CONSIDERING VIETNAM: Call for Papers

17^th-18^th February 2012

Imperial War Museum, London

The Vietnam War is evolving from contemporary memory into history. Fifty years on, it still serves as a benchmark in the history of war reporting and in the representation of conflict in popular culture and historical memory. This conference seeks to explore the legacy of the US involvement in South East Asia and the resonances it still has for the coverage of contemporary warfare. In particular, the conference will reassess the role of the media in covering the war and the implications this has had for the coverage of subsequent conflicts, the impact of the war on popular culture, the ways that wars and their aftermaths are experienced on the ‘home front,’ and issues around memorialisation and memory, particularly in museum culture. The conference will bring together practitioners, academics and curators in an interdisciplinary engagement with this complex but important issue.

With Don McCullin, Philip Knightley and other guest speakers.

This conference is organised by the Imperial War Museum and the University of the Arts Photography and the Archive Research Centre (PARC) in support of IWM’s major exhibition SHAPED BY WAR:  PHOTOGRAPHS BY DON McCULLIN.

We welcome proposals for 20 minute papers discussing the representation of the Vietnam War across the following areas:

• Photography
• Film & television
• Written journalism
• ‘Mythologizing’ the Vietnam War in cultural memory

Please send a 250 word abstract and one-page c.v. to Dr. Jennifer Pollard at considering.vietnam@arts.ac.uk by September 30^th 2011. Notifications will take place by October 28^th 2011.

A special issue of the journal Photography and Culture is planned in response to the conference, including selected papers from the event.

Dr. Jennifer Pollard

Senior Lecturer, History & Theory of Photojournalism & Documentary Photography

London College of Communication, University of the Arts London

Brigitte Lardinois

Deputy Director, Photography & the Archive Research Centre, University of the Arts London http://www.photographyresearchcentre.co.uk/content/index.htm

For now we will just post a couple of the projects here are they are still being marked and assessed, but to give a flavour of the work here is Anders Birger’s piece on The American Misuse of Vietnamese Women in the Vietnam War which combines Phillip’s images with other archive film footage from the period

The American Misuse of Vietnamese Women in the Vietnam War from Anders Birger on Vimeo.

And this is Paola Sarappa’s research on The Vietnam Conflict: The Rock ‘n’ Roll War

AFTERNAM

Interactive scenario based collaborative design workshop led by Paul Lowe and Chris Follows of the University of the Arts London

Contact p.lowe@lcc.arts.ac.uk

Conference Topic Theme : All of them

Authors : Paul Lowe, Chris Follows

Keywords: collaboration, reuse, open, resources, practice, OER, open educational resources, scenario based design, design, Scenario Based User Needs Analysis, SUNA, user led, user needs analysis, archives, open educational resources, Living Labs

Introduction

This session will provide an opportunity to collaborate and contribute as part of a ‘Living Lab’ to the development and design of the AFTERNAM project, an online interactive archive and research tool focusing on the media representation of the war in Vietnam.  Participants in the session will be invited to act as potential users of the resource, and to engage in a scenario based user centric design process to explore innovative ways in which the resource might be deployed in teaching and learning. Given the nature of the participation, this will give insights into working collaboratively in a virtual environment on a design process for a real world application. The pre conference online activities will include an exploration of the project design and interface so far, and an opportunity for participants to act as potential users in a Scenario Based User Needs Analysis (SUNA). The actual workshop itself at the conference will give an opportunity for the participants to reflect on how suitable this kind of user centered open innovation approach is to developing 21^st century learning technologies.

The Afternam Project

‘Afternam’ brings together the photographic archives of Phillip Jones Griffiths, the film archive of Stanley Kubrick, and the journalistic archive of Phillip Knightley in an interactive multimedia resource that looks at the resonances of the conflict in Vietnam today, and draws connections between different areas of practice around the issues of the ethics of war reporting and the media’s role in covering and representing conflicts. This is an innovative resource for teaching and learning that combines an archive of the material with an experimental research area that integrates images, audio, video and multimedia pieces in a researcher led creative ‘mash up’ of these resources.

