3 July 2013 17:01

Lecturer in Digital Art and Culture Dr Emile Devereaux has been awarded further funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to develop collaborations in India.

His research will investigate how media and new technologies might be used to encourage active engagement with open governance in the world’s largest democracy.

Dr Devereaux said: “Working closely with communities on‐site to develop media works helps to bring some of the concerns of India’s non‐internet audience to the 150 million internet users. In addition, by providing footage to journalists and television media networks we aim to reach those viewers not found online.”

Dr Devereaux will work with Radhamohini Prasad, Film maker on the LEGIT: Digital Media for Open Governance project.

Earlier this year, LEGIT conducted workshops at the UnBox festival in New Delhi and at the Southbank Centre to test and exploration using paper cut‐outs of iconic imagery, reassembled and reshaped through collage and drawing.

Ideas and discussions were also developed with participants through playful three-dimensional storyboarding techniques. Re‐arranging large sculptural boxes covered with icons helped to articulate whatever societal issues were on the participants’ minds. These methods combining movement, interaction and drawing helped opinions to manifest and be visualised in narrative forms.

This is the next stage of funding begun as a partnership between the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the British Council, UnBox festival and the UK’s Science and Innovation Network.