In Development
The In Development section is a growing resource of relevant material. It includes features, demonstrations, films, videos, installations, anything relating to ongoing research, projects and practice from the academic and postgraduate media practice community in the UK and beyond.
If you would like your work to be featured in this section of the website, please contact .
The Last Taboo
bPortfolio tools : student motivation of platform selection in an open access digital world - Alex Fenton
This paper focuses on digital and online tools used by students to showcase their work and the motivations of those students for their choice of bPorfolio platform. A survey of an open access digital showcase community called Creative Hive www.creativehive.org was conducted in 2010. The findings of this earlier study are put into context and contrasted with a study of student motivations in 2012. The results are analysed and discussed and suggestions made for further study.
If you have any comments regarding this study, please contact
Creative Hive Live, MediaCityUK - 29 May 2012
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Location: The Egg, University of Salford, MediaCityUK, Salford
- Date: 29 May 2012: 2pm - 9pm
- Cost: Free - Complete the event registration form
- Supported by:
- Website:
Creative Hive is an organisation based at the University of Salford whose goal is to provide real world opportunities and connections between people in education and industry. Creative Hive provides a means for creative people of all disciplines and from anywhere to showcase their work and form new collaborations both digitally at and in person at physical showcases and events.
The event will be based in the state of the art living research facility known as ‘The Egg’ at MediaCityUK for Creative Hive Live in May 2012. Creative Hive Live will be a celebration of digital technologies and creative connections, consisting of interactive displays, performances, installations, live events and more. The event will be an opportunity to connect people, create new opportunities and learn from new mixed disciplinary collaborations and stories. There will also be a creative speed networking session using interactive touch tables allowing creative people to display and discuss their work using cutting edge technology.
Creative Hive Live will form the launch event for the University of Salford's final year shows, but will draw on projects from the University, other Universities and the best creative talent of the North-West of England. Exhibits, storiesand live events will focus on new cross
disciplinary work, storytelling, innovationand creative connections. We face many global challenges in the modern world and this exhibition explores how we got to this point and examines how we may improve our situation using creative and cross disciplinary collaborations.The event is free of charge, but you must complete the .
For students and graduates
The event will provide employment opportunities and a way for you to experience engaging cross disciplinary work in a cutting edge new facility at MediaCityUK. Meet new people and potential employers over a glass of fine wine or sit back and enjoy the event as it unfolds.
For Employers and industry
The event will provide you access to see some of the best emerging talent in the region in a world class facility in MediaCityUK. You can tell your story, promote your business and speak directly to potential new employees.
Guerilla Productions for Very Small Screens: Transformations through Mobile Creativity - Helen Keegan
Are We Postdigital Yet?
Here's a video of the this year's Journal of Media Practice Symposium "Postdigital Encounters: Creativity and Improvisation" (June 2011):
The symposium focused on the ways in which media production and media education have been transformed by the digital in the last ten years. Back in 1998, Nicholas Negroponte predicted that “digital-ness” would just become part of the wallpaper: “Like air and drinking water, being digital will be noticed only by its absence, not its presence”. But over a decade later, are we “postdigital” yet? This one-day symposium explored how digital technologies have redefined creativity and media practice within the academy both in terms of teaching and research, with a dynamic programme of presentations ranging from a QR Workshop, multiscreen film practice and locative media projects to discussions of creativity and pedagogy in the postdigital age.
Ultimate Footprint: A Day in Digital Life
By Johan Jakobson
The 'Day in Digital Life' experiment, conducted this Spring by social scientists at Salford Business School, aimed to make sense of the current widespread acceptance of visual and electronic surveillance in the UK. The research also also examined what implications this all-pervasive surveillance has on our understanding of notions of privacy, identity, and daily power relations – invoked through the self-regulated gaze of the modern Panopticon. One of the project's main questions was: as the human data trail now begins prior to conception and continues after death, what is the size of our digital footprint in 2011, and how does it relate to our identity?
As a filmmaker, my interest in this project was this: Can modern methods of surveillance be represented on film? And can the myriad of digital traces that we leave behind in the physical environments of our everyday technologically-saturated lives really be documented in a linear narrative? Engaging with this pilot project through film, and documenting it with an on-line video, seems consistent with the project's key idea of 'sousveillance', a French term meaning inverting the gaze of 'the surveillors'. In this sense my goal was to add an additional video-mediated dimension, and to 'surveil the surveillors' within this particular experiment.
