The Ethnography of Absence: Mapping Emotions. Interactive exhibition

Family Rituals 2.0 is a collaborative research project between four UK universities funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Digital Economy programme. Research disciplines with in the project include anthropology, product design, psychology, design interaction and geography. The research is examining how quotidian family rituals contribute to wellbeing for mobile workers and their families during periods of work related separation. The project initially proposed that designers and anthropologists would undertake participant observation with families, but during pilot interviews it became abundantly clear that family time was sacrosanct and the research team were effectively denied access. This focused the project to develop tools for ethnographic encounters one of which was the ‘emotional map’