I was listening to the American Public Media program Marketplace when a commentary came on by someone that does not keep her personal photos at work or photos of people she works with at home. Yep, you gotta keep that strict separation of church and state. Apparently some large unnamed company in Britain has banned employees from keeping knickknacks like personal photos or other items on their desks, and the employees were a grumbling about it.…
Month: February 2007
What Clowning Teaches about Rapport
A clown is a poet that is also an orangutan
– Attributed to various people.
One key to a good ethnographic interview is the ability to gain rapport with the person you are talking to. Rapport can be a mysterious thing, you are a stranger talking to another stranger asking questions and often taking a more intimate look into their lives than they might even share with friends or family.
One framework for thinking about interviews that I have comes from the physical theater theatrical clowning of the late Paris mine and teacher Jacques Lecoq.…