Thing Ethnography
[ thing eth-nog-ruh-fee ]An unusual approach to ethnography that, rather than observing people, tries to imagine the perspective of objects and devices.
The objective is to understand relationships among people, things, and infrastructures that standard observations or interviews might miss. Thing Ethnography can be done in many different ways—for example, by imagining objects could talk and interviewing them, or by collecting photographs from the point of view of objects.
By shifting focus to how things participate in and shape everyday life, it reveals hidden dynamics in the world. This approach challenges us to consider agency as distributed across humans and non-humans, making it a practical way to do start doing More-Than-Human Design.
