Collaborative Docs. (Stage 2 in Fellowship in Creative & Performing Arts originally entitled 'Chronicle 2010' now known as CollabDocs.)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of the West of England
Department Name: Fac of Arts Creative Ind and Education
Abstract
Colllaborative Docs (Stage 2) is the second stage of the CollabDocs research project (formerly known as 'Chronicle 2010'.) The overall project looks at how documentary practice can take advantage of the generation of web technologies known as 'Web 2.0'. CollabDocs is concerned in particular with participatory media and collaboration. The practice-based research examines how the 'vernacular videos' that get posted, for example on You Tube, might be combined to tell larger stories, and what role a producer might play in bringing themed participatory videos together to meaningful effect.
In Stage 2 the Fellow will produce two distinct web-based participatory documentaries. The first - Are you happy? (Phase 2) - looks at what happiness means today. The second - Four Wheels Good? - looks at our love/hate relationship to cars. Both projects will start with a call to action, and diverse members of the public will be invited to contribute video content. These contributions will be edited and highlights presented in websites designed so that the video is contrasted in an engaging way with related online content. The latter content will be drawn in through publically accessible feeds. Such content could include stills from the photo sharing site Flickr or traffic news from the BBC. These various sources will be combined to produce a new kind of documentary, where the meaning is not fixed in a linear form by the viewpoint of a single director, but reflects multiple perspectives, and shifts as new data enters the system. The creative challenge for the project will be to design the flow of elements and the web interface so that the viewer can enjoy a satisfying experience; which combines storytelling, interaction and easily digestible information.
A DVD will be produced to reflect the fellowship observations, critical reflection and findings, and showcase the web productions. The Fellow will also pursue a programme of in-person events and activities throughout the three remaining years of the Fellowship, but in particular in the final year, through which she will share the fellowship work and findings with interested parties in academia and industry.
In Stage 2 the Fellow will produce two distinct web-based participatory documentaries. The first - Are you happy? (Phase 2) - looks at what happiness means today. The second - Four Wheels Good? - looks at our love/hate relationship to cars. Both projects will start with a call to action, and diverse members of the public will be invited to contribute video content. These contributions will be edited and highlights presented in websites designed so that the video is contrasted in an engaging way with related online content. The latter content will be drawn in through publically accessible feeds. Such content could include stills from the photo sharing site Flickr or traffic news from the BBC. These various sources will be combined to produce a new kind of documentary, where the meaning is not fixed in a linear form by the viewpoint of a single director, but reflects multiple perspectives, and shifts as new data enters the system. The creative challenge for the project will be to design the flow of elements and the web interface so that the viewer can enjoy a satisfying experience; which combines storytelling, interaction and easily digestible information.
A DVD will be produced to reflect the fellowship observations, critical reflection and findings, and showcase the web productions. The Fellow will also pursue a programme of in-person events and activities throughout the three remaining years of the Fellowship, but in particular in the final year, through which she will share the fellowship work and findings with interested parties in academia and industry.
Planned Impact
The era of You Tube has seen a dramatic increase in video making and sharing. With the prevalence of miniature, low-cost video cameras and video recording features in many mobile phones we are witnessing a dramatic increase in what Henry Jenkins has called 'vernacular video'. For the most part these recordings are isolated statements or unmediated reflections on everyday life.
The Collaborative Docs project (Stage 2) looks as how these video utterances might be brought together to constitute effective public speech. It looks at how to engage participants, what a documentary product might look like which brings participatory video together with relevant facts and figures, as well as how to produce an engaging viewer experience from collective content. If we think of documentary as a means to reflect on contemporary life with a historic relationship to the public sphere it is possible to say that the Collaborative Docs project looks at how to turn isolated video statements into documentary content.
The project thus has both cultural and social relevance. Given the wider growth of collaborative practices in society it constitutes a timely experiment in cultural form. In social terms it demonstrates how what Sonia Livingstone has called 'publics' might be able to speak in a collective way around issues of contemporary concern and thus has significant potential for citizenship and social inclusion.
It can be expected that the project will be of particular interest within public service media and the third sector. Dissemination work will therefore include presentations and events which share project knowledge and insights with both these sectors.