I hoped that this would give the researchers and participants an impartial platform for voicing their thoughts, and ensure public dissemination of this socially-important experiment.
This multi-perspective approach was further augmented by the research participants being issued with portable mini-cameras, representing their own 'perspective/gaze'. I tried to include some of their footage in this short film, as I believe that this again stresses the point that the use of any recording media (a video lens, spy software, GPS tracker, etc.) is highly subjective and limited in nature, and can hardly deliver an objective understanding of what constitutes reality in any particular recorded moment. However, this experience also showed how digital technologies are becoming widely accessible to ordinary people. Perhaps one of the new duties of a modern citizen is to actively question and engage with surveillance systems by providing their own alternative documented account of socio-political events and subjective identities.
Johan Jakobson is a filmmaker and MA student at the University of Salford.
Interview with Teresa Murjas
Teresa Murjas is a Senior Lecturer in Theatre at the University of Reading. She is currently in the process of developing a journal dedicated exclusively to postgraduate work with Intellect Books. This will be associated with the Journeys Across Media (JAM) conference, which takes place at Reading annually, and is run by and for postgraduates. Later this year, JAM organisers will be guest-editing the autumn edition of the Journal of Media Practice.
The JAM conference at Reading is one of the longest running PG media conferences in the UK. Can you say a bit about the history and heritage of the conference?
Journeys Across Media (or JAM) is an annual interdisciplinary conference in the Department of Film, Theatre & Television at the University of Reading. It was first established in 2003. It is organized independently by our PhD and MA students and targeted specifically to incorporate the international postgraduate community. Through its examination of issues concerning film, theatre, television and new media, the conference continues to exemplify the cross-disciplinary focus of our department. Annual engagement in critical debate about the choice of theme for JAM - as well as mastering the logistical complexities of its organization - offers our postgraduates an exciting set of intellectual and practical challenges. Crucially, JAM gives our international delegates the opportunity to gain experience of presenting their work, at different stages of its development, in a vibrant and supportive research environment. Past events have focused on a range of topics, including medium specificity and cross-media relationships, adaptation, perception and engagement, and nu-romanticism. Over recent years, the number of presentations driven by practice-led research in both film and theatre has increased dramatically. This is highly significant for the department, where there is a strong emphasis on developing practice-led methodologies. This year, we were delighted to host the conference in our new purpose-built facilities on the main university campus. These incorporate three theatres, a cinema and a television studio. We’re very excited about the prospect of running the 10th JAM conference in this new environment in 2012.
This year, JAM will be guest-editing the autumn edition of the Journal of Media Practice. In terms of peer-review, what kind of an opportunity is this for your PGs at Reading and for those selected for publication in the journal?
It’s a great privilege for us to work with the Journal of Media Practice. The PG organizers of JAM are involved in every aspect of the editorial process and drive its outcomes. They are also extremely busy with their own study and so academic and technical members of staff strive to offer them as much support as possible. Following this year’s conference, we organized several meetings, during which PG students and academic staff met to discuss all the JAM conference presentations. The PG organizers collated information from these meetings and used this as the basis for making decisions regarding who should be approached concerning publication. Many of the papers had a huge amount of potential in terms of featuring as part of JMP, but of course delivering a paper is not the same as writing one for publication. We asked a number of potential contributors to send us a proposal for how their paper would be re-conceptualized and developed for the journal. Our PG editorial team further consulted on these and, after much deliberation, we made our decisions. We are currently waiting for papers to be submitted. All JAM organizers are teamed up with academic reviewers as part of the peer review process, and each contributor will receive two reviews of their work. Of course these will be anonymized, but we are hoping that the process will prove instructive for all concerned and will support the distinctiveness of the work included.
You have been in discussions with Intellect about setting up a new peer-reviewed journal for PGs directly linked to the JAM conference. Why did you feel this was necessary? What stage of the process are you at?
