Dr Ricardo Leizaola PhD

I am a documentary filmmaker and anthropologist specializing in visual anthropology and ethnobotany. I have worked at Goldsmiths teaching audio-visual practice in the anthropology and music departments since I enrolled as ESRC funded PhD student in 2001.

I have conducted fieldwork in Caracas, Southern Ethiopia and London. My research interests include urban ethnobotany, ethnographic film, visual ethnography and information visualization. I have extensively collaborated with many institutions, researchers and artists producing academic, outreach and training videos.

I have conducted both my MA and PhD research in the neighbourhood of Pedregal, Caracas, where I have been collaborating with Luis Enrique Reyes Farfan digitising, archiving and exhibiting community and research generated still and moving images and audio recordings related to El Pedregal and the Palmeros de Chacao Pilgrimage. In 2018 Luis Enrique Reyes F., a Palmero himself, was responsible for providing many of the documentation accompanying their application to have the Palmeros pilgrimage certified as UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage which was granted on 2019. This project aims to share and preserve audio-visual representations as much as exchange research skills and practices.

I am currently exploring essay and archive videos and the use of the smartphone for audio-visual production. I am also conducting a multispecies research on avocado trees in London and the Anthropocene which involves a fieldwork and web-based research, including social media.

External PhD Supervisor

Marie Therese Shortt (May 2015)
Patterning Culture: Developing a System for the Visual Notation of Greetings
2015-2013 University for the Creative Arts