Abstracts and Public Outputs September 2008- October 2009 Vincent O’Brien O’Brien, V (2009) Book Review: Framing Globalization- Visual Perspectives Facciolli, P and Gibbons, J.A. (Eds.) London: Cambridge Scholars, 2007 Visual Studies Vol 24. (1) Framing Globalization Framing Globalization provides us with an insight into Globalization as a seen phenomena and the use of visual methods as a valid means of social enquiry and communication medium. Setting out the theoretical context for this book, based on selected papers from the 2006 IVSA conference, Patrizia Faccioli draws attention to globalization as ‘seen’ phenomenon, and as an integral component in the construction of the cultural meanings, identities and belongings that shape our lives. FaccioIi argues, convincingly, that visual sociology has an important contribution to make in helping us to understand the interplay between local and globalizing cultural forces. I ten chapters the contributors draw, to differing extents, on visual sociology and visual research methods to explore and explain relationships between individuals, communities and globalizing cultural forces. Covering a range of topics the contributors explore, amongst other things, Italian migrants in Toronto, Ghanaians in Italy, villagers in Lithuania and Italy and multicultural communities in the UK and Australia.
    
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    Graham, C. O’Brien, V. and Rouncefield, M (2008) Exploring the Display in Disaster Recovery. Proc. OZCHI08 Designing for Habitat and Habitus, Australasian Human Computer Interaction Conference, 8th- 12th December James Cook University, Cairns, Australia. ACM. This paper considers how people close to the earthquake in Sichuan in May this year engaged with different kinds of displays immediately afterwards – their home computer, mobile phones, public noticeboards, the television. We present examples of such interaction and describe instances of content presented on them. We then consider the potential role of and design issues with displays in the longer term in the context of one earthquakeaffected community.
    
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    O’Brien V. Djusipov, K. and Esengulova, N (2008) Embracing the Everyday: Reflections on using video and photography in health research. Proc. Social Interaction and Mundane Technologies SIMTECH 08, ACM SIG, Cambridge, UK. Embracing the Everyday: Reflections on using video and photography in health research. Recent developments in digital media hardware and software offer new opportunities for research and community development. Participatory video and photography have a unique potential in helping researchers and communities to explore different aspects of everyday life. While the use of digital cameras, camcorders and mobile phones is commonplace in economically advantaged countries these technologies are not so readily available poorer countries. In this paper we report on our experiences of using video and photography in our work with semi nomadic herder communities living in the remote mountain villages of Tolok and Kokjar, Kyrgyzstan. This paper outlines some of the ways that digital media technologies were received and used by the villagers and offers an insight into how communications technologies are beginning to impact upon traditional herder lifestyles in these remote communities.
    
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    O’Brien V. (2009) InForm: Campaign against Child and Adolescent Obesity 19th European Childhood Obesity Group Conference, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland 17th-19th September. In Form: Campaign Against Child and Adolescent Obesity (2009-2011) Methods: Multi country European project Key Objectives• Database of research, policy and practice across the partner countries • Guidance and training manual • Social marketing campaign • Training programme for “Obesity trainers” • Summer camp for children • Dissemination Conferences • Network of Competence Centres Results: The InForm project brings together practitioners and academic form eight European countries in a unique project that will gather and review available data and examples of best practice in the filed of child and adolescent obesity across the partner countries. A key feature of the project is a multi country social marketing campaign bringing together children and families form each country in a peer marketing campaign. School and youth groups form each country will work with project teams to develop groups to develop digital marketing materials which will be utilized alongside other professionally developed marketing materials. The materials and experiences gained during the social marketing work package will contribute to the development of multi disciplinary training and guidance manuals and a training programme
    