The research methodology for the project has adapted the collaborative research project approach already developed by the MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography (LCC) which involves using postgraduate students as co-researchers on the project directed by the project team. The individual research artefacts have all been produced by the postgraduate student cohort themselves and include a dynamic timeline and location map, as well as multimedia pieces and video interviews,

The project utilises a flexible Drupal based web interface that has been designed in conjunction with the student cohort and other potential users and stakeholders by using a ‘Living Labs’ approach to collaborative design.  We have used the JISC UIDM[1] to structure the work of the project along with elements of the Socio Cognitive Engineering Model[2]. The Scenario Based User Needs Analysis (SUNA) approach this entails has been particularly useful in working with potential users to test our understanding of their needs, brining an ethnographic perspective to understanding user behaviour and socio-technical system design and development. An agile approach has been used to create rapid prototypes to get user feedback and check on the feasibility of the technical goals we have set in order to inform development The design and functionality of the site has therefore been driven by this user needs analysis using an agile approach to programming and development rather than by a preconceived idea of the project team. This concept will be used as the basis of the conference workshop and the extended discussion before and after the actual meeting in Helsinki, and participants will have the opportunity to actively contribute to the development of the project in real time.

Developing a ‘Living Lab’ as an open innovation model with the student cohort

The Afternam project takes from the very beginning an approach that positions the end user at the heart of the process, making them central to determining the design and functionality of the site. Sharples et al argue that educational design should ‘aim to define human-centred systems that are based a sound understanding of how people think, learn, perceive, work and interact’ (2002, p2) and that

usability is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the design of good human-centred technology. Technology should also be useful, elegant and desirable (people should want to use it, rather than being compelled to do so as a condition of their learning or work). (2002, p2)

To achieve this aim, rather than the project team deciding on the feature set of the archive, the potential users are instead involved in exploring what kinds of activities they would envisage engaging in using the site. This approach has similarities to the open innovation model of business development in that it is user centric rather than developer centric. Leminen and Westerlund note that open innovation approaches by necessity are unpredictable but equally creative, arguing that

As opposed to the traditional models, the development work in the open innovation model is based on the needs and co-creation activities of the users and user communities, and the end result of the development work is often unforeseeable. Thus, it is obvious that traditional project management models, where fundamental assumptions of the management are based on a clear measurable goal of a project fail to apply in the open innovation model. (2009, p4)

One approach to dealing with this unpredictability that has proven successful is that of the ‘Living Lab’, The Living Lab concept originates from Prof William Mitchell of the MediaLab at MIT, Boston, as a user-centric research method for real life environments to identify and build prototypes, and to evaluate multiple solutions. Schumacher and Feurstein identify them as  a ‘research methodology for sensing, validating and refining complex solutions in multiple and evolving real life contexts’ (2007, p1), whilst Schaffers and Kulkki describe them  as

experimentation and validation environments characterized by early involvement of user communities, closely working together with developers and other stake- holders, and driving rapid cycles of ICT- based innovations. Living labs thus can be considered as user-centric environments providing a concrete setting for open collaborative innovation.

The Living Lab concept is characterized by the “users as innovators” approach. This means that “the basic idea is not about using the users as ‘guinea pigs’ for experiments, it’s about getting access to their ideas and knowledge” (Eriksson et al. 2006). This becomes a creative dialogue between the project team and the potential users of the resource, the shape of which is determined by the process of engagement itself. As Leminen and Westerlund explain

The living lab project targets to an undefined objective with the exception of loose guidelines or directions to initiate the collaboration. Thus, the final objective is merely based on interaction and co-creation processes with firms, customers and end users, as well other possible actors. It is essential to understand that there may emerge also several different results or targets, which may not be seen at the beginning of the development project. (2009, p5)

Scenario Based User Needs Analysis (SUNA)

SUNA is an approach to developing e learning resources based on an engagement with the user as central to the process. According to the team at the University of Essex who developed the concept, it is  ‘not an exact science nor is it prescriptive’ but it  ‘provides a series of structured activities that help designers and other stakeholders come to a common and shared understanding of what they are developing, and to provide some tools and techniques to support design decisions and record design rationale. (2000, p1). A SUNA is based on 4 steps, and is usually run as a series of workshops with intervening interaction, typical with small groups of users. This format builds a ‘Needs Hierarchy’ that can inform the development process,

1.            Scoping and writing of key scenarios

2.            Scenario Validation

3.            Eliciting the needs

4.            Use-Case Description and Story Boards

This brings a very useful ethnographic perspective to understanding user behaviour and socio-technical system design and development, while also providing a useful structure for detailed planning and user analysis. An agile approach is being used to create rapid prototypes to get user feedback and check on the feasibility of the technical goals we have set in order to inform development.