Additionally, while the project does not in itself create a new product it provides a proof of concept that can be built on in the technical development of a scaleable product. Dissemination will therefore also include demonstrations to relevant technology companies.
As well as general relevance the particular themes that have been selected will make contributions to important contemporary debates.
With UK Government proposals to fast-track the inclusion of well-being and happiness measures into the Annual Household Survey, it is timely to explore contemporary views of happiness by revisiting the question, 'Are You happy?' originally posed by the anthropological filmmaker Jean Rouch on the streets of Paris in 1960. The outcomes are likely to be of interest among researchers in the disciplines - sociology, economics, psychology - that feed into the emerging field of Happiness Studies.
Four Wheels Good will constitute an intervention into discourse around travel behaviour and potentially contribute to an understanding of the complex behaviours which influence individual decisions around travel. As such it potentially contributes towards a public policy agenda to reduce car travel.
The Collaborative Docs project (Stage 2) looks as how these video utterances might be brought together to constitute effective public speech. It looks at how to engage participants, what a documentary product might look like which brings participatory video together with relevant facts and figures, as well as how to produce an engaging viewer experience from collective content. If we think of documentary as a means to reflect on contemporary life with a historic relationship to the public sphere it is possible to say that the Collaborative Docs project looks at how to turn isolated video statements into documentary content.
The project thus has both cultural and social relevance. Given the wider growth of collaborative practices in society it constitutes a timely experiment in cultural form. In social terms it demonstrates how what Sonia Livingstone has called 'publics' might be able to speak in a collective way around issues of contemporary concern and thus has significant potential for citizenship and social inclusion.
It can be expected that the project will be of particular interest within public service media and the third sector. Dissemination work will therefore include presentations and events which share project knowledge and insights with both these sectors.
Additionally, while the project does not in itself create a new product it provides a proof of concept that can be built on in the technical development of a scaleable product. Dissemination will therefore also include demonstrations to relevant technology companies.
As well as general relevance the particular themes that have been selected will make contributions to important contemporary debates.
With UK Government proposals to fast-track the inclusion of well-being and happiness measures into the Annual Household Survey, it is timely to explore contemporary views of happiness by revisiting the question, 'Are You happy?' originally posed by the anthropological filmmaker Jean Rouch on the streets of Paris in 1960. The outcomes are likely to be of interest among researchers in the disciplines - sociology, economics, psychology - that feed into the emerging field of Happiness Studies.
Four Wheels Good will constitute an intervention into discourse around travel behaviour and potentially contribute to an understanding of the complex behaviours which influence individual decisions around travel. As such it potentially contributes towards a public policy agenda to reduce car travel.
People |
ORCID iD |
Mandy Rose (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Dovey J
(2012)
We're happy and we know it: Documentary, data, montage
in Studies in Documentary Film
Rose, M
(2014)
DIY Citizenship: Critical Making and Social Media
Rose, M. Dovey, J
(2013)
The Documentary Film Book
Title | Mary Ward considers the Mechanical Carriage (aka Four Wheels Good) |
Description | Mary Ward is a web documentary project - the third practice output of the Fellowship. The project addresses the car and its impacts on community, society and the environment through the persona of Mary Ward - the first known fatality of a traffic accident |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Impact | Discussion surrounding the production of short shareable media as a tactical response to the networked environment of the web. Debate about the role f traffic in the lives of children in particular. |
URL | http://mechanicalcarriage.com/ |
Title | Searching for Happiness |
Description | Searching for Happiness is Stage 2 of The 'Are You Happy?' Project - the practice output of the Fellowship in Creative and Performing Arts. The Project is a multi-year, multi-facetted exploration of the intersection between documentary and networked culture. Fifty years after Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin launched their seminal 1961 documentary, 'Chronique d'un Eté', at a new moment of technological change, Rose has gathered footage from filmmakers and film enthusiasts around the world who she invited to revisit or restage the vox pop sequences from that film. Launched in May 2013 - Searching for Happiness takes advantage of the latest generation of web technology (HTML5) to investigate the potential of live data for the "creative treatment of actuality" (John Grierson's 1926 definition of documentary). Selected video contributions are combined through montage with social media - Tweets, Flickr images - drawn in 'live'. In this version of the project, entitled 'Searching for Happiness', the use of social media provides live re-contextualisation of the video content, re-inscribing some of the social and cultural surround that is lost within the filming process. Based on search terms, the social media is contingent, specific and emergent, so that the user-experience of the documentary changes from person to person and moment to moment. In this respect 'Searching for Happiness' offers an enunciation of documentary as live experience and open text. Grounded by its reference to a previous moment of innovation, The 'Are You Happy?' Project provides a framework that elucidates the mix of continuity and novelty at play in digital documentary. The reference to Rouch also evokes his view of documentary as a process of collaborative meaning-making, which provides a context for a critical focus on the co-creative aspects of this work and of wider trends in crowd-sourcing documentary content. |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2013 |
