Changing Places

PROJECT: 
Changing Places
DATE: 
01.01.2010 to 01.01.2012
Changing Places is a three-year study, investigating how local and transnational events are mediated through public space, focusing on the screen practices that come into play as large format and handheld screens are used in arenas of public life. Taking its point of departure in events that capture the attention of publics in different parts of the world, the research explores how these events are recorded and remediated through social and cultural practices that involve screen technologies. CHANGING PLACES is a three-year study, investigating how local and transnational events are mediated through public space, focusing on the screen practices that come into play as large format and handheld screens are used in arenas of public life. Taking its point of departure in events that capture the attention of publics in different parts of the world, the research explores how these events are recorded and remediated through social and cultural practices that involve screen technologies.

Against a backdrop of technological developments and new media platforms, the research combines an analysis of televised, web- and other screen-based media content with ethnographic methods to investigate the protocols people develop as they use these media in public space, including the expressive forms they employ (image, text, sound) and how they remediate their experience to other people and places. The events examined in Changing Places include 1) works of screen-based art on display in public space, as developed by the artists in Performing Pictures, 2) transnational sports events, specifically the 2010 FIFA World Cup as broadcast to public viewing areas, and 3) a selection of breaking news events broadcast on public screens..

As the reach of digital technologies and new media platforms extends, an event occurring on one side of the globe can in theory be witnessed simultaneously by people in many other places. Yet, the media technologies required to witness and participate in these events are not distributed equally, and are used differently according to the needs and social customs that develop among media users in a specific locale. In addition, an event is interpreted in many different ways, depending on how it is represented and on the beliefs and priorities that are prevalent among people living in different places. In examining the impact of these three factors – the potential of simultaneously mediated events, the uneven distribution and applications of media technologies, and the different meanings attributed to mediated events in different locales – the study addresses central questions regarding the globalization of contemporary societies.

Stockholm University
Project leader: Karin Becker
Co-researchers:
Geska Helena Brecevic, Performing Pictures (2010-2011)
Robert Brecevic, Performing Pictures (2010-2011)
Robert Kautsky, JMK (2011-2012)
Andreas Widholm, JMK (2011-2012)

Funded by the Swedish Research Council/Vetenskapsrådet 2010-2012

Tags: 
art in public spaces,
research