Digital Oak Park: an experiment

Abstract

This essay describes an attempt to convey anthropological knowledge by an innovative means. Combining text, photographs, and video clips in a nonlinear fashion, these four ethnographic portraits explore aspects of Oak Park, Illinois, an upper-middle-class suburb of Chicago renowned for its success in creating and maintaining ethnic diversity. The portraits explore the impact of this diversity among Euro-American, African American and lesbian families. One of the portraits examines the Oak Park Regional Housing Center, the cornerstone of the village's integration efforts. This experiment is offered as an alternative to the more common means of publishing scholarly research – the book or the film.

Keywords:

• Visual anthropology
• digital media
• new ethnography
• nonlinear format
• U.S. suburban studies
• racial integration

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jay Ruby

Jay Ruby is a retired Professor of anthropology at Temple University in Philadelphia. He has been exploring the relationship between cultures and pictures for the past thirty years. His research interests include: the application of anthropological insights to the production and comprehension of photographs, film, and television