Talk/Do Session: How to use Vines (6-second loop videos taken on cell phones) to visualize AND analyze social change?

As an urban anthropologist I’d like to get students to use the social media tool VINE in my courses to Provoke Deep Thoughts about urban change. I am inspired by what Vine claims on its web site (vine.co/):

“Vine is the best way to see and share life in motion.”

If this is even remotely true (and not simply a vehicle for teens to make selfies doing goofy things—not that there’s anything wrong with that!), then doesn’t “life in motion” = urban change??

I will bring some Vines about Phoenix to show you what I mean–and I hope you all can bring some Vines too.

Here’s a sample (run it more than once to get the loop effect:
DQ-JuliobertosConverso

Questions to start off:

  • How can Vines capture “life in motion” in our neighborhoods and cities?
  • How can these micro-movies provoke viewers to think critically about our changing urban environments—and about what is at stake in those changes?
  • How can Vines help to expand our “right to the city”?

Prep: open a Vine account (hopefully we can access our online accounts on the Big Screen)

Bring: a smart phone to try Vines-on-the-spot, sample Vines you made, IDEAS (for community advocacy, scholarly visualization, classroom pedagogy…)

Categories: Collaboration, Digital Literacy, Session Proposals, Session: Talk, Session: Teach, Social Media, Teaching, Visualization |

About Kristin Koptiuch

As an urban ethnographer teaching at ASU West, I am interested in reversing the global trend toward expanding urban inequalities and instead expanding everybody's right to the city. I'm a big fan of engaging in digital humanities for enhancing fun and critical thinking, both in my research and teaching (okay, also for lounging around at home). But I also love 'being there'--so I travel a lot. Pura vida technophilia!