The Editor’s Role in Arts-based Research and the Mitigation of influence in Editorial Choices
This is the Ed-Op brief I presented at AERA and ICQI 2021 about editing in arts-based research and the mitigation of editor influence. We want the viewer to draw their own conclusions, to interpret for themselves what they see, hear, and feel. This is a look at how we might do that.
The Use of Images in Storytelling
Evolution and the necessity of Friction
Us: a photograph montage using images from photographers around the world
A quick look at where we are and where we might end up if we stop the greenwashing and start addressing noted primary threats to individual, community, and global sustainability: poverty, racism, meaningless, unconnected, and costly education, denial of access, imbalanced distribution of resources, exclusion of local and indigenous voices from the conversations and the decisions, over exploitation, and profit over people governance. This is a photographic montage compiled using over 100 images from photographers and illustrator from around the world. We are waiting for our hired high school student to finish adding all the credits; please know this is an ongoing process halted by COVID but soon to continue. Our apologies for the delay.
Annual Gopher Tortoise Burrow Count
So I only got permission from my friend Dr. George Heinrich, the most bad-ass herpetologist in Florida, to film the last day of his biannual burrow count, the evening before. I had one two hours to get to the army navy store to buy snake boots and field pants. I get there and they have a power outage so they can only take cash and there are no lights on. I told them what I needed, told them my sizes then left to find a cash machine. When I got back, they had pulled the snake boots and pants and boxed and bagged them. All I had to do was pay. I got home feeling pretty damn prepared
I woke at 5AM the next morning to find that in the dark, whoever pulled the boots, grabbed one of mine (a female’s 8.5 and a male’s 10. I had to make it work or lose the shoot opportunity, so on my right foot, already a size-and-a-half smaller than my left foot, I put on two thick, wool ski socks and stuffed the shoe of the boot with two more balled up ski socks then laced the boot on as tight as I could get it. It weighed a ton.
Throughout the day, I tripped on vines and roots and sand mounds and shrubs and branches. You name it, I tripped over it. I kept thinking each time I fell face first, I was going to land on top of a pissed off rattler and take a bite to the face. I couldn’t put my hands out to break my fall because I was holding a gimbal mounted with a Canon DSLR camera, easily a 10 pound rig. The brave burrow hunters kept picking me up out of the thicket.
About half an hour before the crew called it a day, I headed back to the road to catch some trail time, hoping for some turtle footage. I did not know the right pocket of the trousers had a whole. When I got home that night and emptied my pocket, I discovered the five full SD cards from the day’s shoot were gone. I freaked! I called and left a message for George and the Volunteer coordinator, thinking you never know. Maybe someone might have found the cards in all that snaky edge habitat thicket we sloughed through.
The next morning The volunteer coordinator called me and said that a volunteer from the crew had come up onto the road and found the cards. All of them! They gave me her number, and I called. Turned out she only lived a few streets from me and she dropped the cards off after work on her way home. She saved the day!
Chicago BUTOH: a film produced on an Arts-based Stage Play written by Dr. Charles Vanover and Directed by Bob Devin Jones
This video was a joint effort with Dr. Charles Vanover (USF) and Bob Devin Jones (and many others named in the video) as part of an arts-based qualitative inquiry into teaching and learning experiences in Chicago Public schools. The video is based on a stage dramatization of one teacher’s interview transcript (Vanover, 2018). The performance script was created using the teacher’s exact words from the transcript; neither her words nor the order of her words were changed. It made me hyper-conscious of every editorial choice I made while constructing the film.
Homeless in St.Pete and Tampa
This film was shot over the course of Summer 2018. We had some challenges working in the field and finding people in the industry who would talk to us about the issue. The last week of shooting, we were referred to the officer and deputy who work directly with homeless individuals from all circumstances. Their mission is to end homelessness. After the filming, they invited me to attend their team luncheon, a team comprised, I soon discovered, of every nonprofit, shelter, church, food pantry, and social and legal advocate you could imagine. We took the entire patio section of the restaurant.
Before the food had even arrived, Deputy Stephanie Krager received a phone call from the sheriff about a female who had been found innocent after serving a year in prison on a guilty verdict. The courts just overturned the guilty verdict and dumped her onto the street with nothing and nowhere to go. I watched the group all start texting and calling, and by the time the food did arrive, the team had found an apartment, food, some furnishings, clothing, and a possible temporary job. The swift aggressive way they worked together to support their fellow human being was mind-blowing and inspiring!
The Immersive Experience Experiment: footage, illustrations, and images from Trace Taylor and from all the youth and educator participants
I did two years of equipment research and field project applications in order to incorporate 360 into my immersive experience curricula. There is no excuse for a large majority of youth to lack this kind of experience and knowledge. It’s 2019. This and other in depth exposure makes the difference between access and no access. Period.
This large scale field application happened in July of 2018 and included 2D action cam loaded drones; waterproofed GoPro Hero Blacks and various other comparable 2D 4K action cams; waterproof 360 cams; 360 stand alone Class VR goggles (magnificent head gear computers); DSLRs, cell phones, tablets and creative apps.
See for yourself how the whole project rolled out. Best experience yet, and I have had some great experiences doing these programs. Every one who pitched in really helped bring the thing together, especially the youth participants. This documentary about the project is a compilation of mine and their photographs and video.
A Brief Story of Me
Experiments in 360 Compilations
PAG Road Construction
I did two years of equipment research and field project applications in order to incorporate 360 into immersive experience curricula. This micro 360 documentary was one of those field trials using the Nikon 360 KeyMission. Fantastic 360 4K cam. A little expensive for low key nonprofits and teachers but an excellent durable watertight cam for engaged learners K-adult.
Some of the footage was shot from a car-roof mount. Other segments were shot by setting the cam down then running to hide. though there are a couple of interviews. This experiment really forced some foundational technical and application understandings of 360.
There is no excuse for a large majority of youth to lack this kind of experience and knowledge. It’s 2019. This and other in depth exposures can mean the difference between access and no access. Period. See for yourselfand feel free to let me know your reactions to the work.
A Bridge Fisherman of Pinellas County
The cool part of this Experience was that during the underwater shots we lost one of the cameras when the steel leader line broke and sent it to the bottom of the channel between 8 and 12 feet deep.
My first reaction: “Did that just…” Then I texted my friend Louise.
“Camera lost in channel off second bridge to Ft. DeSoto! Help!”
“No worries. Texted Rodger. We can dive for it tomorrow morning, 9ish.”
The camera loss and Louise and Roger’s contribution ended up making the story’s punchline for “How to Catch a Fish” The next morning by 9AM, they were diving the channel hunting for the two-inch square, one inch thick, black Nikon 360 KeyMission camera (waterproof to 100 feet) while I video the Camera Down Mission. 45 minutes go by and Roger comes up and signals he’s done. So we’re ready to call it when Louise breaks the surface like a rocket and in her outstretched hand is the little black camera already crusted with seed barnacles. The footage was unaffected. The camera had filmed its fall and continued filming for 20 minutes after, capturing itself being assaulted by a large irritated purple and yellow puffer fish who proceeded to assault the glowing black box. One especially brutal head-butt sent the camera over onto one of its two lenses where it stay until Louise rescued it.
There were other issues. Wind and Traffic complicated the production of audio. One solution nearly sent two shotgun mics over the railing. We ended up fastening them out of sight on the outside of the rail with velcro straps. The rail offered some protection from the wind and traffic sounds. We added a thicker mic-muff and had everyone talk over the rail towards the water. Not the best sound quality, but we learned so much trying to get it there!
Trace Taylor 