socially engaged practice and imposter syndrome

Today’s session at The Watch Factory was a timely reminder for me of how important conversation is to the process of socially engaged work.

Using a blend of ORID focused conversation method and an adapted version of PhotoVoice led to the participants actively listening, engaging and sharing stories more than ever before.

With all my socially engaged projects I tend to worry that the creative mechanism for opening up these conversations and stories simply replicates what other artists and photographers are doing. Annotations, photo walks and so on. That I should be innovating and finding new ways to inspire participants through photography. Today showed me that it really (really) doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing. I don’t need to have a million tricks up my sleeve for any ‘quiet moments’ and I don’t need to break away from trusted starting points (like annotations) just for the sake of coming up with something new, because I know they work well - I’ve used them before.

It’s all about the conversation and participants holding a space. The differentiator is (of course) the conversation.

And for this project it’s also inclusion. This is a challenging group to create a fully inclusive experience with - individual adaptations need to be made; we’ll often have to work 1-1 (but we don’t always have the staff as they’re understandably busy); questions need to be devised and sent in advance so that participants with no speech or sign can send their responses beforehand so they have a voice in the session; things take much longer due to the varied barriers with communication in the group. For me this project is showing how socially engaged practice can be delivered inclusively, even if you can’t speak, physically hold a camera, or push a button. We’re exploring what ‘good’ inclusive socially engaged practice looks like. That is also a differentiator.

I’m delivering this project with Sam Batley. Whilst we have different approaches to SEP, I’m absorbing so much useful stuff from Sam’s way of working. And from the fab Liz Wewiora at Open Eye Gallery who commissioned us.

This piece was first shared on my Instagram.