A Patchworking Process: Coming Together under Pandemic Conditions for Collaborative, Caring Scholarship

Rebecca Carlson; Polina Golovátina-Mora; Corinna Peterken; Kim Snepvangers; Anne Soronen; Karoliina Talvitie-Lamberg

doi:10.17742/IMAGE.MM.12.2.2

Authors

Rebecca Carlson Toyo University
Polina Golovátina-Mora Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Corinna Peterken Brigham Young University
Kim Snepvangers University of New South Wales, Sydney
Anne Soronen Tampere University, Finland
Karoliina Talvitie-Lamberg University of Jyväskylä

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17742/IMAGE.MM.12.2.2

Abstract

In the context of the COVID-19 outbreak, the authors in this special issue came together within the Massive Microscopic Sensemaking (MMS) writing project in the spring of 2020. Collectively grappling with the impact of the extended pandemic, each paper in this issue touches on experiences of social isolation, making do, and a technological reaching out under conditions of a public health crisis. This introduction describes the issue’s ‘patchwork’ development which reflects an attempt to break from traditions of academic scholarship that often fail to recognize the value of emergent, and therefore uncertain, cross-disciplinary and collective work.

Author Biographies

Rebecca Carlson, Toyo University

Rebecca Carlson is a media anthropologist and Associate Professor at Toyo University in Japan in the department of Information Sciences and Arts. Her current interest in the borders and bordering of science and medicine grew out of a parallel interest in the boundaries that shape the circulation of videogames and their fans. Currently, she studies bioinformatics and efforts to globalize biomedical scientific research in Japan, supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science’s Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research.

Polina Golovátina-Mora, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Polina Golovátina-Mora is Associate Professor in Film and Media in Education in the Faculty of Teacher Education at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology – NTNU. Polina holds a PhD in History with emphasis in historiograpahy and research methodology. Her research is informed by posthumanist feminism and critical pedagogy, and focuses on qualitative, art-based, and sensorial research methodology and pedagogy. Polina’s research at different moments has covered an intersection between narratives, language, and power, the monstrous as a reflection of current societal issues, theoretical alternatives to traditional views of the nation-state, urban artistic practices, nature and elements in folklore and their social and environmental meanings, as well as questions of memory and creativity. She has published articles and book chapters in Russian, English, and Spanish.

Corinna Peterken, Brigham Young University

Corinna Peterken is an Assistant Professor in Teacher Education (Early Childhood) at Brigham Young University in the McKay School of Education, Provo, Utah, USA. She is an artist/academic who uses qualitative and arts-based methodologies from postmodern, feminist, and critical perspectives. Her research includes learning with materials through photography, collage, quilting, weaving, found objects, and fiber, as well as walking and being in places to explore connections that are pedagogical. In her teaching Corinna is passionate about arts-based practice as a means to support all children’s learning and well-being. Her work in early childhood and teacher education advocates for learning in relation with materials, places, bodies, and the arts.

Kim Snepvangers, University of New South Wales, Sydney

Kim Snepvangers is an Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Art & Design, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, and an Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Education, Southern Cross University, QLD, Australia. Kim is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA), and an award-winning educational leader in professional practice in creative ecologies across art, design, and media. Kim has co-edited three books and over 20 book chapters and journal publications that have been recognized in the wider professional context nationally and internationally. Working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collaborators and Cultural Mentors on exhibition projects engages her history with dissensus to challenge dominance of progress narratives in settler colonial contexts. Her research engages visualisation with creative ecologies, critically reflective frameworks, and embodied pedagogies. She has extensive research experience in developing transitional educative spaces between academic, creative, and professional practice.

Anne Soronen, Tampere University, Finland

Anne Soronen, PhD, is a media scholar who works as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Unit of Social Research at Tampere University, Finland. She is also Docent in Media Studies at the University of Turku. Her research interests include intimacies of digital work, everyday media cultures, creative industries, and ethnographic methods. Currently Soronen explores Finnish creative workers’ agency and presence on social media platforms in the project Intimacy in Data-Driven Culture https://www.dataintimacy.fi/en/. Previously, she has studied temporal practices in media work, emotional labour in magazine work, and gender performatives on lifestyle television. She has also taught in Communication Studies at the University of Vaasa. Soronen has published articles and book chapters on journalistic work, affectivity of media texts, and user experiences of domestic technologies.

Karoliina Talvitie-Lamberg, University of Jyväskylä

Karoliina Talvitie-Lamberg is an Assistant Professor of media and communication research in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. Her scientific research interests centre on multiliteracies for social and digital participation and datafication. Recent research projects include nonuse of social media; datafication and experiences of vulnerability; digital self-performance in videostreaming cultures; bots and the experience of social presence; and data-driven AI solutions for health and well-being. She also has long experience teaching in academic positions in the fields of the interactive narration, concept design, ethnographic methods, visual communication, data journalism, and investigative journalism. Before her academic career, Talvitie-Lamberg’s artistic work on interactive film and concept design was awarded both nationally and internationally. She also actively appears in the media as an expert on digital inclusion issues. She has published articles and book chapters on topics including confessional digital communication, datafication, surveillance practices, and AI deployment in organizations.