Dissertation: Seeing and Envisioning

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I defended my dissertation on September 3, 2015. Dr. Alan Sears, Ryerson University was my supervisor, and Dr. Blake Fitzpatrick, Ryerson University, and Dr. Deborah Barndt, York University, were committee members. Drs. Sears, Fitzpatrick, and Barndt also formed my committee for my qualifying (comprehensive) exams.

Also in attendance were Dr. Ken Hirschkop, University of Waterloo, as external examiner; Pierre Tremblay, Ryerson University, as internal examiner; and Dr. Tae Hart, Ryerson University, as defense chair.

While the content of the discussion was largely expected (e.g., specific criticism about the sample size of sites and interviewees being too small and not diverse enough), the ways in which the discussion was framed, and talk about strategies for deepening and expanding this research was eye-opening for me. I am deeply grateful to have had such a meaningful conversation based on such a close reading of my work. It is perhaps for this reason alone that I would suggest people on the fence about doctoral studies take the plunge. (Although it’s true I had a very critical yet caring committee; for others, your mileage may vary.)

I hope, whoever you are, you the work is meaningful to you.

88x31The text is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) license; however, images are the intellectual property of their creators and/or respective copyright holders, and are reproduced in fair use (and with much gratitude; see pp. ix–x, List of Plates, for further information).Download (in PDF format, 2.3 Mb)

 

Seeing and Envisioning: Camera-Based Practice, Democratic Praxis, and Socially Engaged Arts in Toronto
Kris Erickson
Doctor of Philosophy in Communication and Culture, 2015
Ryerson University and York University

Abstract:
This project explores the varied ways cameras have become integrated into contemporary socially engaged arts practices. The emergent, participatory, and inclusive characteristics of these diverse practices are increasingly common in contemporary art and culture, with cooperative processes, community activism, formal experimentation, and public involvement being regarded, now more than ever, as legitimate strategies for developing artistic form and content. This project considers the innovative uses of cameras in these practices, arguing that such uses are not simply convenient or instrumental, but are often critical mediations between visual realism and cultural expressivity. The dissertation begins to address a gap in research on material practices in the cultural production of art by elaborating a theory of socially engaged camera arts. Drawn from ethnographic research in the Toronto community arts/socially engaged arts ecology, this theory begins to describe how camera practices seem to be moving beyond traditional image production practices in order to support and even help envision broader repertoires of practice in processes of social and cultural action. The dissertation develops three interrelated theoretical frames – expansion, organization, and pedagogy – to insist on the key place of socially engaged camera arts, and camera arts in general, in the iterative, activist-led revitalization of community cultural infrastructures.

Conference Presentation: CCA at Congress, May 30-June 1, 2012

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I presented this at the Canadian Communication Association’s 2012 conference on Thursday, May 31. I was part of a panel called Body and Affect in Visual Communication. Though there were quite some gaps between the substance of our presentations, it was still a great pleasure to present alongside Sara Martel, Tess Jewell, and Gary McCarron. Comments on this paper, as well as criticism, are welcome. Some rights reserved: cc by-nc-sa 2012 Kris Erickson. The abstract is immediately below, with the full text of my presentation after the jump.

Photography, Community Cultural Development, Emancipatory Communication

This paper will consider how contemporary uses of camera-based technologies in instances of Community Cultural Development (CCD) effectively function as emancipatory communicative strategies. In New Creative Community (2006), Arlene Goldbard positions CCD practices as cultural in the broadest sense: that is, as concerned, on the one hand, with nourishing the diversity of cultural life and preserving the variety of it forms of production; yet interested, on the other hand, in dismantling artificial boundaries erected within mainstream culture between and amongst the spheres of art, economics, and politics. In this paper, I will draw on my dissertation field research and interview data from contemporary CCD practices and practitioners utilizing camera-based techniques, and located in Southern Ontario. Through a discourse analysis of these sources and their products, I will explore how camera technologies coupled with CCD practices constitute a transformative cultural practice. I will argue further that such a creative, emancipatory politics suggest important techniques for opening up the possibilities of who can participate in public discourse and democratic action by shifting the grounds upon which such discourse occurs, and by expanding the repertoire available for cultural action. I will draw on the interdisciplinary thought of Goldbard, Steve Edwards, Diana Taylor, Jacques Rancière and others to critically interrogate the possibilities, as well as the limits, of such camera-based communicative strategies and the varieties of community and culture they claim to foster.

