18 Sep BEHIND THE SCENES. RIVERS in the Audiovisual Ocean (First Steps)

RIVERS in the Audiovisual Ocean (First Steps)

Starting this new academic year, we are happy to share another chapter of RIVERS behind the scenes. Last February 2023, we embarked on a somewhat different journey.

At the beginning of 2023, the RIVERS team gathered to establish an individual timeline for each research activity, dissemination plan, coordination, and possible interrelationships. We got a closer look at Lieselotte’s fieldwork in Nepal alongside Ram Twiari (link to the post), the workplan at the United Nations (link to the post), the preparation of podcasts, and… we tackled one of the communication objectives within the project, the audiovisual outputs. We all had in mind the following thought, outside the academic circle, how can we share all the generated knowledge in a more attractive and straightforward manner? How can we convey the essence of such a complex network?

Considering the progress made in the RIVERS podcast and the work we developed at the Cineforum held in Guatemala (March 2022), it was time for the RIVERS team to capture these experiences and start flowing into the audiovisual ocean.

Regarding the existing anthropological, legal, and… background within the team, we felt that we were entering in a completely U N K N O W N universe.

To do this, we contacted and invited the multimedia producer Laurence ivil and the artistic director Mariona Guiu.

With their guidance, Laurence led us in defining a multimodal website. He shared his experiences in creating a multimedia graphic novel project titled Motherhood in Crisis. It’s a multimedia graphic novel focused on mobile devices (including video) about the experiences of four women during pregnancy and childbirth in Sierra Leone, co-created with several local NGOs, medical professionals, and community members. More academically related, he presented Migrants on the margins. It’s a comic that documents stories of migrants in Somaliland, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, to accompany academic research at the University of Sussex, in collaboration with partners in the UK from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London and Durham University.

Mariona brought a hurricane of energy with concise, provocative approaches to reveal what was presented to us as a major dilemma to be solved within the team, establishing the solar system of RIVERS in audiovisual terms. Defining the main message to communicate, the target audience… This first workshop was the beginning of many others. Coordinated and led by our colleague Diego Padilla, the foundations were laid for working on one of the objectives of the RIVERS project, the production of an audiovisual documentary.

Next steps? Stay tunned!

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