Participatory film production as media practice: a theoretical and methodological approach.

Remix Cinema WorkshopOxford, 24-25 March 2011

Antoni Roig Telo

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

Index

1. Overview of previous research2. The practice approach.3. Some key features of practice theories4. Why media practices are important.5. How I use the practice perspective.6. Media practices and remix: final considerations.

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Participatory cinema: case study structure

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X-ILE PICTURES (USA): related to

fan culture

Energia Productions (Finland): related to

fan cultureComparative

A Swarm Of Angels/ ASOA (UK): related to open source culture

Transference

Transference

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The practice approach.

What do we mean about practices?

Practice’ (Praxis) in the singular represents merely an emphatic term to describe

the whole of human action (in contrast to ‘theory’ and mere thinking). ‘Practices’

in the sense of the theory of social practices, however, is something else. A

‘practice’ (Praktik) is a routinized type of behaviour which consists of several

elements, interconnected to one other: forms of bodily activities, forms of mental

activities, ‘things’ and their use, a background knowledge in the form of

understanding, know-how, states of emotion and motivational knowledge. A

practice – a way of cooking, of consuming, of working,of investigating, of taking

care of oneself or of others, etc. – forms so to speak a ‘block’ whose existence

necessarily depends on the existence and specific inter- connectedness of these

elements, and which cannot be reduced to any one of these single elements.

(Reckwitz, 2002: 249-250).

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Some distinctive features of practice theories.

•Practices span from the most simple to the more complex.

•Practices are 'everyday' and usually 'routine', but also powerful to explain how we relate to a complex object (Knorr-Cetina, 2001)

•Practices internally organised by three main elements: understandings, procedures and affective elements (Schatzki, 1996; Reckwitz, 2002).

•Practices are interlinked: attention to external organization of practices (Swidler, 2001).

•Hierarchy: 'constitutive rules' (implicit, normative, conflict, change…) (Swidler, 2001)

•Practices account for innovation and reproduction (Warde, 2005).

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Why media practices are important:

• Media practices lead to a shift of attention from the 'final object', the structures or the individual to what all the people involved are actually doing through the different phases of the process of creation.

• They forces us to ask ourselves a lot of questions about how the practice is internally and externally organized.

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This is the theory. How I'm using it in practice (1/2):

1. Approach to cases as 'organizational forms’ (long term project over texts or structures).

2. Identification of all public manifestations of the form (websites, blogs, press, social media, even virtual worlds and of course the offline...).

3. Depiction of the development of the organizational form around its main media project: describing historical background and phases of development.

4. Temporal delimitation of phenomena, phases or periods to be analyzed.

5. Analyse official sources.

6. Analyse potential controversies around the organizational form: the unofficial sources.

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This is the theory. How I'm using it in practice (2/2):

7. Focus on the organization of practices in participation spaces, mainly forums:• Structure of the Forums.• Hierarchies among users / authority.• Participants and participation figures.• Identification of domains of practice: community organization, project

development, content production, promotion.• Forum analysis attending to the practice approach.

8. Selected interviews with key participants

9. Outline of clusters of practices.

10.Outline of a production model.

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Performative practices

Organizing practices

Participation practices

Community

Collaboration

Knowledge Sharing

Circulation practicesAccess/ Use

Promotion

Commercialization

Production practices Self-promotion practices

Finance practices

Clusters of practices:

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Organizing practices (at early stages of practice)

construction of normativity, hierarchy, legitimation (meta-practices)

Performative practices

Playful dimension

Affective engagement

Clusters of practices:

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Production-oriented practicesconception and elaboration of ‘objects’

Finance-oriented practicesbusiness models, engagement of communities (i.e.

crowdfunding)Circulation-oriented practices

flexibility of licenses, promotion strategiesSelf-promotion oriented practices

visibility of brand and creative core Participation-oriented practices

engagement and integration of followers as participants into project and processes

Is this relevant for remix projects? 15 final questions.

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• Can we observe/ track the early stages of the project?• What are the playful dimensions of the project?• How identity and engagement to the project is produced and negotiated?• How is the practice 'organized' internally?• And externally (in relation to other practices)?• What are the different motivations of the participants?• How is normativity defined, that is, what is considered 'the right way', what is

acceptable and tolerable, and what is not?• How hierarchy and authority is established and legitimated?• What’s the role of the ‘brand’ (the long term initiative vs. current project)?• How are decisions made in terms of production and circulation?• How is 'participation' conceived?• Which may the implicit rules behind the practice be? Where do they come from?• What do we think the 'anchoring practices' are (which are those ones that in being

change make other practices change)?• Which are the possible issues of conflict and change? How do they manifest? What

do they tell us about the evolution of the practice, its reproduction and innovation?• What are the possible 'rituals' regarding the practice that show that a practice is 'like

it is’?....

Thanks for your attention

Questions?