For the DeL conference we plan to run a SUNA workshop based on the AFTERNAM project in the lead up to the conference and then evaluate the process and its usefulness at the conference itself.

References

Eriksson, M., Niitamo, V.-P., Kulkki, S, Hribernik, K. A. (2006): State of the Art and Good Practice in the Field of Living Labs. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Concurrent Enterprising: Innovative Products and Services through Collaborative Networks. Italy: Milan. 26 – 28 June. pp. 341 – 348.

Fowler, C.J.H, van Helvert, J; Gardner, M.G, and Scott, J.R. (2007) The use of scenarios in designing and delivering learning systems. In H. Beetham & R. Sharpe, Rethinking Pedagogy in a Digital Age: Designing and delivering e-learning.London: Routledge.

Michael Gardner, Chris Fowler and John Scott (2000) A process for bridging technology and pedagogy for the design of e-learning systems citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.116.8844…

Hackos, J.T. & Redish, J.C. (1998) User and Task Analysis for Interface Design. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Leminen, S and Westerlund , M (2009)  From innovation networks to open innovation communities: Co-creating value with customers and users 25th IMP Conference, September 3-5, 2009

Niitamo, V.-P., Kulkki, S., Eriksson, M., Hribernik, K. A. (2006): State-of-the-Art and Good Practice in the Field of Living Labs. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Concurrent Enterprising: Innovative Products and Services through Collaborative Networks. Italy: Milan. 26 – 28 June. pp. 349-357.

Schaffers, H and Kulkki, S (2007) Living labs: An open innovation concept fostering rural development TECH MONITOR  Sep-Oct 2007 pp31-38

Schumacher, J and Feurstein, K, (2007)  Living Labs – the user as co-creator , ICE Conference Proceedings 2007

M. Sharples1, N. Jeffery, J.B.H. du Boulay, D. Teather, B. Teather, G.H. du Boulay, (2002) Socio-cognitive engineering: a methodology for the design of human-centred technology European Journal of Operational Research 2002 vol 132 p310-323

This project initially seeks to bring together the photographic archives of Phillip Jones Griffiths, the film archive of Stanley Kubrick, and the journalistic archive of Phillip Knightley in an interactive multimedia resource that looks at the resonances of the conflict in Vietnam today. The project will continue in the future to expand its coverage and critique of the role of media in conflict by adding more resources and critical material. As such, it will be a valuable resource for history, politics, film, photography, media and journalism scholars and students. The resource will be developed by the  team from the Photography and the Archive Research Centre (PARC) based at the London College of Communication (LCC), University of the Arts London (UAL). The project seeks to bring together 3 sets of archives initially, and to then introduce further materials during the lifetime of the resource. Initially, the project will draw on the photographs and other materials already digitised by Magnum Photos and the Phillip Jones Griffiths Foundation, which amounts to approximately 3,000 items including photographs, notes and audio interviews with the photographer and other commentators. This archive is soon to be housed at a new centre at the University of Bangor and part of the National Library of Wales. From the UAL Archives and Special Collections Centre the project will draw on the digitised assets relating to the production of Stanley Kubrick’s film ‘Full Metal Jacket’, which include locations stills, production stills, annotated works and reference books, including excerpts from Jones Griffith’s Vietnam Inc. Additionally, the project will use Phillip Knightley’s notebooks and reports from the period. LCC has contributed to the digitisation of these assets.

Aims and Objectives

To develop an innovative resource for teaching and learning that will integrate images, audio, video and multimedia pieces into an innovative resource. The site will seek to draw connections between different areas of practice around the issues of the ethics of war reporting and the media’s role in covering and representing conflicts.

To develop a template based on the above aim that can be reused by others for similar archive based projects

To deliver a report based on the experiences and evaluation of developing the project, especially focusing on the IPR issues and the curation of the resources.

To develop a sustainability plan for the project to ensure its existence for 5 years

To develop an dissemination plan including a series of linked themed conferences on photography and conflict

The following draws reference from Paul Lowe’s original NAM proposal, the student led design user feedback session on 19 May 2011, discussions with Grzesiek Sedek (Nam Drupal developer) and John Casey (ALTO) and the representatives of the three archives involved.

SUMMARY

We propose the CONFLICT AND MEDIA website would consist of two connected sites – one formal library of archived content ‘THE NAM ARCHIVE’ with an integrated dynamic ‘EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH AND DISCUSSION’ section.