Impact | Showing the project has stimulated substantial interest in the potential of live data as a component of documentary. Demonstrated by the development by my colleague Prof Jon Dovey of a proposal to CDEC - Connected Digital Economy Catapult - of a platform for data integration into video - working title Context Engine - for use within industry settings. CDEC are very interested in supporting this. Match funding is being sought. |
URL | http://www.theareyouhappyproject.org/ |
Title | The Are you happy? Project - a web documentary |
Description | "The Are you happy? Project" was the first production in the Chronicle 2010 Project (now known as CollaborativeDocs). The Project is a multi-year, multi-facetted exploration of the intersection between documentary and networked culture. Fifty years after Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin launched their seminal 1961 documentary, 'Chronique d'un Eté', at a new moment of technological change, Rose has gathered footage from filmmakers and film enthusiasts around the world who she invited to revisit or restage the vox pop sequences from that film. Grounded by its reference to a previous moment of innovation, The 'Are You Happy?' Project provides a framework that elucidates the mix of continuity and novelty at play in digital documentary. The reference to Rouch also evokes his view of documentary as a process of collaborative meaning-making, which provides a context for a critical focus on the co-creative aspects of this work and of wider trends in crowd-sourcing documentary content. Stage 2 of the project - Searching for Happiness - a "living documentary" that brought the videos together with social media and other online data - launched in 2014. |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Impact | "The Are you happy? Project" was selected by the Comite du Film Ethnographique for showing in the Rencontres Narrativite Singulieres section of the Jean Rouch International Festival in Paris, November 2011. It was included in MIT Open Doclab's _docubase in 2014. |
URL | http://www.theareyouhappyproject.org/about |
Description | 1. My central research insight concerns the disruption to documentary which has come about in the context of digital. The impact is not only expressed at the level of form. Computerisation and the social, semantic and open web are between them producing an environment in which documentary tools, technology, funding, form, process, authorship and distribution are all reworked, and the audience become actors - capturing, liking, sharing, and potentially producing content. Documentary is transformed within a new media ecology. 2. Lev Manovich and Henry Jenkins have both observed the tendency within digital culture for marginal twentieth-century cultural forms to be reinvented. My second key insight concerns the contemporary re-emergence and transformation of forms of community media and participatory art. Building (at times explicitly) on 20th century precedents in participatory art, community and access video, documentarists are seeking approaches to making purposeful digital work with people rather than about them. They adopt a range of modes - acting as facilitators, curators, collaborators. They experiment with architectures of participation, seeking ethical and aesthetic strategies; ways to be true to participants and engage an audience, to create the conditions within which a necessary story can be told, in a context of meaningful dialogue. 3. In this new environment the role of the director/producer is often becoming a practice of co-creativity. I have explored this role in the growing repository of interviews with key practitioners published on the CollabDocs blog. One feature of this environment is an emphasis on process and face-to-face interaction with interactive media providing a stage for a public conversation. A co-creative approach to documentary provides a progressive re-working of documentary's historic role in the public sphere, as an open space for dialogue and a stage for the performance of citizenship. 4. The fourth research finding concerns the potential for documentary within the 'ubiquitous data' that is both consequence and driver of the online environment. In particular I have noted the morphing of the character of video in the context of the latest web coding language, HTML5. Before that coding language became common web video was impervious to its life online; published online in a way that reproduced the conditions of the TV screen. Now, existing databases and live information drawn from social media can be connected to the documentary environment, offering opportunities for the production of new kinds of knowledge and application. The affordances of networked connectivity offer the potential to re-contextualise documentary material through mobilising the enormous co-creative potential of human discourse captured in the web. This has been a central theme of my web documentary, "Searching for Happiness". That documentary has sought to find a form to shape live content into a coherent experience. The project points the way to the re-invention of documentary for the online environment and the creation of new visual and informational grammars. |
