Introduction

Elif Shafak asks:

Over the last 10 years, I have worked on several creative research projects, utilising documentary film as participatory practice, including single films, web platforms and digital archives, and ranging in location from my home in the North of Ireland to Haiti and Brazil, and to South Africa. The themes range from state violence against residential communities to prisons as a response to political conflict. What underpins these projects, as well as their filmic elements, is the importance of participatory practices both with those contributing their experiences and those collaborating on the production side.

Creative Practice Research

The projects have been made possible because of my employment by universities which has allowed me to access resources, such as camera kits, and to access finance including internal grants for research travel and competitive grants from national research bodies, for example, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) UK, and non-governmental organisations such as the Communities Relations Council Northern Ireland (NI) and the National Heritage Lottery Fund (NHLF). The relatively recent emphasis on ‘impact’ as an important consideration in research funding has benefitted creative practice to some extent, while the ongoing definition of practice as methodology, as well as an output, is foundational to its value.

Participatory Practices

The nature of participatory practices applied is evident from the range of projects under discussion. The Prisons Memory Archive (PMA) achieved the most engaged collaborations for at least two reasons; first, I am resident in the location where the majority of the participants live and where the material focus of the themes exists, that is, the female Armagh Gaol and male Maze and Long Kesh. While I began the project at a university in London, I took it with me to the two universities in the North of Ireland where I was later employed. Such proximity enabled an ongoing and consistent relationship with the participants.