On June 16, Federico De Musso and Cristina Grasseni presented the WIP version of the i-doc (Interactive platform - Leiden University (universiteitleiden.nl) to colleagues of ReCNTR at Leiden University’s Faculty of Social Sciences. The goal of the peer-reviewed seminar was to invite a maker (or scholar, or scholar/maker) to show the connection between methods and research in their own work-in-progress (digital) artefact.

Three projects

Three projects were presented and discussed: by Aiwen Yin (CASCO) with Myriam Vandenbroucke on the ecosystem of commons art and Yin’s WIP latest art economy project, Nile A. Davies (anthropologist, ethnographic film-maker) on his WIP film on the Magbass sugar plantation in Sierra Leone, and Federico De Musso with Cristina Grasseni on the Food Citizens? I-doc. After a 30-minute presentation, the projects were discussed at length focusing on first reception (during which the presenters were asked only to listen) to then extend discussion to involve the makers.

The i-doc’s conceptual heuristics

Grasseni and De Musso presented on the i-doc’s conceptual heuristics and how it works: navigating a digital map of a fictional three-city space (Turin+Rotterdam+Gdańsk); interacting with icons that were authored and designed in order to look like the most significant fieldwork locations; operating a 4-way dial that allows one to connect specific locations within the same city as well as across to the other two cities; connecting and juxtaposing our categories of analysis (solidarity, diversity, skill and scale) by contrast or similarity.

Feedback

Grasseni and Musso elicited feedback on the i-doc’s digital affordance for interaction, digital experience of navigation, and what kind of understanding of the project one does one obtain without previous knowledge. They received excellent feedback on how to improve user-guidance in the explorations of the interactive platform and to link it better to a conceptual and methodological illustration of goals and methods. Many thanks to all the participants for their insightful comments!