Most projects that set out to facilitate community participation in the creation of representations – be it for social justice advocacy; health and wellbeing; or cultural documentation – do so with a belief that participation in the making of representations about ones own community or culture can be empowering and re-construct power dynamics and...
In my ongoing research about practices and experiences in projects that unite collaborative art and collaborative ethnographic practices the topic of ethics has come up time and time again, mostly in discussions with project facilitators who find themselves face to face with ethical dilemmas which were unanticipated at the outset of their work. From...
I wrote a few weeks ago about projects in the Pacific region that are using participatory visual practices to advocate for social and environmental issues, such as Pacific Black Box addressing displacement due to climate change. In the Middle East – where conflict colours the daily life of everyone and the perceptions of the...
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All sorts of interesting collaborative art/social change/community doco work has been going on in various parts of Africa for many years – I recall several years ago at the first 2 Fires Conference in Braidwood NSW (Australia) meeting a woman who had been facilitating participatory art projects with AIDS orphans with fascinating result… HIV...
This information is provided to augment the launch of an online exhibition of works from the Chiapas Photography Project and the Archivo Fotográfico Indígena in the Side by Side gallery. Click here to go to the exhibition. Since 1992, the Chiapas Photography Project (CPP) has provided indigenous Maya peoples in Chiapas, Mexico with the...
Following on from thoughts about the 1st International Visual Methods Conference, here are some reflections on participatory visual research methods I’ve been using. For several years I have been collaborating with Jalaris Aboriginal Corporation (based in Derby, Western Australia) doing collaborative research and evaluation of their community development programs – which focus on supporting...
Click here to see a variety of photos from Maya Havilands exhibition – Places I Carry With Me (works in progress), that was held at the Galeria Studio Cerrillo (San Cristobal De Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico) in September 2009. This show is part of a body of work about place, belonging and bodily experience...
Check out another project from the Pacific region – this one going on in Papua New Guinea – in a settlement near Port Moresby called 8 Mile. 8 Mile Settlement project is a nice example of an increasingly popular approach to community development – using creative arts (painting, photography, storytelling and traditional weaving) to empower...
Many projects that bring together collaborative arts and collaborative documentary (or ethnography) practices begin with a simple aim of allowing a particular group of people to give voice to issues that effect them, rather than relying on outsiders to represent them. By providing individuals and communities with tools for self expression – be they...