Around the world, in communities large and small, are people working on projects to tell local stories, document their people, crafts, events, places, histories, dreams, memories, struggles, myths…
In recent years we have seen an explosion of ways in which people are working together to creatively tell their own stories – participatory photography, collaborative film making, community writing, digital story telling. People come together in circles – under trees, in corner stores, studios, living rooms, classrooms – some hi-tech, some makeshift – and share their stories. Inspired, they pick up cameras, art materials, pens and pencils, recording equipment, note books, and start recording. Fragments of stories emerge at first, but over time narratives take shape, and are put out in the world in one form or another.
Why are people all over the world increasingly using creative methods to collaboratively tell local stories? Who are they communicating with? What kinds of stories are being told and how are they told? What experiences, possibilities and constraints do people experience when they work together making art works and creative expressions about their own communities, lives, cultures, perceptions?
This blog is about these collaborative practices of storytelling and expression, what I call collaborative art and ethnography. It is part of a research project I am doing looking into the diverse practices that bring together ethnography and creative arts in collaborative practices of community documentation, storytelling and expression.
The aim of the Side by Side blog is to open up dialogue with other people around the world who are engaged in collaborative art and ethnography practice. Overtime I hope to build up an online gallery of works made in collaborative art and ethnography projects, as well as discussions and reflections on our practices and the receptions of the works. All of this will be a resource for practitioners and participants of collaborative art and ethnography.
The blog is also a way for people to keep in touch with the progress of my research and my own art practice. There is more to come!