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    O’Brien, V (2009) The hardware and hardwiring of visual sociology practice’: an advice exchange workshop International Visual Sociology Association Conference July 22nd – 24th 2009, University of Cumbria The hardware and hardwiring of visual sociology practice’: an advice exchange workshop This is an advice session for practitioners, researchers, postgrads etc. who are setting out on visual sociology projects, and would like to find out more about the processes and practices which work. The IVSA listserve has always had a strand of such advice running through it, where those taking on visual sociology tasks seek and receive evaluative and technical information from researchers and practitioners who are active or working in the field. Taking advantage of the fact that many of these highly experienced individuals will be gathered together at this conference, and very much in the spirit of the IVSA’s principles of enhancing the practice of visual sociologists, this session will draw some of them together and make their collective wisdom available. This session will also have a live link to research participants from Brazil and Cumbria. The session will be streamed live from the conference, giving participants around the world the opportunity to become involved in the exchange of information and expertise.
    
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    Graham, C. O’Brien, V. and Rouncefield, M. (2009) Understanding disaster impact and recovery International Visual Sociology Association Conference July 22nd – 24th 2009, University of Cumbria Understanding disaster impact and recovery Recently reporters and ordinary citizens have delivered powerful images of the destruction caused by the Sichuan earthquake through video reports (e.g.http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=nmmgWoENFIY). Although these images are powerful and present important views on calamity, there are concerns with them being overly voyeuristic and leading to mass desensitisation. In addition, it is uncertain exactly how these images can actually benefit the people and communities being observed. This presentation describes the use of video in areas affected by the earthquake in Sichuan, China. We describe how mobile phones captured the aftermath of the earthquake in four visits to earthquake-affected areas: the effects of the earthquake on the landscape (e.g. a city near the epicentre, a temporary school, a devastated Buddhist temple) and on individual lives (e.g. families in temporary accommodation, aid workers running temporary schools). In one community, the fieldworker asked two community members to film aspects of their everyday lives via mobile phones. The fieldworker returned five days later to discuss the short video clips the community members produced. Overall, the visual material collected using a small, basic video cameras was vivid and expressive: it presented the dramatic changes caused by the earthquake through the eerie quietness and stillness of a usually bustling Chinese city, the positive spirit demonstrated by singing school children and the emphatic devastation of an ancient Chinese temple described by a monk. However, the video clips were not simply “strange tales of faraway places” (Crabtree et al, 2000) but, for the community, presented participants’ views on their own recovery, their own stories untainted by political rhetoric: the everydayness of a temporary marketplace, the vastness of the temporary housing installed, the curiosity of a camel arriving. The familiarity and small size of the mobile phone seemed to make video capture less threatening.
    
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    O’Brien, V (2009) Presenting Ourselves: Migrant Use of Visual Media for Social Change. (By Invitation) Visualizing Migration and Divided Societies, Maison des Sciences de l’Homme de Paris Nord 5th June 2009 Presenting ourselves: migrant use of visual media for social change. This paper reports on ongoing work with economic migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the North West of England. The study is linked thematically and methodologically to a number of Visible Voice (www.visiblevoice.info) projects in progress since 2006, including work with semi nomadic herder communities in remote, rural areas of Kyrgyzstan (O'Brien, Djusipov, & Esengulova, 2008) and with residents of the Rocinha favela in Rio de Janeiro (O'Brien, Djusipov, & Wittlin, 2007). As part of the Visible Voice research process participants create explicitly public representations of their lives, focusing on self chosen experiences, concerns or community issues. The process of development, production, editing and dissemination of the exhibits provides opportunities to gather the research data. At the same time the activities and display of completed exhibits encourages participants to engage in reflection and debate around issues and challenges raised. Participatory video has proved to be a useful tool for engaging and empowering individuals and communities. (White, 2003). In recent years the development of affordable, high quality, DV camcorders and editing software have made video production, and dissemination cheaper and more accessible to novice filmmakers making participatory video available to ethnographic researchers seeking to use creative activities as a means of exploring notions of identity, self and social engagement. The use of digital video in ethnographic research provides opportunities to erode the ‘Invisible wall’ of disproportionate powers that haunt ethnographic research relationships creating instead, a more negotiated, ‘fluid wall” (Shrum, Duque, & Brown, 2005) between the researcher and participants. In this paper I will show, how a self initiated visual activism has emerged within the participant groups as a consequence of developing confidence in their own video making skills and an awareness of the power of video as a means of campaigning for and supporting social change. I will show how the process of production and dissemination illustrates the differing ways that migrant experiences are perceived and performed as a feature of personal and collective identity.
    
