About us
Documentary Film & Sensory Media Showcase
We flocked back together from Austria, China, Greece, Japan, Spain, the States, and many other locations, full of reunion hugs, hard drives filled with footage and photos, bags brimming with found objects, and minds overflowing with reflections on summers of fieldwork well spent. We returned to Manchester for Cric? Crac! 2015, with these pieces of summer to share.
From the 15th to 17th of October, around 300 people joined us for a weekend at Z-arts, viewing 15 documentary films and 15 sensory media installations. Each piece sparked dialogue, with panel discussions and artist-anthropologist talks to further catalyze conversations. Though individual presentations could exist independent of the whole, each anthropologic reflection resonated with those beside it, leaving a gallery and theater space filled with varied thematic interpretations of love, loss, community, and change.
Through sensory dialogues with more conventional modes of academic representation, visual anthropology steps outside of academia's ivory tower. Z-arts and the Cric? Crac! exhibition was our attempt to sever ourselves from whatever comfort that tower holds, and to share our work with you.
We, the Cric? Crac! collective, were thrilled for the opportunity to challenge audiences, and to be challenged by audiences, in turn. Thanks to all who contributed to the work with their presence and mental space. We could not be more grateful for your support.
Why Cric? Crac!
'No method nor discipline can supersede the necessity of being forever on the alert. What is a course of history or philosophy, or poetry, no matter how well selected, or the best society, or the most admirable routine of life, compared with the discipline of looking always at what is to be seen?
Will you be a reader, a student merely, or a seer?'
Henry David Thoreau, in 'Walden'
Henry David Thoreau, in 'Walden'
How do we look at what is to be seen? Listen to what is to be heard? Experience what is to be felt?
How can we get at what is experienced by the senses? And how can this be communicated to those who haven't shared in the experience?
These questions are central to visual anthropology and the work presented in Cric? Crac!
The title of our exhibition is inspired by the workshops of ethnographic filmmaker Jean Rouch. The phrase comes from the West African storytelling tradition, and its origins are attributed to a particular story of twin sisters who had a special way of communicating with each other. One sister would say 'Cric?' -- to which the other would say 'Crac!', playfully affirming their connection with one another.
'Cric?' - Are you there?
'Crac!' - Yes, here I am
'Cric?'- Are you ready?
'Crac' - Yes, let's go
These questions are central to visual anthropology and the work presented in Cric? Crac!
The title of our exhibition is inspired by the workshops of ethnographic filmmaker Jean Rouch. The phrase comes from the West African storytelling tradition, and its origins are attributed to a particular story of twin sisters who had a special way of communicating with each other. One sister would say 'Cric?' -- to which the other would say 'Crac!', playfully affirming their connection with one another.
'Cric?' - Are you there?
'Crac!' - Yes, here I am
'Cric?'- Are you ready?
'Crac' - Yes, let's go
Eventually the twins were separated. Years later, in a market one of them happened to say 'Cric?' Another woman nearby respond immediately 'Crac!' They knew instantly that they had found each other again.
During workshops, when a film had been screened, Rouch would exclaim 'Cric?'. If everyone was ready to move on to the next work, they replied 'Crac!'; their collective response was often accompanied with a sense of shared delight.
Interactive Research Map
This year's MAVAs (students of the Master of Visual Anthropology programme) are conducting fieldwork across the globe. Take a look at the map below to find out more about our projects!