I’ve worked with Intellect several times in the past, in relation to my own research, and have always found the process really enjoyable and stimulating. After last year’s JAM conference, I had the thought, over a cup of tea, that it would be fantastic for some of the strongest work from the conference to reach an even wider audience. Since Masoud Yazdani from Intellect had visited JAM to give a talk about how to get published, there were enough connections there for me to feel positive about submitting a proposal. Intellect has a strong interest in media-based work and supports practice-led research, and these qualities reflect the aims of the conference itself. Publishing post-graduate work, exclusively, in this format is a relatively new concept but my conviction is that the stability of the JAM conference as an event, as well as its positive reputation, should provide robust conceptual and practical anchorage to support a regular publication. The opportunity to work with JMP has provided us with a brilliant opportunity to develop our skills within in an established environment. It is a steep learning curve but we’re working well as a collective. It’s important in these situations not to run before you can walk, and we need to prove ourselves! This is hopefully the first stage of establishing a forum for publication of postgraduate work, either within JMP or as an independent publication with Intellect.
At this year’s JAM conference, practice-based postgraduates had a strong presence. How will practice-based work be incorporated into the new journal?
Several papers delivered at the conference incorporated live performance and/or film screenings. Transferring these papers into a publishable format can be challenging. Its viability depends on the extent to which the material is framed critically and its conceptual robustness. Naturally, the key to the journal’s coherence will be its critical dimension. For PhD students, the rate at which practice and critical theory begin to interlock, and how this interlocking is expressed, at any given point, varies. This is very dependent on individual process, the demands of specific projects and the institutional parameters within which projects are being conducted. A couple of the articles we have selected explicitly address or innovatively express practice based methodologies in both film and theatre. Their authors deal with medium-specific challenges of presentation and critical articulation in ways that suit where they’re at in their project. Some will incorporate relevant web-links so that readers can view associated practice and imagery. In addition, we are going to include, as part of the editorial material, a Q & A based discussion with three of the conference organizers – two PhD students in Theatre and one in Film. This will focus specifically on their experiences of engaging in practice-led research in contrasting contexts and with vastly differing outcomes, with specific reference to this year’s conference theme.
Generally, what kind of contribution do you hope the journal will make to wider academic culture?
We hope the journal will express the evolution of stimulating thought and dialogue that emerges from within the ever-developing community that establishes itself annually around the JAM conference. We’d like to express this live and vibrant forum, generated by exciting new scholars, in textual form, be it in print or electronically. Essentially its key focal points will be - the ways in which cross-medial intersections occur around a given theme and the critical implications of practice-led research within this context. We’ve chosen the papers on the basis of the following: the level of interest they have generated, as voted by PhD students and academic staff; the strength of their research profile, clarity of structure, contemporary relevance and originality; their potential to inter-relate and contribute towards the over-arching theme; the level of interest, engagement and resonance we felt as readers; the level of willingness indicated by any given contributor to work with us flexibly and responsively throughout the editorial process.
Memory, Text, Place
The is part of a novel storytelling project designed to weave together historical accounts, first-person narratives, and artistic interpretations - and bring the University and the people of Salford together in the process.
With the aim of 'stitching together our history', University organisers asked locals to tell their tales - whether it's memories of a Salford childhood or stories about health, housing, transport or leisure. As well as getting an opportunity to meet like-minded neighbours, the event included storytelling sessions on topics as diverse as the history of the Salford pub and Salford during the Blitz, as well as writing workshops and an original drama.
The taster day was the first of what is planned as a series of Sampler events all with the aim of gathering stories about Salford, and uniting local people and their university. The next event will again take place in the community in December 2011. Organiser Professor Lucie Armitt explained: "We're encouraging as many people as possible to come along, take part and contribute their own stories about life in Salford."
Join the or visit the website.
VIDEO: Discussion on the Future of Streamed Media and Advertising
UKFAST recently hosted a Video Nation round table discussion about the future of streamed media and the use of viral videos in advertising. The debate looked at the impact these new media methods have on existing production and advertising companies, and how the industry needs to evolve to embed these new techniques and processes into mainstream corporate and broadcast production. Viral videos, and user generated video embedded in social media sites, are aspects of video in the internet domain which will constitute a challenge and opportunity for traditional media companies.
Taking part in the round table debate were Laurence Murphy (Salford University), Byron Evans (Wallop Video), Nicky Unsworth (BJL Group) and Brian Barnes (Activideo). There was some debate about the now ubiquitous term viral video, and how to make a production a massive hit. "A successful feature film starts with a well-crafted script, a good viral starts with a well-crafted idea. It's got to have that creative spark that it can build upon", said Laurence Murphy, Senior Lecturer in Media Technology at Salford.
