Watch "Life Yard | Kingston, Jamaica" on Vimeo︎︎︎

++ Check out my Vimeo channel called "Right to the City - 360 Shorts" featuring the Life Yard film, and others as they develop

My work with Participedia (a SSHRC funded international research initiative) sparked my interest in participatory political participation, particularly grassroots initiatives not supported or initiated by local government or formal institutions (aka the revolution). I completed my masters thesis in design at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and in addition to secondary research, I used the medium of 360 filmmaking to learn more about grassroots participation in various, site-specific contexts. I hope to enrich my own understanding of what it takes to mobilize, and at the same time identify possible opportunities for collaborative art and design intervention to bolster existing resistance groups.

So far, I've completed one workshop and one 360 film in collaboration with a community based organization in Kingston, Jamaica called Life Yard (watch it on Vimeo).

The collaborative storyboarding process allows the stories to be shaped by the community members themselves, and all content is gifted to the groups for their own use as well as published on other channels, including Participedia. In the case of Life Yard, they've released the film on their own social channels, and will hopefully use it to secure funding for future neighbourhood safety programs.

Check out my thesis, Citizen Spaces: Experiments in Reclaiming the Right to the City for more about this work.