This article provides a new take on the possibilities – and limits – of experimental collaborations for ethnographic research and how they might lead to shifts back in the disciplinary core. The series of ethnographic experiments outlined here help us rethink and, eventually, re-design our own tools and protocols of relevance in anthropology. By showing how art exhibitions can be used for knowledge-making, curatorial anthropology expands the notion of field and fieldwork, facilitating the participation of practitioners of different backgrounds in our ethnographies.

An expanded ethnography assumes that experimentation involves doing things differently, and not only with other means, providing resources and arranging venues through which to forge new kinds of relations. Furthermore, establishing the conditions for transforming ethnography into an experiment involves distributing analytical and representational capacities while reconfiguring the roles and responsibilities of research.

A more inclusive take on fieldwork allows us to open up a myriad of possible roles for anthropologists beyond observation and description, as these roles become themselves the object of ethnographic attention. This could benefit anthropologists and the discipline itself, as we are seeking to reach wider publics and navigate the contemporary complexities of authority and representation.

Keywords: art and anthropology, boundary work, disciplinary relevance, experimental collaborations, curatorial anthropology; transdisciplinary collaborations