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    O’Brien, V and Wittlin, F. (2009) Visual Ethnography, Visual Activism and Community Development in the Rocinha favela, Rio de Janeiro. The Challenge of Global Social Inquiry, British Sociological Association Conference 16th –18th April 2009, Cardiff City Hall, Wales Visual Ethnography, Visual Activism and Community Development in the Rocinha favela, Rio de Janeiro In our work in the Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro, we use participatory video and photography, to enable people to communicate in a meaningful way about their own lives, thoughts and experiences. We ask our participants to produce explicitly public visual narratives about their everyday lives in the favela in order to explore the way that issues of health and well being are conceptualised, prioritised and responded to in everyday life. Participant films and photo galleries from the project workshops are exhibited for a wider population and, at the initiative of the participant groups, are used as a form of visual activism to draw attention to community issues. The reflective process of creating visual narratives takes time and the act of making something that you can look at, think about and change, is different to responding and engages the brain in a different way, drawing different kinds of responses from participants and different kinds of insights into lived experiences. Our work, in Rocinha, draws attention to the relationship between researcher and the researched, the observer and the observed. It focuses attention on who is in control of the technology, what is being filmed or photographed and how visual narratives are produced, disseminated and received by different audiences. It demonstrates the fluidity of boundaries and relationships between researchers, communities and audiences.
    
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    O’Brien, V (2008) Participatory Video and Photography: Cultural Probes, Public Exhibits and Visual Activism, (by Invitation) Department of Social and Communication Studies Research Seminar, 19th November, University of Chester. Participatory Video and Photography: Public Exhibits and Visual Activism Cultural Probes,
    
    The use of participatory video has its roots in the early work of Canadian activist and academic Don Snowden during the late 1960’s. Snowden’s work demonstrated the potential of community devised visual storytelling as community development tool. Individuals and their communities were able to determine the focus and content of Snowden’s films. The notion of participatory filmmaking was established but the high cost and technological complexity of filmmaking meant that filming and editing of the stories had to be undertaken by skilled technicians. More recently the development of digital media technologies has substantially reduced both the cost and the technical complexity of the whole process of visual storytelling. Today it is possible, with much less technical support, to turn over the whole process of visual storytelling to the participants. In this session I will explain how I have used video and photography as 'Cultural Probes' to engage with communities and explore different aspects of social and cultural life. I will show some examples from the materials produced across the projects and comment on the public exhibition of materials by the participant groups as a means of self directed visual activism. The presentation will include examples of video and photography from my work in the UK, Brazil and Kyrgyzstan.
    
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    Exhibitions and Film Screenings O’Brien, V and Ganesh, D (2009) Who Am I? Photo exhibition of South Indian Culture and Classical Dance, Waterside Gallery, Sale, Cheshire. 3rd September-5th October O’Brien V (2009) Presenting Ourselves: images of migration, community and environment from the Visible Voice projects in Brazil, Kyrgyzstan and the UK, Alexandra Gallery, Lancaster 20-30th July O’Brien, V (Producer) About us- Migrant Children Talking Visible Voice/Alien Films, Barrow International Festival, Barrow in Furness, Cumbria. 6th July 2009 O’Brien, V (Producer) Moving Images: Refuge and Asylum Robert Powell Theatre, University of Salford 25th March 2009 O’Brien, V (Producer) Everyday Life in Our Kyrgyz Village, Kokjar Film Group 2006, Taalim Festival of Participatory Video, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 6th December 2008. Commissioned Evaluation Reports O’Brien, V, Hough, C and Shi, Y (2009) Partnership Perceptions and Competencies Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale PCT O’Brien, V, Hough, C and Shi, Y (2009) Evaluation of GP Extended Hours Pilot Projects Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Primary Care Trust
    
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