Animating the Future: Amplifying Youth Voices Through Ethnographic Animation
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article contributes to a visual anthropology of the future by introducing an innovative methodology based on coproduction of ethnographic animation—animated films that blend people’s lived experiences with imaginary scenarios informed by their desired futures. I developed this methodology collaboratively with animation practitioners and Indigenous artists, and I apply it ethnographically to explore how young people in Amazonia imagine the future amidst critical challenges they face in the present. In this article, I examine ethnographic animation both as a research method that uncovers young people’s under-represented needs and voices; and as an impact strategy that enables the participants to envisage alternative lifestyles and, in the process, to identify tangible pathways toward them. I demonstrate that by producing films on their ideal futures and then animating them—literally, “bringing them to life”—young people can begin to make these futures a reality, insofar as they are encouraged to think critically about the livelihoods they desire and how to build them. I thereby propose a shift toward an applied anthropology, one where coproduction of ethnographic knowledge can actively shape new ways of seeing the world and forge sustainable pathways toward inclusive futures.
Source: Visual Anthropology
Author: Camilla Morelli
Institution: University of Bristol
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4411809589