GRANTEE
With the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainian society went through a remarkable level of mobilization. While volunteering has attracted a lot of attention, the production of camouflage nets (sitky), a common volunteer practice, has not been widely documented and analyzed. Making a camouflage net does not require a large investment: all that is needed is a suitable location, some material contribution, and a number of people willing to donate their spare time. Nonetheless, there is significant variation in the settings and experiences with sourcing material. Little is known of the people involved in this work, except that most of those engaged are women. This project focuses on this widespread, radically gendered and inherently collective volunteer practice to understand its development and transformation, its organization and fluidity. How is the making of sitky organized? Who is engaged and why; who comes, stays, and leaves? And how is the collectivity and gendered character of this labor (re)created?