Collaborative Experiments in Graphic Ethnography: Emulating Political Cartooning

This article provides insight into the usage of political cartooning as a graphic-ethnographic medium. I narrate how I emulated the style of a Greek political cartoonist from the mid-20th century to draw graphic panels with commentary about austerity in 21st century Greece.The graphics worked as a storyboarding method for setting up a theatre performance that never happened.The immediacy of drawing enabled the anthropologist and playwright to conceptualize their respective projects and clarify their ideas through collaborative dialogue.They used their respective arts (ethnographic drawing and play script writing) to draw analogies with the past, aiming to raise awareness about the consequences of austerity for contemporary youth. Emulating the style of a renowned cartoonist, who had criticized post-war austerity in the 1950s, has paved the way for generating critical responses from the ethnographer’s interlocutors in the present.