Protographing: an immersion into design research

Mural located at the construction site of Broadway Housing in Sugar Hill, Harlem

I was the only anthropologist in a room full of designers. They were talking about field research, supposedly something I knew well, so joining a design studio class wasn't so scary after all. Fieldwork was a common ground, and I felt I was in the right place and had skills to offer to the group, however some of their practices sounded unfamiliar and I doubted whether I would agree with them.

When enrolling for this class I was expecting to learn designers' methodology of problem solving in addition to understanding why they claim ethnography as one of their tools of research. While doing double fieldwork, I would have to be conscious of my multiple roles, switching between the characters of observer, observed and partner, all very entangled and confusing. During our first field trip to Harlem, the target community, I saw myself trapped inside my own adventure.

The site visit turned out not to be an ethnography, it was rather a glimpse of Harlem guided by a romantic and nostalgic resident. I spent most of the time struggling to determine if he was playing his role in the name of Harlem's community, or if the site was really his passion. But judging the man’s character was what took my mind away, which was much more fun than sightseeing. In fact, I enjoyed doing that so much that sometimes being an anthropologist legitimizes my tendency of being nosy.

As confusing as double ethnographing could be, by the end of the day I realized I hadn't paid enough attention to the site, nor to my colleagues. Maybe I failed as an anthropologist. Perhaps I didn't know how to do ethnography. Or to be honest, I thought, sightseeing made me drowsy, and wondering about that guy's life was more interesting. However, it never entered my mind that ethnography could sometimes just be like that, boring.