“On Curating and Meaning-Making: Anthropological Tools and Collective Knowledge Production” with Farah Hallaba

This lecture interrogates how curation, technology, and time shape cultural narratives and the collective production of anthropological knowledge.

This lecture explores the interplay of curation, meaning-making, and temporality in the collective production of anthropological knowledge. How do tools—both material and digital—mediate our understanding of time and shape cultural narratives? Exploring ethnographies, archives, digital platforms, and participatory research methods, we interrogate the ethical and epistemological implications of curating knowledge. By bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives and considering collaborative methodologies, this lecture invites critical reflection on how knowledge is co-produced, negotiated, and transformed through curation, technology, and the temporal dimensions of human experience.

Language: English with close-captions

Farah Hallaba (she/her) is a social anthropologist and visual ethnographer. In 2019, she started Anthropology Bel3Araby انثروبولوجي بالعربي, aiming to publicize anthropology in an accessible way and in Arabic. Through online videos and collaborative workshops, her work addresses topics around social class and migration to the Gulf.

This lecture is part of the Unwired Currents—Imagining Technology Otherwise free online lecture series challenging dominant narratives of design, knowledge-making, and technological progress.

The lecture series has been curated by Valentina Alcalde Gómez and Adriana Palencia from the Latin American platform Matería Oscura, alongside Maya Ober from Futuress. It is part of the Unwired Currents—Imagining Technology Otherwise larger collaborative project between the think & do tank Dezentrum and Futuress, along with the transnational collective Dreaming Beyond AI, designer and researcher Franca López Barbera, and Matería Oscura.

The program is possible thanks to a generous grant from the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.