Kim (2007) Doctoral Thesis

I feel I have hit the jackpot, so to speak, with this work, although I imagine it may be already known to my colleagues. It is a doctoral thesis by Isabelle Kim from 2007 through OISE at the University of Toronto and it presents an in-depth study of youth video projects (or "YVPs" as she labels them) from many of the theoretical standpoints we have been discussing in our current work. I have not had the chance to read through the entire 200+ pages of Youth Videomaking: A Spoken Word Study, but I did do a brief scan this evening and it seems like a gem of a project that could open up all kinds of new directions in our research.

Kim's work is based on publicly funded YVPs that seem to be, for the most part, based out of Ontario social service agencies and/or arts groups. She states that she is interested in community-based, youth led work, and how social discourses have created the possibility/necessity of such projects. Kim also proposes the development of an "ontology" of YVP spaces, i.e. the ways in which these videos can exist as an "outside" to the dominant media culture. Her research intends to investigate the following questions:

1. How are YVPs possible today?
2. What kinds of spaces do YVPs create and occupy in civil society?
3. Does the discourse of ‘youth’, and ‘risk’ contribute to the chains of reasoning around YVP practices related to the participants’ video production? And do these practices in turn confirm deficient and/or other views of youth?
4. What spaces of interpretation are produced through the public exhibition of videos by youth?
5. What kinds of spaces of interpretation are enabled/disabled by the use of video and DVD authoring in qualitative research? (pg. 12).

Kim also breaks down the types of YVPs into 5 distinct models: 1. the festival model (video as art), 2. the employment model (work experience, pay & skill-building), 3. the artist-in-residency model (commissioned artistic work), 4. the focus-on-Process model (self-expression for ‘at risk’ youth) and 5. the message-focussed model (video is meant as a tool for social education/change). She also gives examples of each and agencies in Ontario that are involved in their production. These paradigms create a very useful language for our own look at youth video, and in-and-of themselves create new tangents for critical investigation of the product and process of each "model." The wonderful thing about Kim's work is that she provides examples and links to media related to her research and even includes a DVD component, which serves as an equally important compliment to her written work.

I am currently in the process of downloading the 2 DVDs that accompany this work (they are available on the ProQuest download site for her thesis). The first DVD is composed of interviews with the youth involved and their experiences with making YVPs. The second includes 5 short videos created by the youth. It seems as though Kim has taken a conceptual and artistic approach to the authoring of these DVDs, as to coincide with the theoretical underpinnings of her research. I'm excited to see them and will update soon!

REFERENCES:
-Kim, I. (2007). Youth Videomaking Projects: A Spoken Word Study. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada.

SEARCH HISTORY FOR THIS ARTICLE:
-Incidentally found when looking up another article "Beyond "Straight" Interpretations: Researching Queer Youth Digital Video"on the University of Toronto Libraries' Catalogue Search.