SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This paper is based on one-year drawing the daily life of a public tertiary hospital in Myanmar. It explores the intimacy drawing affords one with the field, new and uncommon power relations that emerge when drawing in a hierarchical space such as a hospital and notions of getting lost in fieldwork. I spend the past year, the fieldwork-year of my PhD journey, drawing my way through a public tertiary hopsital in Myanmar - the same hospital I spent since 2015 drawing in the role of project architect for the renovations of the hospital buildings and developing the campus’ masterplan. As a trained architect drawing is second nature to me. The experience of drawing as an anthropologist to that of an architect is different and similar at the same time – as an architect I draw with speculation about a future that might or might not come. As an anthropologist I draw what is, what I see. In both instances I draw to understand, the process of drawing affords intimacy with field beyond words. This paper will tell a story of the drawings I made in the field - the intimacy they created with “my hospital”. How they allowed me to see, to engage and to collaborate, becoming a mode of analysis as well as a tool for writing. While spending my days with my sketchbook, common power relations were reversed and challenged, and I got lost in drawing while finding anchorage in my drawings.