CornCCoB Reflections

I want to sum up my overall reflections from my time in Cornwall carrying out fieldwork on the CornCCoB project. 

Most (if not all) of my interviewees talked about Cornwall as having a thriving and vibrant arts scene and community. At least three people suggested that you "shake a tree and a bunch of artists will fall out" (and others - words to that effect). Some talked of Cornwall as being over saturated with artists - so many that it becomes impossible for any of them to make a living from it. Indeed many of the artists I spoke to were involved in many other professional roles in order to bring the cash in to support their lives as artists. This is particularly true of those artists who had made the decision to pursue their own artistic journeys as a priority over creating pieces that would be likely to sell. But back to Cornwall - through my various conversations I understand Cornwall to be a place of many contrasts. On the one hand, thriving, colourful and buzzing with year round cultural events, with a population who are genuinely engaged with arts and culture. On the other, seasonal strains that come with the huge influx of tourists who flock to the coastline of Cornwall particularly in the summer. Due to tourism, generally economically viable (even thriving) on the coast, but deprived in many parts of the centre due to the downfall of the mining industry, leaving little other than the fishing and tourism industries to support the area and resulting in heightened unemployment rates. Yet a strong sense of identity pervades in all areas - be it a very localised identity, or a strong sense of Cornishness that sets the locals apart from other parts of the UK. It's perhaps also worth mentioning that many of those I spoke with feel that part of this identity comes from the unique geographical isolation brought about by living in a Peninsula - being "stuck down here" and remote from other parts of the UK - certainly not always seen as a bad thing, often seen as a strength.

CornCCoB days 3 - 14!

After the previous two blog posts I became quite busy, and then a few days later moved into a holiday cottage with no wifi. So although I would have loved to update the blog, I was no longer able to. A nice little touch during a research trip all about the value of the web! Anyway, I thought I'd provide a short summary here of the fieldwork. On day 3 I found myself in Redruth, to speak with various artists working from studios in a fantastic space called Krowji: http://www.krowji.co.uk Krowji is an old school building (plus out buildings) which now provides affordable studio space for local artists and craftspeople. It's an incredibly inspiring place with a very colourful cafe - I ended up here on three separate occasions and I think it's fair to say it has injecting some much needed vibrancy into a depressed (but beautiful) town which suffered with the decline of the local mining industry.

I got such a range of perspectives from the various people I spoke to here

CornCCoB day 2

Today I've spent the day at Falmouth University - Tremough campus meeting up with colleagues here in Falmouth who are either involved in CornCCoB or working on relevant research. First up I talked with Isabelle Rishner who is working on a 2 year project called "Supercrafted" which is exploring how crafts practitioners engage with the web.

CornCCoB day one

My first day in Cornwall, having spent the previous day traveling and I was straight out for the first two interviews. The first of these was with an artist/print maker living and working rurally in the Penzance area.

We talked about communities of place and interest.

CornCCoB project!

I have some exciting news (well, exciting for me, at least) - I have successfully secured funding for a project which will explore Cornwall's creative communities and the role of broadband (CornCCoB). I'm off down to Cornwall for 2 weeks to talk with a variety of creative professionals, along with people leading community arts projects and outreach programmes. I'm really looking forward to both learning more about the nature of Cornwall's creative cultures, and getting a better understanding of the role that broadband can play within this, in enabling creative practitioners and communities to reach out and better network with potential clients and collaborators. I'm also interested in those who do not use the web for their work/activities - what holds people back from engaging with the web? Is there any kind of support which might be welcome? I will be updating this blog throughout the process so please stay tuned to see how the research unfolds.

Rural Connective series concludes

Over the past year I've been lucky enough to be a part of a great series of workshops, Rural Connective: http://air.falmouth.ac.uk/research-projects/rural-connective

The workshop series was a partnership between University College Falmouth, dot.rural at University of Aberdeen and BT and funded by the AHRC. The workshops have explored the potential for broadband (and in particular superfast broadband such as that being rolled out by BT in Cornwall) to impact upon life for rural communities and allow better connections and collaborations for those living and working rurally. Across the year I've been involved in a number of stimulating discussions and been witness to a range of presentations - everything from the University of the Village project carried out by University College Falmouth and BT: http://air.falmouth.ac.uk/research-projects/university-village, to talks on community art curation, and the use of technology around campfires in Cornwall! 

The social side of rural business networking

As a social scientist carrying out research in the broad field of the Digital Economy, I’m always looking for the interesting social angles in the areas that we explore. My research is ultimately about the impact that broadband (or its applications) can have on rural businesses – so on the surface it looks more to the economy than the dynamics of social life in the countryside. But as soon as you start talking to people about these issues, you’re immediately reminded of the bigger picture. As individuals, we don’t fully segregate the different aspects of our lives. We define ourselves loosely (and fluidly) around a set of identities along with other attributes - particularly those relating to our personalities, interests and values.

North East Open Studios (NEOS 2012)

Once a year, the people at North East Open Studios organise NEOS week – a huge event that spans the whole of the North East of Scotland. This year, NEOS is running from Saturday 15^th to Sunday 23^rd September. I urge anyone with even a passing interest in the Arts to grab a NEOS catalogue, and visit a handful of the exhibitions. Check out the PDF of the catalogue here: http://northeastopenstudios.co.uk/downloads/2012/neos12.pdf - any of the listed locations should have catalogues available.