Development Methodology and Review Process: Development will follow agile principles (rapid prototyping, targeting known problem areas and early user testing etc) and include regular reviews of progress. Reviews will consist of several workshop style meetings of the project personnel.

ORGANISATION OF WORK (completion date 30/09/11)

People: The work has been discussed by Chris Follows Grzesiek Sedek (Drupal Developer), given the time of year, we hope to develop as much as possible before Mid July, before the holiday period begins.

We should consider employing a designer, we would like the user experience and user driven design functionality to be the primary development motivation. A designer would work with this approach in mind. Q. Any designers in mind, have we a budget for this?

Users would not like the site overloaded with functionality, like NING site etc.

User would like the site to engage with as many ages as possible, engage school children.

The functionality of the site will take advantage of the UALs existing http://process.arts.ac.uk/ site, which is based on Drupal, has been very successful and the ALTO project (based in CLTAD) has identified the site as suitable for upgrading as part of the ALTO workplan.

The general aims of the upgrade are:

To improve the user experience and the system performance in the light of the lessons learned since the site was initially established as an experimental exercise – in terms of usability, performance and functionality.

It is also intended to use this opportunity to tidy up any loose ends and necessary maintenance left over from the original development.

The code from the upgraded version of the process.arts site be used to develop the CONFLICT AND MEDIA RESEARCH AND DISCUSSION site, it will be will redesigned and include additional specific functionality based on the following feedback:

TIMELINES:

User group would like to create timelines – Student group would like to research Philip Jones Griffiths and other photographers and try and map who was in same place at same time and what they were doing – only (Philip Jones Griffiths, Tim page, Larry borrows appear to cross-paths) the timeline map would show what and where photographers were at certain times – there are problems of finding and mapping dates some documentation shows the year but no research material shows which month.

For example the timeline would explore intense periods like 1968 battle Saigon lots of photographs, and would be contrasted against why no photography documented in 1969 photographers activity is juxtaposed with historical events. The users would like to find out why Philip Jones Griffiths was in a certain place at a certain time and why not in other times. Was another photographer shooting another story in another place at same time, maybe run timelines of different photographers side by side?

ACTION: Timeline software: The students suggested using dynamic simile timeline software, this can be installed as a Drupal module see examples here (http://www.simile-widgets.org/timeline/examples) – students can add data direct into the timeline. One large timeline that can be filtered should be considered, different students responsible for different timelines, war, events, photographers…

Student users will obtain 3rd party content from the public domain to add to the timeline with links to various websites etc

The student group responsible for the timeline projects will have a nominated student administrator user for each timeline project, all other students to be

Editors/contributors/moderators. Non timeline students and site users can add or change content on the timeline but this will be moderated before publishing.

SITE COMMUNICATION:

Site group email – users do not want to use internal site email communication they would like to continue using Independent group emails.

Users would like a basic Forum or blog focused specifically on discussion of research questions. The public can ask questions of the researchers (General).

USERS:

Student users are unclear regarding their involvement after they have contributed their research and gained their 10 grades, majority do not see themselves needing/wanting to contribute to the site again unless their research demands.

Q. Begs the question; what is the sites primary function? It’s an archive and research site.

Q. Who are the logged in users, what rights do they have?

Student researchers

Staff researchers – creation of learning objects

Outside researchers

UAL Student users

Public or not public – what happens – Users say anyone should be able to comment – open debate Q. who will manage this?

Users would like private (closed off sessions) sections

CONTENT:

Q. “Can we do stuff that’s not just words”? Video – interviews (“would be nice to interview his daughters about his thought process, about his Journal, what was said to his daughters as they grew up around the dinner table”) 27:50

Video & Multimedia – User interested in PJG editing process, contact sheets, viewing them, who worked with him the darkroom, help editing. Interview, talking heads. User generated video and embedded 3rd party content video and images.

Physical primary source content and digital content and 3rd party users are aware of the the relationships between the two forms – search methods

Site should include Image light-box

User does not want this to be lots and lots of academic text. See American experience – Vietnam online, all the videos of the TV reels of the day.

SEARCH & TAGS

Searchable by key word e.g. women and photography

Q. Can we produce, predict keywords?

Users would like it to have good Keyword search and be really well cross referenced.

Archive tags and research tags (same tag cloud keep it simple)

Three areas of research, users would like to see in-depth tagging and key word to be very comprehensive. Q. How will the archive tagging (taxonomy) and research taxonomy be integrated together?

