Participatory drama workshop

One of the first workshops early on was from Alun Morgan, based on a project he'd been involved in writing up as a case study for his social work module at the Open University.  The technique is used to open up difficult issues and makes use of drama.

Three groups each made a short drama and filmed it in the space of about 45 minutes:

Afterwards we made the following analysis of the technique:

Participatory drama
This workshop raised the possibility and illustrated the application of introducing drama into participatory video research processes. There may be occasions when the issue being studied is complex, emotionally charged, or maybe on occasions embarrassing. In such circumstances researchers may choose to encourage research participants (subjects?) to act-out and dramatise some elements of their story or dilemma. The process of choosing and ‘acting’ a role with others can potentially be less threatening to individuals, for whom ‘hiding’ in the role for a limited and structured period of time can be appropriate and protective, generating useful data for researchers that may be difficult to access by other more traditional research data collection methods: for example, through structured interviews. For this workshop the presenter used an illustrative example of young adults with a learning disability (mental handicap) in Leeds in the UK who were involved in researching, in association with researchers from Leeds University, the subject of making and sustaining personal and sexual relationships among learning disabled young adults. In this study, drama was used extensively to enable the young people to more effectively express their needs and view. This drama was captured on video and used a raw data for analysis in the research design. Workshop members in small groups simulated this drama process as a research tool, and created three illustrative dramatized video exercises: one of an anxious parent talking with their child’s teacher; another of a young person whose recent unemployment was very significantly affecting her life-opportunities; and a third of a parent with severe literacy problems having her problem exposed at her child’s school. Feedback by workshop members after completing this exercise and watching all of the video exercises was as follows:
Affordances	Requirements		Notes
·        Working with uncomfortable issues ·        Get under the skin of an issue ·        Authentic representation of real life ·        Access to emotional aspects ·        Participation/empowerment of people ·        Emancipatory – it allows a subject to be explored without confessions or personal consequences ·        Less powerful people act out issues of power and control ·        Effective communication – In a short time it can transfer a big message that would take much writing to be explained ·        To get a picture of a complex situation before analysing it from one aspect only ·        Explore areas that may be difficult to access ·        Activity for discussion ·        Facilitate further discussion after watching the video ·        Communicating a problem in a way it is easy to understand as it involves emotions ·        Makes very sensible issues ‘fun’ to discuss ·        Allows us to learn about attitudes towards issues		·        A properly skilled researcher ·        Facilitations ·        Debriefing – picking up of issues ·        Mutual respect/shared goals ·        Requires Trust ·        Consent from participants ·        A video camera ·        Some video editing skills ·        Some basic filming and acting skills ·        Video equipment ·        Facilitation/organisation ·        Narrative structure ·        Watchability ·        Understanding of audience ·        Trust ·        Camera ·        Time ·        Co-operative and open participants working at different hierarchical levels ·        Emotional risk ·        Share understanding of confidentiality/privacy -> use of data afterwards		·        Communication happens through narrative, spatial and emotional modes ·        Allows for the exploration of situations where empathy can be gained for the issue ·        Data analysis?  How? ·        Links to Forum Theatre, participatory drama (PADT?) ·        Can participants refuse to take part without being questioned? ·        To examine a situation to fill forms in relation with tenderers.
CHANGE website: http://www.changepeople.co.uk/ and the sub-link to the page including a film made by The Open University in the UK. http://www.changepeople.co.uk/showPage.php?id=9.

Mobile workshop

I ran two workshops at the PTC camp to explore how we might use mobile technologies in research.

The first was intended to help participants explore the functionality of the mobile phone and to understand how personal and local mobile phone use is. This understanding should help to inform the design of participatory research methods involving mobile phones. For this process I borrowed a workshop idea from my friend Dirk Slater – which involved asking participants firstly what kind of phone they used, and secondly what they used their phone for. I also asked them to reflect on the uses their research participants might make of the phone.

The responses were fascinating – covering uses of the phone from Hungarian bird identification apps to Irish farmers sending each other pictures of their tractors. Hungarian group members also reported using a local instant messaging service that I hadn’t heard of.

The workshop also provided a space for participants to air their concerns about the privacy and security issues around mobile phone use and also the environmental and human rights issues caused by the Coltan industry (the mineral used in mobile phone production) which were raised in a film ‘Blood in the Mobile’.

