Refracted Violence: interactive digital journeys through stories of civil conflict

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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.