Refracted Violence: interactive digital journeys through stories of civil conflict

放映暴力（2018年至今）是由人权委员会资助的一个跨国跨学科项目，在该项目中，调查人员向最近发生过内战的五个国家（阿尔及利亚、阿根廷、哥伦比亚、印度尼西亚、北爱尔兰）的参与者放映了关于政治暴力的电影。我们与每个国家的当地制作公司合作，将放映过程中引发的辩论和讨论拍摄下来。我们发现，在每次讨论之前放映其他国家的电影，会促使参与者在新的背景下看待自己的经历。通过我们收集的镜头，这些对话的地方特殊性在屏幕上显现出来，因为每个群体都在思考自己的过去、现在和未来。一些参与者的回答是高度分析性的，另一些则更情绪化。有些对话很紧张，或者是对抗性的；其他人则比较压抑；还有一些人满怀希望。在每一个案例中，我们的合作伙伴都为我们的档案提供了大量的视听材料。他们用其中的一小部分来制作纪录片。现在，我们正在处理更多的原始镜头，翻译它，给它配上字幕，把它编辑成短片，让它成为一种互动的在线体验，跟随《暴力放映》。在2019冠状病毒病大流行的背景下，这一点尤为重要，我们将在《折射暴力》（RV）的镜头中讲述有关疫情的故事。RV互动网站将使公众能够持续参与国内冲突的多国经验（以及大流行如何影响暴力和冲突）。它将以4种语言呈现。该网站将不再作为一个静态的、被动的素材存储库，而是为用户提供与我们的档案进行持续协商的多种模式。“放映暴力”活动激发了参与者对政治环境以及表现这种环境的电影的积极批判性参与。这个项目受到同样的方法论原则的影响。网站用户将有机会超越线性叙事，通过我们的材料发展独特的非线性旅程，并看到社会想象在电影中展开。该网站还提供了电影框架本身的交互性。在一些片段中，参与者提到了特定的历史事件和文化概念。当提到这些时，屏幕上会出现一个信息符号；点击它会打开一个带有简短解释的气泡，同时视频继续播放。因此，网站用户可以留在网站上，仍然接收重要的上下文信息，而不是离开网站，破坏他们的沉浸式体验。这个后续项目还将包括专为网站制作的镜头：一些“放映暴力”的参与者正在用智能手机录制对自己或亲密家庭成员的采访，为“折射暴力”制作原创电影。他们反思了2019冠状病毒病大流行对他们冲突经历的影响，以及筛查暴力材料中出现的具体主题。我们还将对SV学术调查人员进行一系列简短的访谈，讨论冲突想象的本质以及他们对SV项目的看法。将所有的学术访谈汇集在一起并连续观看的功能将是可用的，但我们的目的是在网站上提供学术背景和评论，而不是自动提升或优先考虑我们的调查人员的声音高于参与者的声音。我们的专业用户群体（非政府组织和决策者）以及研究人员和学生都将能够查阅这一动态资源，以告知他们对暴力冲突经验的理解。但全球的公众也将如此——他们将深入了解政治冲突后的社会生活现实，以及冲突后环境中普遍存在的和平往往脆弱的本质。

Screening Violence (2018-ongoing) is a multinational transdisciplinary project funded by the AHRC, in which investigators have screened films on political violence to participants in five countries with recent histories of civil conflict (Algeria, Argentina, Colombia, Indonesia, Northern Ireland). We partnered with local production companies in each country to film the debates and discussions that arose from these screenings. We found that showing films from other countries before each discussion prompted participants to see their own experiences in a new context. Through the footage we gathered, the local specificity of these dialogues emerges on screen as every group contemplates their own past, present, and future. Some participants have been highly analytical in their responses, others more emotional. Some conversations have been tense, or confrontational; others more subdued; still others full of hope. In each case, our partners have provided vast amounts of audio-visual material for our archive. They have used a fraction of it to make documentaries. Now, we are processing much more of the raw footage, translating it, captioning it, and editing it into short clips to make an interactive online experience to follow on from Screening Violence. This is particularly crucial in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, stories of which we will include in the footage for Refracted Violence (RV).The RV interactive site will enable ongoing public engagement with multinational experiences of civil conflict (and how the pandemic has impacted violence and conflict). It will be presented in 4 languages. Instead of serving as a static, passive repository for our footage, the site will offer its users multiple modes of sustained negotiation with our archive. Screening Violence has provoked in its participants active critical engagement with political circumstances, as well as with films that represent such circumstances. This project is influenced by the same methodological principles. Site users will have the opportunity to move beyond linear narratives and develop unique non-linear journeys through our material, and to see social imaginaries unfold in the films as they do so.The site also provides interactivity within the film frame itself. In some clips, participants refer to specific historical events and cultural concepts. When these are mentioned, an information symbol appears on screen; clicking it opens a bubble with a brief explanation while the video continues to play. Site users can thus remain on the site and still receive important contextual information, instead of navigating away and disrupting their immersive experience. This follow-on project will also include footage created exclusively for the website: some Screening Violence participants are creating original films for Refracted Violence by recording interviews with themselves or close family members on their smartphones. They reflect on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their experiences of conflict, and on specific themes that emerged in the Screening Violence material. We are also incorporating a short series of interviews with the SV academic investigators, on the nature of conflict imaginaries and their observations on the SV project. The functional ability to pull all the academic interviews together and watch them consecutively will be available, but our intention is to provide academic context and commentary on the site without automatically elevating or prioritising the voices of our investigators above those of the participants.Both of our specialist user groups (NGOs and policymakers) as well as researchers and students will be able to consult this dynamic resource to inform their understanding of experiences of violent conflicts. But so too will the public across the globe-gaining insights into the social realities of life after political conflict, and the often-fragile nature of the peace that prevails in post-conflict circumstances.