The diversity of devices used by those present in the room and the range of uses that were made of them was a nice way to get people thinking as the week went along about how we might use mobiles in the various participatory processes we explored. It also illustrated how complex the mobile platform is – we had a discussion about the many different operating systems used by mobile phones, and how challenging it is to design apps that will work on more than one platform.

The second workshop aimed to exploit three functionalities of mobile phones – even very basic models.

• The camera
• SMS
• Bluetooth for media sharing

I gave participants 20 minutes to create a three frame ‘storyboard’ for a horror film using the phone camera and write captions in less than 160 characters. The horror filme idea came out of a comment someone had made about the workshop venue – a disused holiday camp – being the ideal setting for a horror film. I had intended this to be a solo exercise but by this stage in the week we were really in the groove of participatory working and as well as the solo shots, a couple of groups got together to create these pictures.

At the end of the workshop we shared the pictures via Bluetooth and I made a Powerpoint presentation so we could view them together. The results were great and – judging by the level of hilarity – the process was very enjoyable.

You can view a PDF of the presentation.

Reflecting on these activities several things came to mind;

•  Taking pictures with a mobile phone is very accessible – most of us with phones use the camera at some point – so there wasn’t any nervousness about unfamiliar kit or technological processes
• The limitations of the format – short time frame, 160 character limit, small device – can be liberating as they force people to ‘just get on with it’
• This process could definitely work as part of one of the other participatory methods we experimented with at the camp.

Tool Title   Mobile phone ‘storyboarding’
Description   Use the mobile phone camera to create a short ‘storyboard’ of a popular genre (such as a horror film) or a narrative that relates to the participants (such as a participatory drama). Create captions for the story in 160 characters or less (SMS limits). Share the media via Bluetooth or Wireless. Can then present them in format such as Powerpoint or PDF.
Affordances	Requirements	Notes
Accessible – most people have a mobile phone and even basic phones have a camera          Quick – can be a means to get good, presentable results fast.         Portable – doesn’t require much kit, can be shot anywhere         The storyboarding process in and of itself could be a part of a larger project or intervention, e.g. for drafting a bigger story.      Can be done individually or as a group.	·      Needs some pre-planning in order to get the Bluetooth sharing working properly and safely (making sure people deactivate Bluetooth afterwards) ·      If you are doing it in a group it helps to have good group working processes in place.	This was the first time we’d tried this technique – would be great to see how we can use this technique as part of other participatory creation processes.
Resources/References

The ministry of fun

Part of the design for the camp was setting up and keeping going a set of roles for organising things that need to get done. These have included a treasurer, caterer, key-keeper and so on, while I concentrated on the (rapidly evolving programme).

One of the key roles though is the ministry of fun, which my friend Gusztáv took on with aplomb.  We've been out one night to the pub(s) for a dose of football and 'pass the pig', played card games, sang songs from all over the world and though we had other offers to go out it was often just good to sit in and talk.

Not everyone stayed at the hostel, but I'd argue making the place we worked a social space made it a good workspace as well.  It was slightly painful to clear the table for meals, but on the other hand it made for proper punctuation of the worktime and help a bit with keeping track of the kit (+a lot of attention from Al)

The paper edit workshop - Thursday 20th

I ran a workshop with help from Gustáv and Alun on the Thursday morning, using some interview footage from one of the filming teams.  It was a complete experiment, as on other projects we've tended to use live edits from geniuses like Rick Goldsmith of Catcher Media or Jani Lajos from Hungary who can take instruction from a group of people and bring that into being in real time.  It's analogous to a specialist editing working with a director, with the group taking the role of the director.

Ladanyi János demonstrating editing with a group giving instructions

It's a joy to watch, and I was a little nervous that taking a group step by step through logging footage, selecting clips and discussing the nuances of meaning that come from juxtaposition, rhythm and so on would wear thin. Instead the feedback was very positive and the group gained energy rather than dissipated it.  My feeling is that over long periods groups would get quite skilful at working together and that the facilitators job would be to keep an eye on who was participating and who was being left out.

Afterwards, as with many of the techniques we made an analysis of what its for, the resources required and notes of ideas that came up while reflecting on it.

