To summarise the whole experience of Media Culture 2020: it has been as enjoyable as it was challenging.
Challenges
came in many forms for myself. Firstly, I have never worked on a
project with so many co-collaborators. Added to this there were “layers”
of co-collaborators with the project layer consisting of 10 academic
partners (although only 1 per institution was assigned to the
preparations) and an additional 50 students comprising the participants
layer - this was an ambitious project considering the amount of
participants alone.
When
I first realised the enormity of the planning, logistics and
organisation my first thoughts were “how are we all going to communicate
and stay synchronized?”. This scared me. I find communication sometimes
difficult with people in the same building let alone spread across the
continent in differing time zones and with different schedules.
Fortunately,
Cai introduced me (and probably some of the other academic partners) to
a set of tools which made this particular aspect a whole lot easier.
There were still problems, but nothing on the scale I was imagining if
we hadn’t of had Google+, Docs and Drive at our disposal. Which,
although very useful, presented another challenge for me; getting to
grips with new technology and a new way of working.
I
have to admit however, that despite my initial reservations, I am now
converted and can see practical applications of these tools in my
everyday professional and personal life.
One
of the aforementioned reservations about using collaborative technology
is something I feel a number of participants, students included, who
were new to this way of working, was being so publicly visible.
This
took me awhile to embrace because prior to this project I has always
worked in a vacuum until a project was completed and ready to be
unleashed on the world. I had always kept blogs for projects as
documentation of this nature is perfect evidence for assessment (for
whatever outcomes, academic, commercial, etc.) and I have always asked
of my students to create blogs to allow the cycle of constant feedback
all media projects require to be successful - but all were “behind
closed doors”.
During
the planning process of this project I was working on documents that
were open to all participants - live - and some documents were public
facing. This unnerved me slightly because now I was carrying the
responsibility of being a team leader and everything I was writing or
contributing was up for public scrutiny. I used to take a long time to
get something ready for even my peers and here I was creating work live!
I
am so glad I was introduced to working this way as it gave me the
confidence to contribute, give feedback and have a voice, all in
real-time so collaboration started to become a conversation and
documentation became organic as opposed to revisions of static
materials.
Managing
a group of students with different skills and cultural backgrounds was
also something I had never experienced prior to the project, and again, I
am very glad to have had this opportunity because it made me realise
that differences make for a more interesting and conceptually stronger
ideas generation phase. I know this may sound obvious, but it is only
when you experience this first-hand that you can really see the
benefits.
In
terms of evidencing the above, I think it is clear in the range of
concepts produced that participant’s experiences prior to the project
helped shape the end result and what may not be evident to those reading
this who didn’t take part, was the different ways in which students
from different institutions approached the same task. Some were very
pragmatic and logical, others were slightly more creative and wanted to
dive straight in but all, eventually, agreed on a strategy to approach
the planning and development stages of their concepts.
Working
in such an intensive programme proved another challenge for all of us.
Not because any of us are lazy; more because there were so many exciting
and useful activities packed into such a tight schedule. It was
impossible to see and do everything! This is by no means a negative
reflection on the organisers; quite the opposite. The challenge came in
understanding how to manage your own time when working under an
intensive schedule that included a mix of work and social activities. Most of the participants are used to projects
spanning weeks or months. Here, stages of development required
completion in hours or days. It certainly made for interesting, and
concise, meetings!
I
have many, many fond memories of my 2 weeks in Tampere. TAMK were
excellent hosts and their students a credit to the institution because
they took us under their wings and showed us a Tampere that we may
otherwise have missed.
The
country-themed evenings were excellent too. With each night becoming
more and more sophisticated so as to not be outdone by the previous
country demonstrating pride and passion about the place the hosts were
from and willingness to share that with their new friends. I feel
honored to have been a part of that.
I
feel the work done in the workshops is important on many levels. It
demonstrated to me that cultural differences and large groups spread
across a continent can work together. Remote working has still some way
to go before it becomes as effective as being in a physical place
together, but when together, the differences that define us help bring
something new to the discussion and some of that is evident in how the
groups managed the planning process.
It
was also important for the students because not only have they now
become part of a continent-wide circle of friends, they also have
undergone the same experience as I have complete with apprehensions,
expectations and joy of working on such an intensive, creative and above
all, fun project.
I
feel it also important for the rest of the academic world and indeed
the media industry, especially in Europe, because it proves that
projects, and the experience behind creating them, becomes far more
interesting when people come together from different backgrounds and
contribute to a task and shared goal/vision.
I would like to take this opportunity to again thank:
“Uncle” Cai Melakoski for all his hard work writing the bid and organising practicalities in Tampere.
The
academic staff of all partner institutions for their contribution to
the planning and development of the programme, as well as their vital
roles as team leaders and consultants,
And
finally, the students who embraced the opportunity to work on this
project and share their views, opinions and abilities with us all.
I now look forward to Liepāja!
