Rearching Experiences

Lisa Gjedde and Bruno Ingemann (2008): Researching Experiences: Exploring Processual and Experimental Methods in Cultural Analysis, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

226 pages + 12 colourplates.
US $ 69.99
ISBN (10): 1-84718-600-9, ISBN (13): 9781847186003

See the content and the introduction chapter at Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Additional material plus multimedia examples of research cases can be found at www.researching-experiences.net

From the dustcover:

In the beginning was – not the word – but the experience. This phenomenological approach provides the basis for this book, which focuses on how a person-in-situation experiences and constructs meaning from a variety of cultural visual events.

This book presents video-based processual methods for researching experiences in a variety of settings ranging from the museum, to news photography, and interactive media. The research led to the development of a set of methodological tools and approaches we term the ReflexivityLab. The interaction in the experimental situation between the media and body, dialogue, moods, values and narratives have been investigated qualitatively with more than sixty informants in a range of projects. The processual methodological insights are put into a theoretical perspective and also presented as pragmatic dilemmas.
     Researching Experiences is relevant not only for students and researchers in media and communication studies but also for practitioners within the fields of media, communication and experience design.

The book supports the reader in moving beyond a verbal account of experience to a more complex, situated and nuanced account of experience as visual, embodied and spatial. In doing so the book offers ways to respond to the complex multimodal environment of the twenty-first century.
Dr Carey Jewitt, Reader in Education and Technology,
Institute of Education, University of London.

As new media technologies develop, new research methodologies are required to investigate them. Gjedde and Ingemann approach this important topic imaginatively, and with a wealth of experience.
Dr Judy Robertson, Heriot-Watt University

Content

Colour Plates / VII
Foreword / IX
Intro: Seeing with the person-in-situation / 1
Zoom_in: The use of video in the research process / 8
Chapter 1: The Mirage_Project: The experimental reception method as an entry to press photographs and their readers / 13
Postscript / 34
Chapter 2: The Illustrated Science_Project: Narrative genre and context in popular science / 35
Postscript / 48
Chapter 3: The Museum Inside_Project [1]: Walk-video in democracy and design: The reading strategies and reception of an exhibition / 49
Postscript / 68
Zoom_in: The four gazes: Reading strategies / 69
Chapter 4: The Museum Inside_Project [2]: Walk-video and the art of experience: Listening into the walking / 75
Postscript / 97
Chapter 5: In the beginning was the experience: The experimental reception
studies / 99
Zoom_in: The Experience Model: The four fields of
experience / 115
Chapter 6: The dimensions of narratives / 121
Postscript / 132
Chapter 7: The WebArt_Project: Webart – Methods for investigating design and user experience in a ReflexivityLab / 135
Postscript / 150
Chapter 8: The Vala_Project: The embodied creation in the museum: An experimental investigation of interactivity / 153
Postscript / 172
Zoom_in: What is a ReflexivityLab really? / 173
Chapter 9: Outro: The ten dilemmas: The significance of the visual as a tool for communication and change / 177
Notes / 193
Bibliography / 199
Index / 207
About the Authers / 213