Paper short abstract:

Audiovisuals and Art used in a participatory way are a fundamental methodology to my research projects. I use these tools as a way to establish a newer relation between interviewee and interviewer on the one side and as a tool to empower the protagonist on the other.

Paper long abstract:

During my PhD fieldwork I used Audiovisuals and Art with a group of migrants living in a Camp in Melilla, a Spanish enclave situated in Northern Africa. Migrants can live in this place for years, waiting for the Spanish government deportation. Through a variety of workshops (photo, painting, theatre, radio and video) I studied in depth some aspects of their everyday lives during this limbo. These instruments permitted me to get in contact with migrants and establish a relation far from the one interviewer-interviewee. I was to them the researcher but also the professor of video and photography and an activist who understood their situation. After this experience I started a project called Marcaré-Kahina in which I applied participatory methodology as a tool to empower the Amazigh (Berber) population living in the periphery of the city. Melilla has high rates of illiteracy and poverty and these data are related specially to this part of the population. With a group of local artists, academics and audiovisual technicians we used Art as a way to transform these districts and let the residents be the protagonists of change. In Cologne (Germany) I am working through photography workshops with a group of Spanish migrants living in the city. During the workshops we debate themes such as home and belonging and share feelings of our living abroad. In these projects participation of the people increased the results; reinforcing their self-representation and their voice. In the research they provide a variety of data, improving empowerment and reflexivity.