FilmEU New Dynamic Clusters
FilmEU has selected two new dynamic clusters and awarded each with seed funding for research pilot projects. ‘Film.A.R’ researches audiences’ tastes and practices from knowledge to access to consumption, regarding films produced by small European film markets. ‘ENACT_NOW’ critically examines the intricate interplay between the web, war, surveillance, media and technology. The dynamic clusters involve more than 25 researchers from 7 FilmEU partners, from senior researchers to early career researchers, practitioners, PhD researchers, and students providing unique interdisciplinary research perspectives.
ENACT_NOW
Techno-Aesthetics, Counter-Archives and Imagined Narratives of War: Fictional Futures of Conflict
Abstract
The approach of poor images as disruptive presences in the actual context designed by computerization and artificial intelligentsia, comes forward via different types of screens as cameras, becoming more and more ubiquitous. The net-working of images, geotagging and databases, push the status of images for a constant transmutation. Machine-vision and automation join AI and the super-digital to construct a media front that can showcase a parallel reality of conflict. Our perspective will explore the relation between individuals, computers and contemporary warfare. This research project aims to critically examine the intricate interplay between the web, war, surveillance, media and technology. In an era where the digital realm serves as both a battleground and a playground, understanding the dynamics in motion is crucial. We seek to unravel the multifaceted relationships and implications of the web in the context of mediatized warfare, surveillance practices, media theory, and the ever-changing landscapes of creative practices. We also aim to investigate the multifaceted intersection of an “aesthetics of conflict”, where archival footage and the media play a pivotal role in shaping conflict narratives. Through artistic and concept-based research and fiction, we undertake visual and sonic investigations surrounding the mediatization of conflict, with a particular focus on found footage, archival material, digital waste, big data, etc., in order to create, disseminate and speculate on how images and aesthetics shape media ecologies and contribute to the discourse on conflict, present and future.
Team
- Hugo Barata / José Carlos Neves (Lead Researchers)
- Alexander Gerner
- José Gomes Pinto
- Judith Pernin
- João Carrilho
- Linda King
- Luís Alegre Silva
- Ricardo Nunes
- Diaa Lagan
- Adam Straka
- João Cabral
- Julian King
- Iryna Shev
Film.A.R.
FilmEU Audience Research: Film and Audiovisual Audience Research for European small markets
Abstract
This dynamic research cluster revolves around the topic of audiences’ tastes and practices (from knowledge to access to consumption), regarding European films, particularly the ones produced by small European film markets, ie, films produced outside the so-called big five European markets (Italy, Germany, UK, Spain, France).
Our research goals are 1) to increase the knowledge on film and media audiences for “small” European film markets; 2) to understand film audiences’ tastes and practices, in specific consumption channels such as film festivals and online platforms; 3) to create and/or fine-tune research tools to systematically study European film and media audiences, at cross-national level; 4) to design a systematic and comprehensive methodological protocol and toolkit for studying audiences in small markets in a comparative and longitudinal manner (which could inspire other small markets).
The cluster will focus on the audiences of two film and series consumption channels: 1) film festivals with European contents and 2) online platforms, more specifically 2.1) VOD (Video-On-Demand) & 2.2.) FAST services (Free Ad Supported Streaming Television). These consumption channels are two important sites for film and series consumption, however under-researched. And if on the one hand FAST services are on the rise in the USA, on the other hand we know little about its reception in Europe.
We will conduct Focus groups (FG) with audiences: 4 online FG per country, with 4 to 6 participants each; and 1 on-site FG with 8 to 12 participants in each country; as well as interviews with the VOD providers, and other relevant stakeholders. We will select film festivals with European content, and we will interview film festival curators and other gatekeepers, and conduct an online survey.
Also, we will conduct artistic research with data from audience research – namely, two short films will be produced: 1) exploring AI in the construction of narratives, and its impact on audiences; 2) exploring the “return to advertisements”. This innovative form of communication results will help showcase the value of FilmEU for the industry and the society.
The aim of the research clusters is to contribute to the understanding of film and media transnational audiences for European films and series, through systematically collecting and analyzing data on film and series audiences of each consortium partner, with a comparative scope.
Hence, this dynamic cluster addresses research gaps in film and audiovisual audience research, at three different levels: 1) a multidisciplinary approach , by gathering a diverse disciplinary expertise in its team; 2) geographical scope- usually focused on English speaking countries or the European Big 5 (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain) ; 3) methodological approach: not just nationally bonded, but comparative; intensive and in-depth; new and comprehensive dataset (we build on CresCine’s database F.I.D.A., a multidimensional film repository database).
Film.A.R. pursues the knowledge triangle, and aims to have a high level of impact both for filmEU+/WIRE education, research and innovation, by developing the filmEU alliances’ competences in film audience research; and for the European film and audiovisual industry, by contributing to the knowledge transfer on domestic film and AV audiences, thus improving the evidence for their audience-oriented initiatives; and at the societal level, by promoting audience engagement with film and series produced in European countries outside its “big 5” markets.
Film.A.R. is particularly relevant in the context of the challenges of media technologies in production and (fragmented) digital markets (eg: AVMS), and the constant threat of the of the endangering of European cultural diversity, in face of USA hegemony, and AI standardization of narratives.
Team
- Manuel José Damásio
- Tsvetelina Tsvetkova
- Lies Van de Vijver
- Célia Quico
- Rita Grácio
- André Graça
- Anastasiya Maksymchuk
- Ana Sofia Pereira
- Adam Straka
- Marta Vaz de Sousa
- Sten Kauber
- Inga Uus