In the section describing the ethnography I explained how the decline in engagement with the visual assemblages resulted in a switch to incorporate a visual analysis of social media curating using a selection of screen dumps. Adding artworks to the social media spaces, and incorporating these into screen dumps, allowed me to build on reflection and altering the design, which fits in with the naturalistic inquiry as described below.
The combination of an ethnographic approach with the visual screen dumps thus offered me a better understanding of how to engage with social media spaces and the mobility of the users and artefacts. By uploading the materials, I contributed to the creation of the assemblages. The practice also offered a flânerie approach to visiting online galleries, in the context of an urban activity associated with the role of flâneur/flâneuse. This allowed me to move ‘within the modes of movement by employing a range of observation and recording techniques’ (Büscher et al, 2011a, p 9). In essence, I used my virtual kinaesthetic skills interacting with the digital artefacts and the online interfaces in which these are positioned.
The combination of an ethnographic approach with the visual screen dumps thus offered me a better understanding of how to engage with social media spaces and the mobility of the users and artefacts. By uploading the materials, I contributed to the creation of the assemblages. The practice also offered a flânerie approach to visiting online galleries, in the context of an urban activity associated with the role of flâneur/flâneuse. This allowed me to move ‘within the modes of movement by employing a range of observation and recording techniques’ (Büscher et al, 2011a, p 9). In essence, I used my virtual kinaesthetic skills interacting with the digital artefacts and the online interfaces in which these are positioned.
Naturalistic Inquiry
Overall, I believe my methodological approach aligns with what Guba (1981) and Owen (2008) describe as part of a naturalistic inquiry paradigm for which a qualitative method, based on the criterion of relevance is required. Furthermore, the knowledge that I contributed as a researcher was very much based on tacit knowledge (Guba, 1981), for which my intuition, apprehensions and feelings with regards to the social media spaces contributed to the research design. Here my focus as both curator and researcher became intertwined, with my role having an implicit and explicit influence (Owen, 2011). The switch from ethnographic to visual analysis was part of the 'inductive and emergent process' (Owen,2011,p 548) and the result of not being able to predict what would unfold in the social media spaces.
Guba (1981) recommends judging the trustworthiness of the findings by considering four aspects: credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability.
Credibility was addressed by developing various models which initially presented me with a number of interlocking strands, with the final model refined to focus on a number of emerging themes. This was achieved by carrying out prolonged engagement of the social media sites, as well as persistent observation, allowing me to check how the uploading of the artworks and graffiti took place. By combining the ethnography with the visual analysis and using three identified social media sites, multiple sets of data offered coherence and corroboration to make the observations.
Transferability is based on whether the descriptions of what happens in social media art curating sites would be context-relevant, based on the purposive sampling that was carried out. Here the extensive amount of screen dumps collated are, I believe, satisfactory.In addition, the written descriptions I carried out offered the opportunity to re-visit my observations and category building and served as reports.
Dependability and confirmability was addressed through triangulation (ethnography and visual analysis) and the practicing of reflexivity. Although I did not keep a detailed journal, the screen dumps are pictorial time-based artefacts and as such visual logs of my engagement with the social media sites which can be used alongside the narrative descriptions.
Uploading the screencasts onto YouTube and adding the screen dumps to Flick'r is in support of the archiving. As a backup all materials have been stored in a secured DropBox folder.
Overall, I believe my methodological approach aligns with what Guba (1981) and Owen (2008) describe as part of a naturalistic inquiry paradigm for which a qualitative method, based on the criterion of relevance is required. Furthermore, the knowledge that I contributed as a researcher was very much based on tacit knowledge (Guba, 1981), for which my intuition, apprehensions and feelings with regards to the social media spaces contributed to the research design. Here my focus as both curator and researcher became intertwined, with my role having an implicit and explicit influence (Owen, 2011). The switch from ethnographic to visual analysis was part of the 'inductive and emergent process' (Owen,2011,p 548) and the result of not being able to predict what would unfold in the social media spaces.
Guba (1981) recommends judging the trustworthiness of the findings by considering four aspects: credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability.
Credibility was addressed by developing various models which initially presented me with a number of interlocking strands, with the final model refined to focus on a number of emerging themes. This was achieved by carrying out prolonged engagement of the social media sites, as well as persistent observation, allowing me to check how the uploading of the artworks and graffiti took place. By combining the ethnography with the visual analysis and using three identified social media sites, multiple sets of data offered coherence and corroboration to make the observations.
Transferability is based on whether the descriptions of what happens in social media art curating sites would be context-relevant, based on the purposive sampling that was carried out. Here the extensive amount of screen dumps collated are, I believe, satisfactory.In addition, the written descriptions I carried out offered the opportunity to re-visit my observations and category building and served as reports.
Dependability and confirmability was addressed through triangulation (ethnography and visual analysis) and the practicing of reflexivity. Although I did not keep a detailed journal, the screen dumps are pictorial time-based artefacts and as such visual logs of my engagement with the social media sites which can be used alongside the narrative descriptions.
Uploading the screencasts onto YouTube and adding the screen dumps to Flick'r is in support of the archiving. As a backup all materials have been stored in a secured DropBox folder.