Exploitation Route | The invitations that I continue to receive to speak, present, and participate in a variety of convenings both in the UK and internationally attest to the substantial interest that there is in the insights I have developed within the framework of the CollabDocs AHRC Research Fellowship within creative economy and pedagogical contexts. Documentary is in a process of transformation as described above as well as hybridisation with other genres. The intersection between journalism and documentary online is of particular note. Research is required to map these new landscapes and consider the reframing of both cultures. One might ask: how does the reader / user comprehend content where Journalisms's strict codes around impartiality and consent meet the looser, more creative framework of documentary? There is much interest among practitioners also in the community media and Access TV precedents of 21st century participatory documentary. Further work could address specific case studies and develop resources to equip documentarians with models and protocols so that they can to think about how to work effectively and ethically with non-professionals. This builds on the production experience of global collaboration within The are you happy? Project. Additionally there is significant interest among practitioners in the use of live data within documentary - a central exploration within the Searching for Happiness project. There is a project in development for CDEC Creative Catapult by my colleague Jon Dovey which builds on the findings from that project. This proposes the development of a platform for industry - The Context Engine - which would allow editors / users to plug live data into documentary content. [These are joint findings across AH/FO16298/1 and AH/10265638/1.] |
Sectors | Creative Economy Education |
URL | http://collabdocs.wordpress.com/ |
Description | Response is the same as for the Chronicle 2010 Award. This funding was for practice-based work within that award that was launched in 2014. |
First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
Sector | Creative Economy |
Impact Types | Cultural |
Description | EPSRC Content Creation in the Digital Economy |
Amount | £1,295,534 (GBP) |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2017 |
End | 11/2019 |
Description | Are you happy? Panel - Cheltenham Literary festival |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The panel sparked questions and debate about the current interest in happiness. There was discussion around individual and collective responsibility, the impacts of consumerism etc The talk put me in contact with fellow panelist Gerald Lidstone whose work around creative economy is of interest to me. He now plans to contribute to my Are you happy? project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | http://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/literature/whats-on/2014/are-you-happy/ |
Description | Co-convenor - I-Docs Symposium Bristol March 2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Co-convenor of the 5th i-Docs Symposium for UWE Bristol, at Watershed Bristol - Europe's foremost gathering of thinkers and makers of interactive and immersive documentary. Academic panels, expert talks and a showcase of cutting-edge work by award-winning practitioners. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://idocs2018.dcrc.org.uk/ |
Description | Contributors or Collaborators; Docs in the Age of Web 2.0 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk sparked conversation about digital transformations in documentary and the changing role of the author in participatory work Too much time has elapsed to genuinely report. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009 |
URL | http://www.rts.org.uk/contributors-or-collaborators-docs-age-web-20 |
Description | Decision Maker / Industry Advisor - Sheffield DocFest Crossover Market 15 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Participants were pitching project and some made amendments based on my feedback and suggestions Invitation from one producer to talk at Storycode NYC |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | https://www.sheffdocfest.com/articles/271-selected-crossover-market-projects-2015 |
Description | Decision Maker; - Industry Advisor & Panelist - Sheffield DocFest Meet Market \'13 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The sessions as advisor involved offering input and fielding questions about work-in-progress to 12 plus project teams. I also appeared on two panels - presenting on the value of interactive documentary for social activism and charing a panel presenting the AHRC REACT Future Documentary projects. All the engagements involved offering factual and critical perspectives on emerging documentary form, methods and business opportunities. Various filmmakers said that they were inspired to try new approaches to their work following our discussion. One said my input urged her to be more ambitious. Two projects on the REACT Future Documentary panel received investment directly from their exposure at Sheffield. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | https://sheffdocfest.com/buyers |
Description | Documentary Goes Interactive - Invited talk at BBC Playback - Staff Development session. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A good Q and A with lots of enthusiasm among the audience. Talk led to an invitation to go to Salford and discuss a joint research initiative with BBC R & D. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