As part of the development of the Creative Industries focus of the SIRA project, I’ve been driving around Aberdeenshire, visiting some of the more rural NEOS open studios. Driving around the countryside and seeing the little yellow NEOS signs pointing you to this steading or that village hall, you get a real sense of the richness of artistic activity that goes on in this part of Scotland.

Out into the wilds for some SIRA fieldwork!

Yesterday I set off to do some interviewing for the SIRA project. I had two people to interview - a guy who does freelance sound and light engineering and a radio presenter for a well-known radio station (you may know him or his programme, but I'm protecting anonymity). Both interviews were great and I learnt a lot about the issues facing creative rural businesses who can't access broadband. The radio presenter is concerned with rural affairs and records (sometimes even presents the live show) on location in rural areas. When out and about he can usually find a spot to get a decent wifi connection with his dongle (I'm afraid I always feel silly typing/saying that). But at home, where he does a good deal of his producing and editing, broadband is minimal - resulting in problems around transferring large high-quality audio files to his colleagues. 

Our sound and light engineer lives in a rural and quite isolated location, 8 miles from a small rural community (see image above). He lives in a cottage surrounded by gorse hills and purple heather. He feels totally immersed in the nature there (“co-existence”) and finds this a good way to work creatively with peace and quiet and few distractions. Despite the dwellings being spread out, there is a strong sense of community here, which he contributes to enthusiastically. Here, professional and social self crossover - he contributes his professional skills to the community in the preparation of local events e.g. he helped secure and plan out the equipment needed for the local film club and arts shows etc. He can only access Internet by either walking up the mountain with his iPhone, or driving some distance by car. When he is snowed in he can’t access the Internet at all. This limited access means he sometimes misses out entirely on work. There is much that he would like to do online for his business e.g. he would like to design a website with an image gallery (increasingly expected in his industry), engage in Skype conversations, online research and networking with industry peers (which can lead to work and other opportunities). Without broadband he is also excluded from many of the social events and interactions of his local community, such as Film Club schedules (which he can access by email), much of which is organised and promoted online.

One of the best things about the interview, aside from the interview itself of course, was the amazing shortbread sprinkled with French violet sugar which he had baked before I arrived :-) Being a researcher isn't always so bad (and the kids loved the big box of biscuits he sent me away with - double awesomeness).

The dot.rural video!

Here at the dot.rural hub we've been working on a video which will showcase some of our projects to illustrate what we are researching. One of the projects chosen is ASSURE, and I was "lucky" enough to be asked to speak on film. Here I am being interviewed/video'd. I'm dreading seeing myself on film but watch this space for the launch of the dot.rural video!

Rural Connective Workshop

I was lucky enough to recently be invited to attend a workshop, which forms part of a series of workshops called Rural Connective http://air.falmouth.ac.uk/research-projects/rural-connective - a collaboration between BT, dot.rural at University of Aberdeen and University College Falmouth. The workshop was based in a great location - a lovely rustic pub in St. Agnes - a gorgeous fishing village in Cornwall. 

Satellite Internet for Rural Access (SIRA)

I am working on a project called Satellite Internet for Rural Access (or SIRA). This project explores the impact that broadband (and a lack of) has for rural businesses in the UK. The project is founded on the philosophy that the rural economy not only needs but deserves access to broadband in order to compete with other businesses in the UK and worldwide.

The Internet is becoming increasingly integrated into our society. Internet access is now crucial for access to much information and many Government, healthcare, business, employment, educational and leisure services. It is a growing assumption that people can access the Internet and therefore these services. The relatively low provision of Internet to rural communities is therefore disadvantageous to them in cultural, educational, financial, social and political terms.

Agent and Semantic Support for Rural Enterprise (ASSURE)

I'd like to tell you a bit more about the ASSURE project. For rural businesses in the UK networking is  (and always has been) really important. Many rural businesses are isolated - from clients, from other local businesses and from the hub of activity around their particular sector (which is often in more urban environments). Rural businesses need these links in order to overcome the problems they face due to rurality - ironically rurality itself makes it harder to form and maintain such connections. Stuart Burgess, Prime Minister's Rural Advocate reported in 2008 that rural businesses are failing to work together to tackle the distinctively rural obstacles that they face. At dot.rural we wanted to carry out research which could help rural businesses to better network with one another. The ASSURE project does just that through exploring the potential of semantic matchmaking and intelligent agent technologies to intelligently enhance networking for rural businesses. We're working in partnership with Scottish Enterprise http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/ who have put us together with a number of rural businesses/entrepreneurs  who are keen to widen their networks.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog and thanks for taking a look. The purpose of this blog is to outline my research and associated activities and to provide a platform for all those interested to contribute their own thoughts and experiences in this area. My name is Leanne Townsend, I'm a researcher at dot.rural - http://www.dotrural.ac.uk/

dot.rural is one of three UK research hubs funded under the RCUK Digital Economy theme. Our focus is on the transformational potential of digital technologies in rural communities, enabling them to participate more fully in an increasingly digital economy. I work across three projects and a number of associated strands of research - and I'm developing a number of ideas to take forward for future funding (fingers crossed!). My background is in the social sciences - originally psychology although I feel I've drifted somewhat and would now vaguely describe myself as a social digital economy researcher. In the following posts I'll outline the projects I work on in more detail.