Tool Title: Paper Edit
Description: A paper edit is used within a participatory video to include a group in making editorial decisions.  It takes place away from the actual editing process and generates a set of decisions that an editor can then follow.  It can introduce a group to how editing works and gives space for negotiation and discussion, mediated through watching footage together, logging it in terms of content, visuals and audio, and then pulling out use-able clips for an edit.  The output is a sequence of clips with in and out points marked and some idea of content – enough for a specialist editor to put together a rough edit to return to the group for approval.
Affordances	Requirements	Notes
Creative experience, no surprises at final cut Build legitimacy for outputs Allows people without editing knowledge to take part in editing Allows you to share ideas and inform the edit much more effectively. Can be done with large group. Aggregation of opinion. Identifies +addresses differences Gives an opportunity for a democratic editing process Hones down what your message is General discussion Allows for building relationships. General interest Learn about film making – taking part in an edit is a very good way to improve scripting and creativity, and logging is an excellent way to enhance technical filming skills.	Can be done with a large group Needs a skilled facilitator Skilled editor and good understanding of editing Interested people Group attention Requires co-operation and consensus Shared goal/objective for film People who really respect participatory philosophy Creativity Experience Practice Camera and projector Can be comparatively low tech onsite Takes time Patience Could be time consuming if there is a lot of material	Could be frustrating A drawback could be a lack of anonymity as you can’t hide your face from your opinion Might be difficult to do it in an emancipatory way with communities of existing hierarchy. Respectful of participants opinions and preferences. Vanity or self-perception could potentially be a barrier to expression of balanced opinions from all participants.
Resources/References: Insight share Rights-based PV toolkit

Kedd délelőtt - az első "szakmai" workshopok

A délelőtt egy programmegbeszéléssel kezdődött, ahol közösen megállapodtunk a hét további menetéről. Ez alapján már most látszik, hogy Magyarországon kevéssé ismert és használt részvételi (akció)kutatási témákkal foglalkozunk majd, pl. részvételi filmkészítéssel, részvételi drámával, photovoice, részvételi térképezéssel stb. A módszertan is rendhagyó, ugyanis az összes kutatási technikával azok alkalmazásán keresztül ismerkedünk meg. (Azaz például a részvételi filmkészítéssel úgy, hogy mi magunk és készítünk csoportokban általunk választott témákban filmet.)

A program elfogadása után részvételi filmkészítéssel foglalkozunk, Nemes Guszti facilitálásával. Guszti egy részvételi videós technikával készült filmet mutat meg nekünk, ami után beszélünk magáról a technikáról, annak helyi közösségépítő/fejlesztő potenciáljáról. A módszer lényege, hogy maguk az érintettek készítenek egy filmet valamilyen általuk kiválasztott témában (jelen esetben a helyi idegenforgalomról, egy helyi túraút kialakításáról, annak google earth-re való feltöltéséről stb.) A film igen inspiratív, lévén kiderül: komoly közösségépítő, „társadalmi tőkét” növelő potenciálja van a módszernek. Azaz látszik: a hagyományos kutatással szemben itt nem csak a kutatók (és esetlegesen egy szűk szakmai közösség) tanul magából a kutatásból, hanem a „laikus”/civil kutatási partnerek is.

A délelőtt hátralévő részében részvételi drámával foglalkozunk. A módszer olyan témák megvitatására alkalmas, amelyeket konvencionális kutatási módszerekkel igen nehéz lenne érdemben megvizsgálni/megérteni. Az előadó által ismertetett angol esetpéldában például a Leeds-i egyetem vezetésével végeztek egy kutatást fiatal értelmi fogyatékos felnőttekkel az ő egyik kardinális problémájukról, nevezetesen arról, hogy mennyire nem tekintő őket a többségi társadalom felnőttnek, amikor pl. az ő szexszel/párkapcsolattal kapcsolatos igényeikről van szó. E miatt ők számtalan nehézséggel szembesülnek e területen. A módszer – mint ahogyan azt mi is kipróbáltuk egy általunk választott „érzékeny” témán keresztül, amiről háromfős csoportokban filmet készítettünk, amit aztán közösen elemeztünk  - tényleg kifejezetten alkalmasnak tűnik kínos/érzékeny helyzetek/témák mély megértésére. Akár más, hagyományos kutatási eszközök „kiegészítőjeként”.