_ReWriting publics, by MIT OpenDocLab Fellow Sandra Rodriguez, is a research-creation project that rethinks the use of interactive platforms and art for social change and public engagement. Interactive, participatory installations and webdocs are becoming part of our everyday lives and public landscape to the point that private sectors, news outlets, NGOs and cities are now investing in their creation. Yet, beyond usual audience polls and innovative measuring/tracking techniques, what do we know of how users make sense of these platforms? What attracts, encourages their participation? How do they make sense of their effectiveness for social change? And what do they retain from their experience?
Conceived as a two-step project, an initial research stage explores these questions from a sociological perspective. It develops a framework from a multi-case analysis of innovative platforms, focusing on how individuals, creators and users evaluate their implication and impact. A second stage of the process is creative. It draws from findings to create a “test-platform” – a learning loop that allows users to re-imagining new roles for how emerging media tools change the stories told around them and about them.
_ReWriting publics is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Research-Creation Post-Doc Fellowship) and Lab Culturel (Québec Plan Culturel Numérique) with the welcomed contributions of the Open Doc Lab community.