Connecting Bristol

I’m part of the steering group for Connecting Bristol, which is the city’s bid for the ‘Digital Challenge’, which is a national competition to win £4million from government for the iniviative use of digital technology to enhance the services of communities and to enhance social inclusion. Bristol have been selected as one of the 10 [...]

MEDIA IN THE HANDS OF EVERYDAY PEOPLE!!!!

I don’t really need to say anything, do I? 2006.
Remember this? 1991.

Films made for Mobile phones

As part of the Fresh 6 Film Festival, Calling the Shots, Firstborn Creatives and MicroFilm teamed up to run a day long workshop on making films for mobile phones. (As I said in an earlier post, I had man-flu so couldn’t be there to help out!!!)
Below are two of the six films that were produced. [...]

The Morning After Fresh

….or….(Joining the Dots between Media Education and Community Engagament)
Yesterday’s event was excellent and a real credit to Sam Burkey and all who helped organise it from Calling the Shots, Knowle West Media Centre, Suited and Booted and Firstborn Creatives, and all the young people who made the final decisions.
At various times I was on the [...]

Fresh 6 Film Festival

Today I will be working at – and taking my children to – the Fresh 6 Film Festival, which is for young people. Includes screenings, workshops, advice surgeries and competions/commissions. The website is www.freshfilm.tv
Last years went really well. I hope it has a good turn out today. Yesterday Firstborn and Calling the Shots ran a [...]

Distant light and the end of far far tunnel

Today had a meeting with fellow PhD student Emma Agusita, whose subject is very close to mine. Really good to catch up with her and it was mutually benificial. Peer sharing is a good thing!
Talked about many things, including the slippery ground that is PhD research, the shifting sands that is the ‘research question’, and [...]

Talk of ‘User Generated Content

The one day ‘Digital Communities’ conference in the Watershed in June was the first time I heard the term ‘user generated content’, and since then the phrase is everywhere. [i]
In my opinion it’s just a clumsy/fancy way of saying ‘homemade videos’. [ii] To be fair it’s not just that though, as the shift in how [...]

The idea of De-Schooling

I came across the theorist Ivan Illich (a peer of Paulo Freire), who wrote an influential text in 1971 titled ‘Deschooling Society’. The popular perception of the text is that Illich was arguing for the elimination of schools, but in the Foreword to a 1996 book of essays titled ‘Deschooling our Lives’ [i] , Illich [...]

Production Alliances

Was part of a good event today organised by South West Screen called Innovation Alliances, which showcased various companies work that they funded from the Alliances funding strand. Firstborn had a stall with Calling the Shots and Knowle West Media Centre to showcase our “Independent State of….” project, which we are working on together.
All [...]