PhD Fieldwork, Day 1: A Researcher in Residence at the Tate (^.^)

Today is a big day in the web-wolf glitter land that is my PhD. After a crazy and wonderful year of reading, discussing, traveling and (over!)thinking everything there is to think about spaces for digital making, cultural institutions, methodologies and open creative practices, I start the pilot stage of my doctoral fieldwork at the Tate Britain, situated within the ever-colourful Taylor Digital Studio as its new Researcher-in-Residence. I have consent forms ready from the University of Sussex, about a thousand web broswer windows open on the Tate’s computers, a T4 file full of community photos and about 20 pages of to-do’s - and yet, it feels no small task to get started.

As a part of the study I’m undertaking with the Tate and other cultural institutions in the UK, my aim in hanging out, messing around and geeking out at these spaces, in addition to implementing more formal qualitative methods like participant observation and interviews, is to engage with the situated knowledges and actor-network theories of Donna Haraway, Bruno Latour, Doreen Massey and other great thinkers as a user myself - not as an “objective” researcher, seemingly removed from the environments I am actually an active part of. This is because when we make things in a space like the Tate’s Digital Studio together, we all become connected - whether we happen to be a computer, a workshop participant, a gallery curator or an observer. We all help make these sites what they are. Without these interactions, a makerspace is just a conglomeration of infrastructures, plaster and walls alone, without meaning or identity.

This project’s data collection starts, perhaps fittingly, with making. From September to December, I’ll be spending my Fridays in the Studio, collaborating with other PhD and researcher groups and with the Tate’s excellent Digital Learning team members, while playing the role of both researcher and designer through a few different hands-on projects. The first intervention I’ll be working on is SPACEHACKER, an evolving artwork that I’ll be launching as part of MozEx, an exhibit curated by the Tate and the V&A as part of this year’s Mozilla Festival in London. SPACEHACKER implements critical and speculative design models by asking participants to sketch out their imaginaries of a digital space that members of their community would feel welcome at. For those interested in getting involved (I’d love collaborators on this project!), I’ll be presenting it along with a few other (mega talented!) MozEx artists in this public pop-up at the Tate on October 10th-11th.

Community making at a workshop entitled “Wandering Ruins” in 2014.

I’m really looking forward to getting started. In the meantime I’ll be heading to Johannesburg for a few days, and am wondering whether there are any similar-minded initiatives that merge culture with digital learning and making in their communities (any ideas? Please let me know!), and I’ll also be chatting about ideas like these on a panel entitled “Who is the digital revolution for?” in Brighton at the end of this month for those who are in town. Summer may be winding down and the days of sun getting shorter, but it’s shaping up to be a great autumn.