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Collaborative Media Commons

Page history last edited by Lindsay 14 years ago

Collaborative Media Commons Project

 

Project Leader:

Zach Horton

 

Participants:

Lindsay Thomas

Graduate students from the English Department

Undergraduate students from the English Department, Film and Media Studies, and the College of Creative Studies

 

Link to project site

 

Overview

The impetus behind the Collaborative Media Commons (CMC), an experimental platform for academic discussion and creative production, is the exploration of the process of academic and creative collaboration itself using online tools. The overall goal of the CMC at its current stage is to inspire collaborative, interdisciplinary discussion of certain theoretical issues and to distill and translate these theoretical discussions into a web series in the cyberpunk genre. In this way, the CMC seeks to provide a forum and a running public record and representation of the collaborative process of translating high-level academic discussion into a narrative form, specifically film. It also seeks to address several difficulties involved with collaborative research in the humanities. First, doing research in the humanities encourages us to be solitary creatures: books are rarely written by more than one author (at least technically), classes are rarely taught by more than professor, etc. Such a paradigm may need to change, or at least be more open to change, if resources for research in the humanities continue to dwindle. The CMC is one way to allow for easy interdisciplinary collaboration in the academy. Secondly, interdisciplinary, collaborative work in the humanities is often hampered by a lack of unifying goals, and indeed a lack of incentive or perceived purpose for combining disparate threads of inquiry. Our project works toward rectifying this by melding the ethos and methodology of media production collaboration with academic research, providing a concrete goal (the distillation of academic research into a publicly-accessible narrative form) that is also a challenge; it is a reason to collaborate as well as a platform that encourages mutation and recombination of research in ways normal models of humanities collaboration don't. Finally, the CMC provides a means for indiciplinary collaborators to come together: using Google Wave, currently released to the public on an invitation-only basis, the CMC makes academic discussions and their translation into script and film form accessible to a wider public. Collaborators, and hopefully eventually the wider public, can view and/or participate in the discussions and the process of translation by joining Google Wave; thus, all discussions and records of collaboration are located in one "place" and are easily accessible and viewable.

 

Methodology

The CMC uses Google Wave to keep a record of the process of the translation of ideas from theoretical to film form. Google Wave allows participants to collaborate in real-time if they so choose, it keeps a running record of collaboration (and allows participants to access the histories of these collaborations through its playback feature), and it allows for rich media-based collaboration, allowing participants to upload and embed images, videos, documents, links, applications, and gadgets. Importantly, because it is all online, it is accessible from anywhere. Using Google Wave as our tool, we hope to hit upon a way in which to bring the collaborative processes involved in creative projects like filmmaking to academia. As can be seen from the diagram below, our process of collaboration and translation is organized like a feedback loop: the theoretical discussions from the first node are distilled into rough story and background ideas for the series, which are in turn translated into a script, which are then produced into short episodes of a web series (the "media objects" node), which then provide an impetus for feedback from the wider public, which then starts the process over again (Note: a more specific version of this diagram, as well as the specific waves that make up this diagram, can be viewed on the CMC project site).

 

 

 

The specific process of the translation of theoretical ideas into narrative form, which occupies the first row of squares or nodes in the diagram above, involves the use of a "narrativize" tag, seen below.

 

 

Theoretical discussions or parts of theoretical discussions that make up the first node seen above are tagged with this image, which then, in a process which is soon to be automatic, are moved into a wave in the second node entitled "Narrative I." A screenshot of this wave can be seen below. This second node also contains "Cyberpunk - Design" wave and the the "Cyberpunk - World" wave. These waves make up the "Story/Background" node seen in the diagram above. From here, these tagged theoretical and design ideas are translated into script form, which is written in the "Cyberpunk - Episode 1" wave, also pictured below.

 

 

 

The script seen above is the script for our pilot episode, which will be filmed in late April, 2010. The web episode will then be posted on our website in the "Media Objects" node (coming soon). Our website will also provide a means of feedback (probably a forum), which then generate new input for the theoretical discussion waves, continuing/starting the process over again.

 

Future Directions

Short-term Goals:

In late April of 2010, we will film the first episode of our web series. It will be a brief pilot episode, and we will post it on the CMC site in the “Films” node; preparation for this film will involve making props and costumes, including the development of technology for the whole series. Another short-term goal is to develop a feedback page (forum) on the CMC website that will allow for the feedback we have talked about. Finally, a third short-term goal is the development of scripts for the first season of the series.

 

Long-term Goals:

Our long-term goals include shooting and releasing one or more seasons of the series, expanding the number of theory waves and reaching out to other departments and institutions for participation in the theory waves, reaching out to artists and others outside of the academy, and developing other media outputs or objects. These may include but are not limited to short films, documentaries, and possibly a different series. Additionally, we are continually searching for funding opportunities, especially grants. To learn more about how you can donate to the CMC project, see the UCSB English Department website.

 

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