Description | Documentary as Co-Creation - Storytelling in the New Landscape - Between the Lines - DocHouse / Frontline Club - March 2013 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Type Of Presentation | keynote/invited speaker |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Lively discussion afterwards. First engagement in the fled of journalism. Widened my contacts and consolidated my reputation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
URL | http://i-docs.org/2013/07/26/between-the-lines-storytelling-in-the-new-landscape/ |
Description | Documentary: Expanded - Talk at BBC Pacific Quay - Arts Interactive Day |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk sparked questions and ideas for projects Conversations with commissioners re their approach. The talk led to the involvement of a BBC commissioner in research development |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Four Categories of Collaborative Documentary Keynote at IDF East Doc Platform Prague 5.3.12 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Type Of Presentation | keynote/invited speaker |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Lively discussion afterwards I was invited back to the Jhlava Doc Festv |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
URL | http://www.dokweb.net/en/east-doc-platform/news/mandy-rose-introduces-new-creative-methods-in-docume... |
Description | Global Perspectives in Digital Media: A Panel - Union Docs NYC |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | This evening featured a panel conversation with video clips from Video Nation (BBC 2), WSJ.com, Global Lives, Breakthrough, and Metropolis (VPRO), with producers in attendance. f The screening prompted discussion between the audience and the producers of the five projects looking at: what are the agendas in bringing these stories home? how do producers negotiate these cross-cultural exchanges? what strategies were used to engage audiences with distant lives and experiences? Audience members reported wanting to pursue projects like those presented - interactive and online. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
URL | http://www.uniondocs.org/global-perspectives-in-digital-media/ |
Description | Keynote - InterDocs Conference, Barcelona |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The presentation was received very positively and followed by a lively q and a. Various people showed an interest in applying ideas of participatory design to documentary. One audience member, Carles Dora, wrote a follow up piece on Spain's CCCLab. He tweeted: " @CollabDocs inspired by your talk I wrote a post on Webdocs for social change > you might like it! http://blogs.cccb.org/lab/en/article_webdocs-pel-canvi-social/ |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | http://www.docsbarcelona.com/en/text.php?id=218&edicion=2014&sub=1 |
Description | Keynote - Teaching Documentary Conference Cardiff 2014 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Talk sparked many questions - whole hour set aside for Q and A. Much interest among those present in how and what to teach around emerging documentary. Some of those present joined the i-Docs facebook community. I was invited to speak to MA Students in Paris - a joint initiative of the Sorbonne and UCLA. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | http://teachingdocumentary.com/ |
Description | Keynote MeCCSA PGN 2015 - Transformative Practice and Theory: Where We Stand Today |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Curiosity and enthusiasm among this group of Post graduate students Some attendees decided to attend i-Docs 2016 Symposium. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://meccsapgn2015.co.uk/speakers/ |
Description | Making : Connections - Talk to BBC Knowledge and Learning Creative Studio 21/2/13 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Type Of Presentation | keynote/invited speaker |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The talk was commissioned and designed as an introduction to the day's Creative Studio development lab which was being held in Cardiff, Salford and Glasgow. The brief to me was to provide context, inspiration, provocation and ambition to participants. Feedback from participants, organisers and from twitter suggested the talk provided inspiration and ideas. eg Si Lumb @si_lumb tweeted: @CollabDocs brilliant presentation at @bbc_connected thanks for sharing |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0159p26/live |
Description | Now the Field is Open - Presentation to Intro Day of Sheffield DocFest Devise to Deliver mentoring scheme |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Q & A I was invited to become a mentor within the scheme- paid a consultancy to support one participants across 8 meetings. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | https://www.facebook.com/sheffdocfest/posts/601188938285 |
Description | Now the Field is Open - Scene-setting talk & chair - Future of Documentary panel within BBC Academy Future Factual event at BBC White City, London W12. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Q & A followed. Chris Sizemore - Executive Editor was there and very interested in the content I was discussing. He has since kept in touch, asked for advice and created a BBC Product - iWonder - to bring some of the experiences I discuss into the BBC online experience. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/news/article/art20130711164644853 |
Description | Participatory Documentary as "Convivial Media" |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
