Short Abstract:

Why co-create – and why now? Katerina Cizek is the head of the Co-Creation Studio at the MIT Open Documentary Lab, and the lead author of a new book “Collective Wisdom” (with Uricchio and 12 co-authors). She will make the case that co-creative approaches are much more prevalent, ubiquitous and urgently needed than recognized at first sight.

Long Abstract:

Co-creation is everywhere: it offers alternatives to the idea of the solitary author privileged by top-down media. But it is easy to miss, as individuals often take credit for - and profit from - collective forms of authorship, erasing whole cultures and narratives as they do so. “Collective Wisdom” offers the first guide to co-creation as a concept and as a practice, tracing co-creation in a media-making context that includes filmmaking and human-AI partnerships.

The book focuses on the radical, sustained practices of co-creating media within communities and with social movements. It sees co-creation as a way to rebuild trust and craft shared visions at a time when our lives are becoming increasingly fragmented. What does this mean for our practices as anthropologists and what can we learn from the work that is being done at MIT’s Co-creation Studio?

Katerina Cizek is a Peabody-and two-time Emmy-winning documentarian and the artistic director of the Co-Creation Studio at the MIT Open Documentary Lab. For over a decade at the National Film Board of Canada, she helped redefine the organization as a digital storytelling hub through her long-form, co-creative documentary projects “Filmmaker in Residence” and “HIGHRISE”.

She will be joined in conversation by Judith Aston, Co-founder of i-Docs at UWE Bristol, Chair of the RAI Film Committee, and a specialist in evolving forms of documentary practice.