About

My practice-based proposal examines the identity and behaviour of young people’s (aged 16 to 24) virtual and physical worlds through ethnographic filmmaking. My feature-length documentary will follow young people over a 4/5-year period using innovative virtual and in-person filming techniques to capture the significant transformation they experience. This with my associated critical and theoretical text will recontextualise the mainstream narrative that online time is negative and contribute to debates on whether identity in online space is created, reinvented or extended. I will draw on Royal Holloway’s strengths in digital filmmaking, and the expertise in working with young people in online environments of Professor Helen Pote (2nd supervisor) and StoryFutures/CoStar. 

In leading on the development and integration of film ethnography into the policy process in government over the last 10 years I have seen the need to understand young people’s landscape of virtual spaces and their behaviour and identities within them. My proposal builds on a project I undertook with the Museum of Home photographing teenage bedrooms looking at how these dedicated spaces were carefully constructed and negotiated for self-expression. My film will explore the worlds and walls surrounding young people both virtually and physically. I will spend time with them in their curated gaming spaces observing their daily lives, activities and experiences as they navigate their identities and explore how these relate to their identities ‘in real life’ (IRL). I will theorise this through studying digital identity ethnographies, technological mediation theory, video games research and the psychology of young people’s behaviours and mental health online. 
 
I aim to have impact through directly feeding into government work streams including the Opportunity Mission, DCMS Online Harms and Professor Pote’s professional psychology networks. I will exhibit the work at film festivals and arts spaces and broadcast.