Please take a moment to read the interview with Helen De Michiel, adjunct faculty at the Arts Administration program, who is teaching Participatory Media and Social Practice class during the Spring 2013 term. De Michiel is an award-winning independent filmmaker and media producer and has served as the National Director and Co-Director for NAMAC, The National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture from 1996 to 2010.
NMCC: Could you tell us a little bit more about how “participatory media” and “social practice” are defined for the AAD 408/508 Participatory Media and Social Practice class?
De Michiel: There are so many amazing new digital new media art, transmedia and non-fiction works on the internet now that are proliferating globally. We will be looking at how communities are clustering around new media projects (fiction, non-fiction, journalism, activism, etc) to engage with social issues around the world.
In this course, while looking at the history of new media, we will examine, study and discuss current examples of innovative projects, and write about them. How are people now collaborating with media makers? How are people encountering film and multi-media projects as a way to have meaningful dialogues, rather than simply act as passive consumers? These are several of the questions we will be looking at through the case studies we will be experiencing online.
For a final project, students will curate programs of videos and create a public engagement campaign around the themes and topics they choose. These curated video series that the students organize will live on the 2013 Cinema Pacific website as part of the overall festival program.
NMCC: Who is this class directed to? What is the profile of the students who enroll in this class?
De Michiel: The course is directed to graduate students in the arts and arts administration, journalism, cinema studies, and of course, the New Media Certificate program participants. We also encourage undergraduate seniors to enroll who want to get a strong foundation in the history and theory of digital forms.
We will be viewing many projects online, and in class when we meet in person (three times across the quarter on scheduled Fridays). We do a lot of reading and writing – from short interactive posts daily to blog length weekly posts, to a mid-term paper and the final public engagement/social media curated program. The online experience itself – from visiting and interacting with the projects we are studying, to discussing and posting on our course blog – all adds up to material that each student can use to write their longer analytical pieces. This is a dynamic, iterative learning environment where we are all working together to make sense and frame what “participatory media looks like” as it is changing moment-by-moment! By the end of the course, you will have a whole new idea of how transmedia works globally, and how to work with it in your own career going forward.
NMCC: What are some of the benefits of the mix format of the class, online and in-person participation?
De Michiel: Online, students can work at their own non-linear pace. Looking at the web-based projects in depth, over days and weeks. I require more than a few postings per week, so that conversation can occur in a relaxed and open environment. Here are some of the postings from the Fall 2011 course.
Since the first time this course ran in Fall 2011, it seems like the whole world of online media consumption and participation has deepened, grown and changed – new tools, new projects, new conversations. And the class this Spring will reflect those dynamic changes we are experiencing in this volatile space!
NMCC: Can you give us examples of what past projects or findings that you and your students have found fascinating?
De Michiel: I say look at these final case studies that the Fall 2011 course participants produced! There are seven really exciting projects that they have written about.
They take on Games for Change, The Dill Pickle Club, Ghana Think Tank, an archive of Hyde Park, a multi-media community oral and multi-media documentary about the Sierra Mountains, and others.
These papers discover wonderful and deep projects that draw together the best in public media, the arts, passion and innovative uses of online community engagement.
NMCC: What are some of the goals students enrolled in the New Media and Culture Certificate could look forward at the Participatory Media and Social Practice class?
De Michiel: In this hybrid online course you are a participant, a user and an engaged interlocutor. You are the future of participatory media and social practice. In your role as an interlocutor, you are not passive – rather, you participate in appreciative inquiry through your assignments, online discussions, in Skype sessions and case studies. This is an intergenerational dialogue, and it is providing research into your own future. I invite you to drive the discussion flows.
Across the creative landscape, we are at a crossroads. The terrain is changing moment by moment with realignments in organizational culture, resources, funding, outreach, goals and outcomes. And we are here to understand and chart this new space – as technologies and values change and reconfigure in new patterns.
NMCC: Any other information you would like to share with us?
De Michiel: We will be working across this landscape together. We are being both birds and ornithologists of the new media space – practicing it and studying it at the same time. Come prepared to read a lot about things you might not know about new and digital media. Come prepared to spend time experiencing, reflecting on, and analyzing web projects that you do not know are even there. Be prepared to do your own field work by organizing and engaging clusters of interested participants to your curated programs, and getting them talking with you in encounters about what is meaningful in the work you are choosing and showcasing.
We will cover several levels of engagement with participatory media. And, I suspect, it will be changing even during the time we are together this spring! By the end of the quarter students will feel more confident in their abilities to work creatively online, contribute to social change and understand more clearly the evolving role of transmedia in our daily lives and work.
