About Me
Jennifer Fu
MSc Digital Anthropology
University College London '18
About the Project
I created this website as a product of the mini-ethnography I conducted on 3 photography-related Airbnb experiences. Instead of focusing on the guests, this project focuses on the hosts. The purpose of this project is to explore a London marketplace in the context of digital mediation. In my case, I did not pick a physical London market (e.g., Old Spitalfields Market); instead, I chose an online marketplace that is manifested in multiple locations around the world, including London. Digital anthropology is particularly suitable for exploring the digital infrastructures and tools that influence/make up the experiences of using Airbnb and going on Airbnb trips in London. With that said, as a digital anthropologist, I believe we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to incorprating digital story telling methods (i.e., visual, audio, sensorial) to express and explore the ways we experience the world with our informants. As such, I have not only attempted to analyze the roles that digital mediation play in these experiences, but explored the possibilities of "recreating" the experiential and epistemological of these trips by using carefully selected (but limited) digital presentation tools and methodologies throughout this website. Some of the topics I will explore include: Airbnb as a digital marketplace made up of "experts," experience and place-making in London, and the diverse roles of photography in these experiences.
This project is created as a part of my MSc degree in Digital Anthropology at UCL.
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Navigating the Website
This website consists of a homepage and 5 sections, which you can find immediately under the website title, Experiencing London with Airbnb. For the best experience, please browse this website on your desktop or laptop—the larger the screen, the better!
The homepage is made up of a curated photo portfolio from the trips I went on for this project. You can access it by clicking on the title of the website.
You are currently under the "About" tab, which gives you a very basic overview of the project and a guideline for navigating this website.
The "Background" tab starts by situating Airbnb in the hospitality market. It then walks you through how I chose the trips, what the trips were, the themes and questions that guided my research, and the methodologies I used to conduct my ethnography. This section ends with a short list of the references I used throughout the website.
The first part of "The Market" includes 2 videos that explore Airbnb's market infrastructure, access, design, and expectations. It then moves onto a discussion of the concept of "expertise" in Airbnb experiences. The last part of this section addresses Airbnb's role in the experiences and their commodity status.
"Experiencing London" is made up of three ethnographic accounts and three maps, one for each of the trips. These accounts seek to demonstrate some of the idiosyncrasies of the trips. An overarching theme that emerged was the personal co-creation of memories that resulted from the hosts and guests walking side-by-side, eyes fixed on the same things, and heading the same way. Other topics include the relationships between the hosts and London, my hosts' expectations for these trips, and the unpredictable nature of these trips. I included short audio recordings for two of the experiences—you can play the recordings to help you experience the soundscape of the trips.
The last section, "Photography as ?" illustrates four different ways photography featured in these trips: as a tool to legitimize my hosts' expertise, a form of communication, "not-just-documentation," and souvenirs. It may be helpful to open another window with the photo portfolio as you read through this section, especially the "not-just-documentation" part.
Enjoy browsing this website 😊!
P.S. There are two Instagram icons at the bottom of this page. If you're interested, you can find more street and architectural photography in the first one (@jenniferjoannfu) and some food photography in the second one (@futhefoodie).
© 2018 by Jennifer Fu.