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Conference Presentation: Historical Materialism Toronto, May 11-13, 2012

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I presented this at Historical Materialism Toronto on Sunday, May 13 at York University, Toronto. I was part of a panel entitled Spaces and Forms of Resistance, with distinct but complementary (and very good!) presentations by Clare O’Connor and Elise Danielle Thorburn. Comments on this paper, as well as criticism and so on, are welcome. Some rights reserved: cc by-nc-sa 2012 Kris Erickson. The abstract is immediately below, with the full text after the jump.

Creating Resistance: Exploring the Spaces of Community Artists’ Work

This paper will consider how contemporary uses of camera-based technologies in instances of Community Cultural Development (CCD) effectively function as counterhegemonic cultural strategies. In New Creative Community (2006), Arlene Goldbard positions CCD practices as cultural in the broadest sense: that is, as concerned, on the one hand, with nourishing the diversity of cultural life and preserving the variety of its forms of production; yet interested, on the other hand, in dismantling artificial boundaries erected within mainstream culture between and amongst the spheres of art, economics, and politics. In this paper, I will draw on my dissertation field research and interview data from contemporary Southern Ontario CCD practices and practitioners. Through a discourse analysis of these sources and their products, I will explore how camera technologies coupled with CCD practices constitute a transformative mode of cultural production. I will argue further that such a creative, emancipatory politics suggests important techniques for opening up the possibilities of who can participate in public discourse and democratic action by shifting the grounds upon which such discourse occurs, and by expanding the repertoire available for cultural action. I will draw on the interdisciplinary thought of Goldbard, Steve Edwards, Diana Taylor, Jacques Rancière and others to critically interrogate the possibilities, as well as the limits, of such camera-based communicative strategies and the varieties of community and culture they claim to foster.

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Conference Presentation: International Visual Sociology Association (IVSA), July 6–8, 2011

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I presented this at International Visual Sociology (IVSA) 2011 on Friday July 8 at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. I was on a panel called Sensing Community: Toward an Ethics of Collaboration in Visual Research Practices with colleagues from Communication and Culture (Andrew Bieler, Paul Couillard, and Sara Martel). Comments, criticism, and so on all welcome. Some rights reserved: cc by-nc-sa 2011 Kris Erickson (panel abstract © 2011 Andrew Bieler, Paul Couillard, Kris Erickson, and Sara Martel).

A brief of the paper is immediately below, with the panel abstract below that; full text after the jump.

Paper brief:

Ethics and Community through Photo-voice

This paper will explore the ethical implications of photovoice research. It will challenge the assumptions of this compound term – namely, photographic realism and expressive communication – to envision how photovoice might enhance its collaborative and democratic dimensions. To this end, it will examine commonalities with and amongst related practices such as community cultural development or media democracy.

Panel abstract:

Sensing Community: Toward an Ethics of Collaboration in Visual Research Practices

This panel explores the ethics of locating, interacting and learning alongside communities in relation to a number of visual research practices: aerial photography, community arts, performance art, photo-voice, and photography within an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Although each report is substantively distinct, all challenge preconceptions of the ‘visual’ in academic research in order to move toward more collaborative paradigms of visual research. These experimental visual methods will be reflected upon as places of learning about ethics, where the meaning, practice and difficulties of ethical knowledge production are questioned. What are the stakes when research is understood not simply as impartial observation, but rather, as a potentially active force of production and transformation? To what extent can projects be structured to allow participants to share in shaping their direction and outcome, and what impact does this have on the very notion of research? What relationship can or should exist between ‘researcher’ and ‘participant’? Andrew Bieler will reflect on the socio-ecological dimensions of community arts and aerial photography practices aimed at mobilizing residents to challenge suburban sprawl and build support for local food security. Paul Couillard will report on a three-day performance project undertaken in Beijing, China in which he positioned his body as a public marker of personal wounds–whether physical, political or spiritual–identified by local citizens. Kris Erickson will explore the practical and political roots of the photo-voice method in an attempt to challenge certain implementations that minimize the emancipatory possibilities democratic photography offers its participants. Sara Martel will explore how a methodology like Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis invites participants to understand their own visual experiences, considering the Heideggerian “care” behind personal photography specifically. By bringing together these case studies, artist reports, methodological histories and theoretical interventions, we hope to find some significant, troubling and inspiring questions involved in collaborative research.

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