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Wordless Language Game 01: Early childhood goes digital
By Pip Hare, Bina Mohn, and Astrid Vogelpohl

178 filmic fragments showing camera-ethnographic observations from 14 diverse families, 22 verbs (practices), and 13 nouns (media) to choose from in order to create individual ensembles of films for further investigation: the Wordless Language Game is an invitation to sort and observe; compare, contrast, and interrelate; identify, describe, and discuss. Many of the observational fragments reveal wordless activities, which make it particularly challenging to find words to define and describe them. Our title “Wordless Language Game” references Wittgenstein’s “Language Games”. The aim of the game is to discover what differentiates the filmed practices from one another, as well as what they have in common. The Wordless Language Game is a compelling tool for both researchers and their audiences: an instrument with which to explore the media practices of early childhood and the challenge of perceiving and describing them.

 

Production: 2016–2018

First public presentation: 2018

Research context:
Collaborative research centre “Media of Cooperation”
University of Siegen 2016–2019

Research project: “Early Childhood and Smartphone. Family Interaction Order, Learning Processes and Cooperation”
Principal investigator: Jutta Wiesemann

Collaborative camera ethnography: 
Bina Mohn, Pip Hare and Astrid Vogelpohl

Participants:
Scout, Molly, Hunter, Kate (Davo), Jarrod, and Kate; Levi, his grandma, Will and Olya; Lissa, Rodie, and Jire; Rebecca and Joyce; Sydney, Joie, and Immanuel; Keitaro and Adrian; Asriel, Rodie, and Abigail; Sunika and Atoula; Alina, Alisha, and Anna; Annya and Shubhra; Krishang, Monika and Sadhana; Avani, Saavi, and their family; Elodie, Christoph, and Marie Theres; Bisan, Zubei, Fatima, Ali, and Najla; Taavi, Charlene, And Esko; Carl, his grandma, and Judith; Nauka, Alva, Thurid, Mathias, and Elsa; Alva, her grandma, Franziska, and Reiner

Excerpts from home videos:
by Mathias Westebbe, Reiner Buchholz, and Judith Dobler

Programming:
Jochen Voerste, Concept AV Berlin

Translation:
Pip Hare

System administration:
Nathanael Klein

Contact:
bina.mohn@uni-siegen.de
Collaborative research centre “Media of Cooperation”
Project “Early Childhood and Smartphone. Family Interaction Order, Learning Processes and Cooperation”
http://www.cameraethnography.com

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