SPECIALIST RESEARCH GROUPS:

Student researcher is interested in Philip Jones Griffiths welsh identify and would like to create a timeline of their background history welsh personal history, explore Philip Jones Griffiths identified with the oppressed peoples of the world – his own connection to welsh occupied territory 8oo years (tape 2 – 02:01)

Student researcher is interested the nature of the ‘embedded press system’ how US military used Press briefings to mould the shape of the media output contrast to how it is today.

User idea – smaller tabs, subheadings research project groups – users create their own communities. Researchers Spark off debates

Larger personal research – Breakaway independent sites to carry on loosely related research projects

Forum for researchers – Users do not want a site Forum (too much like NING) but would like one to compile sub forum linked to research categories as they prepare content in groups. Site will be like a forum.

Stanley Kubrick – User would like to find the photographs Kubrick used for Full metal Jacket, marry up the visuals. Archive Kubrick’s copy of Vietnam Inc. with cut out sections used to set up a scene and explore which other photographers he used as influence, photos, clip of film, stills. Film scene grabs (copyright issues) Q. how does this look as a post? – Text and image essay form suggested by students, film clips would be embedded. Q. How do dispersed archive elements come together?

MIND MAPS:

Users would like to link together text and pictures from photographers articles, interviews personal brought together through mind mapping with an image in the middle and text coming from the image.

LAYOUT DESIGN:

Mapping route of photographers but not to be over complicated KEEP EASY AND ACCESSIBLE – 2 Themes – at the entrance structured layout ways into the archives

Archives are overwhelming – users to give it visual language, reel it in to see what you need.

Q. Users unsure what the archive material will include, Index or copies of the images

Users would like the encourage serendipity by opening up ways to explore the site by including an element of discovery – users suggest contextual links, research paths, when your on one story you can learn of other related subjects, tag related search to research. Q. Can images in the archive be related to the research content being produced and be shown in the archive when that image is selected?  E.g. if the image has been used by six people and this is how they are using it in their research.

Users would imagine a prominent search area on front page and then features into the different type of content. See images student made of interfaces.

During the interface visual session:

Slide show random images, image archive (jump right into the images)

Multimedia aspect of the site on the main page

Interactive map – Geography

Divided into groups – specific

Tags, keywords

Maps  (Vietnam map, key areas?)

A feature with a big Image, very prominent search, link to advanced search specify tick box images or text.

Group A

To be able to get where you want from the front page, sections for list popular content, without having to leave the home page straight away, give you an idea of the sort of content you want. Categories of content – top level of archives

Group B

Header image and title of the project, educational platform users would like to show where they discover their research (things they found)

Grabber visual entrance to the site (popular images) Tag cloud

In the Index, content and searches users would like clear levels and distinctions of what content can be used and how, information should be associated with content and related content. It would be good to clearly define what is actually available online and what content you have to login to find and use (what can a non logged in user see, what is their experience).  Avoid/Excluded no dead links.

Users think nothing worse than finding a good piece of content and not being able to access it, would be good to have the choice – a link if you’d like to go further with your research they can contact the archive and request this content Q. Is this possible, for archives to deal with such requests? What advice do we give to access content?

Some students are not naturally research students, (what are the ‘standards’, expectations for the research, is this a scholarly exercise, how much experiment) Creative links, off on a tangent, time based – graphic design

The word ‘EXPERIMENT’ should be used associated with the research part of this project, students would like their association with the site to be aligned in context with the JISC project.

What kind of licensing options – users think this is important issues (crucial)

Dream licence – users should be able to use whatever is on that site – Non-commercial, share alike. E.g. “It would be great to look through the diaries and have a photocopy scan of the diaries next to our work” (26:10)

Users would like to understand how the creative commons works and licensing, users would like to have help and support in this area, for using content, making videos etc.

Users would like to examine the diaries of PJG, to assist in finding out where he was, what photos he took and when – they would like to know if they could copy the Diaries? Can these be published online?

John Casey, Mike Kelly, Grzesiek Sedek, Chris Follows

Nam project drupal development Team/ ALTO/drupal open.arts project (process.arts)
Drupal Project team: Nam Project Manager – Paul Lowe
Quality Manager – John Casey (ALTO project manager)
Drupal development project coordinator –
Chris Follows NAM drupal manager (ALTO project coordinator and process.arts creator)
Lead drupal developer – Grzesiek Sedek
In house advisors (CLTAD ) Mike Kelly – Paul Tabak