Sophie Valiergue

2.55 “Searching for the Montréal Melon”: An Artistic Co-creation Experience within a Socio-ecological Community Organization (Paper)

Sophie Valiergue – Université de Montréal, Canada

Abstract:

In this paper, I will present a series of workshops I organized as part of my thesis project, which is an art-based research. My research seeks to understand how individuals interact and exchange when they collaborate to make a collective creation, and how participation and collaboration can manifest in various ways. To this end, I rooted my project in a Montreal-based community: l'Espace des Possibles de la Petite Patrie, a community space that brings together citizens concerned with improving life in their neighbourhood by implementing projects related to socio-ecological issues. I proposed a series of collaborative workshops aimed at the collective production of a stop-motion animation video. The participants knew none of the techniques involved in creating the video and learned them as the workshops progressed. Also, the idea was for participants to take ownership of the project to tell the story they wanted to tell, and to stage it in their own way, with decisions being made following discussions, exchanges and verbal or non-verbal interactions. I begin my presentation by explaining my artistic posture, which falls within the realm of dialogic art. This is an artistic practice based on dialogue and exchange within the framework of socially committed projects. I will then briefly outline the methodology I have designed. It combines collaborative workshops aiming at the co-creation of a stop-motion video, a sensory ethnography and an autoethnography through which I documented my own experience. I' will then describe in detail each of the steps involved in co-creating a video: writing a script, making felted characters and shooting the video. I will outline the various forms of collaboration, involvement and learning I observed. I will conclude by discussing the various benefits that participants identified in taking part in this project.