More highlights form the round table discussion can be viewed below:
Highlights Part 2:
Summary:
Crossing boundaries with Creative Hive
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Staff and students at the University of Salford have created a Hive of activity amongst academics and research students near and far recently with web based community Creative Hive. Creative Hive founder Alex Fenton works for University based web development company EDinteractive. Creative Hive was set up as a way for creative students to be able to easily set up a blog and showcase for their work on the web, which would last for the duration of their studies and beyond. Over 200 people have joined so far from the Universities of Salford, Bradford and Carlisle amongst others and member 200 was from across the globe from Auckland University of Technology. People’s blog posts and projects form their own web spaces for their studies or e-portfolios and create a central, searchable melting pot of ideas, research, resource and connections. |
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In July 2011, Creative Hive came out of the virtual and went physical, with a series of conference presentations and exhibitions. The first of these was a paper presentation at Salford’s Education in a Changing Environment Conference. This was a truly excellent event organised by various parts of the University and bringing together a variety of delegates and speakers from around the world.
Creative Hive has a showcase space for student work in the virtual world of Second Life and this space was used to give a virtual presentation at the PLE Conference at Southampton University. The technology came together at short notice to deliver a successful presentation and a question and answer session.
The support from staff and students for Creative Hive so far has been outstanding and this has led to a series of physical exhibitions. Starting in Allerton Studios at the University, sixteen Creative Hive members exhibited their work in a variety of disciplines including photography, sculpture, creative technology, film, painting and more. These physical events really helped to further showcase work and create a real dialogue for new and interesting cross departmental collaborations. There will be further Creative Hive exhibitions at MediaCityUK later in the year.
Creative Hive is an open access, free to use resource for staff or students to create a showcase. It has been designed to work in tandem with other existing online resources and can help to draw further attention to them.
If you would like more information about the project or would be interested in using it, please visit: .
Constructing Reality: The Myth of Objectivity and the Renegotiation of Documentary Truth
Greg William Bevan - University of Salford
Negative Spaces
Documentary relies predominantly on what is seen and heard, what can be reasonably argued and supported by evidence. These are positive features which guide the viewer into trusting the authenticity of the documentary and, hopefully, seeing events from the filmmakers' point of view. But, “we know that the absence of a sign can be significant too .... Historical discourse does not follow reality, it only signifies it; it asserts at every moment: this happened, but the meaning conveyed is only that someone is making that assertion” (Barthes in Renov, 1993: 27). This absence points towards negativity as a potential tool for the documentary filmmaker. Traditional documentary language is outfacing, guiding the feelings and responses of the audience, leaving little or no room for interpretation. There is a completeness, a closure consonant with “documentary logic” (Nichols, 1991: 118) which finalises the argument. Negative values invite audiences to interpret specific components in the film's construction.
Exercise 1
Grampa – The first of these exercises seeks to explore the relationship between structure and meaning. In this case, a seemingly crucial narrative element, or “kernel” (Chatman, 1978, pg. 53), was omitted from the film. The guiding research objective was to assess to what extent this affected comprehension or understanding. Does a text lose all meaning when this occurs? Can meaning still be inferred? Perhaps new meanings are suggested? The absence of this element invites the viewer to interpret and to wrest meaning from the film, which opens up the semantics of documentary language and returns us to Barthes' plurality of the text and “infinity of language”.
Exercise 2
The Wall – The second exercise was designed to explore physical spaces within the film's diegesis. Partially informed by Gaston Bachelard's 'The Poetics of Space', the film looks at the relationship between space and memory. Although Bachelard's work focuses on the home, his concept of the role of location in the formation of memories can be applied to spaces outside of the home that have emotional and/or psychological resonance. How can we create expressive documents of past times and how can we explore the different uses of these spaces without recourse to conventional documentary methods such as facts, statistics, diagrams or interviews?
Exercise 3
Bunburying- In the third exercise, the space of the screen is the focus. What is shown and what is not shown? How is it shown within the screen? What effect does this have on comprehension and understanding? The exercise aims to experiment with a variety of unconventional methods including repetition and blending time.