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).