The last two are of course mental characteristics. And, as Ionut told me, you cannot exist without them. Even if you’re a good performer and you do well your elements, if you don’t prove creativity, you’re nothing.

A powermover.

And a styler:

But, as they told me, each one of them can have different positions, so one can be a tricker and a styler, which is the case of the boy from the anterior picture. All you have to have, “is to catch the beat. If you have the beat, there won’t be any problem”.

The know-how and all these elements are learned totally informal; they teach each other, they transmit the knowledge from the big ones (seniors) to younger ones (juniors). They also learn the elements from videos that they find on specialized web sites. They do a lot of rehearsals and they are extremely determined. For instance, they dance in clubs, discos and they already have two participations at national competitions. Performing.

Audience reactions.

And again performing.

This sport gives them a specific life style. They improve physically but also mentally (in terms of discipline). Even if their parents are against their children’s involvement (as they say that “this dance is for street people”), teens don’t care very much about it. A teen told me that his parents changed their opinion when they saw articles in local press and reports on local media about their child’s performance.

In relationship to their peers, the crew is highly seen and they have a lot of apprentices who stay in line in order to be accepted in the crew. For example, there were two girls who wanted to be in the crew, but they had to learn first basic elements. Their learning practices and appropriating elements that they see on Youtube are done in an informal and creative way. In the sense that they appropriate these elements (on the hard way, in terms of time and physical effort) in a very creative and imaginative manner; they don’t imitate, they create personal styles in function of their physical and imaginative capabilities. Through continuous exercise, they master elements but after that it’s on them how to combine them and what to express through body elements.