Results and Impact | Presentation of paper reflecting research at "Access All Areas"; a symposium examining the development of the idea of 'User Generated Content' (UGC) in the first ten years of the 21st Century. Access All Areas focused on the first stage of this analysis by mapping the use of the term and its historical development. The presentation employed Ivan Ilich's concept of "convivial tools" as a framework for thinking about participatory and "user-generated" documentary content. The presentation drew on examples, of practice that I'd been part of - BBC's Video Nation (access TV), Capture Wales (digital storytelling), My Science Fiction Life (collaborative cultural history), and work in the emerging field of collaborative online documentary - The Message and Mapping Main Street. The framework of "conviviality" highlights ethics and social value, and encourages connections to be identified with historical practices - Mass Observation, the "shared anthropology" of Jean Rouch - and with wider contemporary cultural practice - DIY culture, participatory art, and Craftivism. I met fellow panelist Sandra Gaudenzi - then a doctoral student researching interactive documentary - and began a dialogue which developed into a collaboration in which we are now co-directors, with Judith Aston - of the i-Docs Symposium and website - the UK's leading site in the field. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
URL | http://www.dcrc.org.uk/events/access-all-areas/ |
Description | Reviewer - Collective Wisdom - MIT Open Doc Lab Co-Creation Studio report |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Reviewer of Ford Foundation Funded Report - Collective Wisdom - edited by Kat Cizek, Executive Producer - MIT Open Documentary Lab, Cambridge, Mass. The report was written to launch the Co-Creation Studio. As reviewer I was also invited to attend and acted as moderator at the launch Symposium at MIT in September 2018. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://cocreationstudio.mit.edu/ |
Description | Searching for Happiness - launch Event - Watershed / Festival of Ideas 20.5.13 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Launch of Stage 2 - The are you happy? Project at the Watershed Media Centre, Bristol. I presented forty minutes of material, explained the genesis of the project, and was in a q and q chaired by Prof Jon Dovey to a sold-out audience of around 80 people. An audience of cinema goers, film-makers, students, academics engaged enthusiastically with the story of the genesis of the project and appeared to enjoy the documentary material. There were various questions about process, methods and future plans. After the talk I have developed a relationship with the Watershed and we are collaborating in a number of ways around their documentary programme. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
URL | http://www.watershed.co.uk/pmstudio/events/mon-20052013-615pm |
Description | The Are you happy? Project: inclusion in MIT Open Doc Lab _docubase |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Inclusion in _docubase - recognition of project's importance in innovation in the field The project was chosen to be included in this _docubase which gathers key works in the field of innovative, interactive and participatory documentary. http://docubase.mit.edu/ |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
Description | The Are you happy? project selected for inclusion for MIT Open Doc Lab Docubase |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The Are you happy? Project - output of the Collaborative Docs Research Project Stage 2 selected to be included in MIT Open Documentary Lab's interactive "docubase" - a "curated database of the people, projects, and technologies transforming documentary in the digital age." |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | https://docubase.mit.edu/project/are-you-happy/ |
Description | The Art, Ethics and Technology of Documentary Co-Creation - Panel with Kat Cizek (NFB) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Lively discussion followed Since the panel I have engaged Kat Cizek - one of the most esteemed interactive documentary makers - as an industry partner in a research project I am developing for AHRC |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://sap.mit.edu/act/event/art-ethics-and-technology-documentary-co-creation |
Description | When Documentary Met Data - Online Storytelling Transformed |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The panel led to questions and discussion about the challenges, methods and future directions for data used as a creative resource. The event stimulated and affirmed my own interest in data-driven storytelling |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
URL | http://www.uniondocs.org/2012-04-15-data-documentary/ |
Description | i-Docs - an introduction - talk to BFI Film Academy students |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Students were very interested in methods and impacts of interactive versus linear I can't remember at this point. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
Description | i-Docs Lab - Co-presented this event at BBC Academy Digital Bristol Week |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation at BBC Bristol within within Digital Bristol Week. Description: Unpacking the mysteries of interactive documentaries: what are they, what is exciting about them and how do they relate to the documentary tradition? Through analysis of a range of interactive projects, all of which place new logics of authorship and storytelling at their core, the session provided participants with a set of conceptual tools to assist in the development of their own work. Subsequent enquiries and invitation to join BBC Bristol documentary network demonstrated increased interest in the potential of interactive documentary within BBC Bristol community. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/news/article/art20130711164644457 |