Audio-Visual Commission of the SAA

About CAV

In 1971, the Film Commission was established concomitant with the foundation of the SAA. In 1977, it was renamed «Commission for Audio-Visual Documentation» until it became the «Audio-Visual Commission of the SAA» or "CAV.

Audio-visual media have gained considerable significance in ethnographic practice as well as in the production of anthropological theory. The CAV aims to facilitate a constant professional exchange between anthropologists of all Swiss Universities that are teaching and researching with, and about the use of, audio-visual media, seeking to establish national and international networks in the research areas of Audio-Visual and Multimodal Anthropology.

The main purpose of the Commission for Audio-Visual Anthropology (CAV) is to expand, curate, and archive the audio-visual collection of the Swiss Anthropological Association (SAA). In addition, the CAV initiates and supports anthropological projects that involve multimodal media productions.

A key component of this work is the digital audio-visual archive, hosted on the Nanoo TV platform, which provides access to the CAV’s collection of ethnographic films and recordings for members of the SAA. We warmly thank Kylian Henchoz-Manitha (PhD candidate, UniL) for his dedicated work as president of the CAV from 2023 to 2025, and in particular for finding an effective way to make the archive available to members via Nanoo TV. We are also grateful for the partnership with Nanoo TV, whose support makes it possible to share and engage with audio-visual anthropology across our community.

The commission organises a range of events each year, such as panels at the SAA annual meeting and student summer schools (e.g. 2012, 2014, 2017).

The CAV consists of SAA members from various institutions who have expertise and active interests in the field of Audio-Visual Anthropology. As of June 2nd, 2025, the Commission for Audio Visual Anthropology transitioned from a single-director leadership model to a structure managed by four main coordinators.