Visual Anthropology and Photo Ethnogryphy

Nowadays Visual Anthropology and Photo Ethnography are getting more and more popular. It is everywhere, people use it for a lot of reasons. Some use it for research, others use it for better understand and even use it as a form of teaching. Many producers and directors also use these methods for their movies because it can help relay a message even if it is fiction. If you get the right techniques then even a fictional movie can be relatable or have a deeper meaning.

Personally I like these two methods because photos and videos are always eye-catching more than only words. To add in, it’s easier to express your feeling and emotion through photos and videos. A presentation without any photo or video is boring to me and usually makes me fall asleep. Beside that, by asking the research participant to document an aspect of their life with photography, it helps provide the researcher with more insight into the context that they're studying. Visual Anthropology and Photo Ethnography is a great way to gain more empathy for your user. When the participant records information for you, you're able to experience the scenario from their perspective. From there, you can create a product, a design or find a suitable solution for the users.

However, the methods also have some disadvantages. Because it uses photo and video to analyze and gather information so it’s quite time- consuming. Sometimes to find participants to help you conduct this method is also a problem. Some difficult and sensitive topics are very hard for you to find participant to document that topic.

I am a kind of person who interested in photos and videos more than only words. I prefer visual expression and find it easier to express myself with pictures, stories, and music. That is why I want to use this method. Visual anthropology is also suitable for people who are uncomfortable and often uncommunicative in new situations or have short attention spans and need continual stimulation to keep them focused. To me, sometimes visual can be more important than written text.

Formative and Summative Research

In my FYP, there are several types of research method I can use to support my project. Two of the most common kinds of research are Formative Research and Summative Research. Each of the methods have their own importance but both of it is quite useful for people who want to do some research for their project.

Formative research is a kind of developmental research or action research that is intended to improve design theory for designing instructional practices or processes. It’s usually used to determine and refine the project planning process, provides accurate, up-to-date information to strategically develop that project. Formative research is used during their development or early implementation of the design project to guide the entire process. In this type of research, they could use many methods and different sources to take into account different perspectives and crosscheck the data obtained. Formative Research is important because By using this research method, people are able to identify problems at an early stage of process and refine as needed, pinpoint and highlighting data in programs, to gain insight into the subject the project deals with, helps in problem identification and helps researchers have a better understanding of its target audience.

Meanwhile, Summative research is done at the end of a project and is used to determine its success. It can also gauge customer satisfaction or aid in the development of future projects. Summative research is used to frame the outcome of an investigative process. It’s usually use to collecting assessments data that allows teachers to evaluate the growth of their students. The data is used to reflect on the way of teaching and make necessary adjustments depending on the results, as well as to judge the efficiency of the program/course itself. People conduct summative research by collecting data through questionnaires, surveys, interviews, observations and testing. The important thing about summative research is that people can evaluate a project through the final outcome, so that they can take it as an experience to improve on the next project.

However, the final outcome is not always reflecting correctly the whole process.  For example it a student did very good job during his studying period. On the day of final exam for some reason, he couldn’t make it well. So does it he fails for all that semester? Personally I think that in order to have an accurate result, we should use both Formative and Summative Research. Each methods has their own pros and cons, so it can support each others to come out with the most accurate result.