Ariadne’s Thread: Interweaving Creative Expressions in Ethnographers’ Practices

In a historical moment characterised at the same time by an attempt of weaving creativity into ethnographic practice and by a neopositivist turn, this article brings together the practices and reflections of five authors, working in the fields of anthropology, illustration, and theatre. Its aim is to interrogate, on the one hand, “writing” as the main ethnographer’s activity and, on the other hand, the heuristic potential of ethnographic practices that embed creative methodologies and alternative writings. The analysis, based on our experience and presented through words and images, takes three empirical cases: drawing, affect theatre and graphic recording. By pointing out the epistemological, analytical, and representational value of weaving creativity ethno-graphic practice, we will reflect, in the conclusions, upon the conditions needed to foster the recognition of creative practices, and we will interrogate the very notion of scientificity in contemporary academic work.