Spatially-Led Video Interviews, 2021-2022

This work develops a spatially-led practice to negotiate and share individuals’ perspectives of their own life course. This technique is designed particularly for researching culture(s) and feeling(s) - everyday life (Highmore, 2011) - attached to a given epoch. The focus of my ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship project is to understand the increasingly suburban and car-oriented places built in the 1960s and 1970s. The technique relies upon online mapping systems and technologies which allow video conversations to be recorded. The broad methodology takes essential elements of one-to-one biographical walking interviews. Sometimes referred to as go-alongs (Carpiano, 2009), the participant leads the way to show spaces and place significant to their life, with the interviewer guiding the conversation. Covid-19 restrictions limited face-to-face interviews (Hall, Gaved, & Sargent, 2021) but also opened the possibility for many conversations to move on to digital platforms. Spatially-led interviews are hosted on digital platforms such as Zoom, where participants and researchers share walks through media such as Google Maps. The conversation is digitally recorded, providing a complete visual record of the spaces visited during the conversation alongside the faces of the participants and their commentary. There are three specific films in this record. They concern an interview with Pat Wright, who was happy for her likeness to be used. • Moving to Newport in 1963. This gives context about the advantages of modern housing in the 1960s compared to older terraced houses with no central heating. • Demolitions in Newport mid-1970s. Account of the plan to build a by-pass road through Newport. Interesting background on renewing urban fabric of towns and cities in the UK and the rise of Civic Trusts to protect the built environment. • Video opening Newport Library 1968. Context about the opening of Newport Library. Reveals power of geography to connect people with memories. Two other individuals were interviewed using this technique and this data may be made available at a later date. Theoretical considerations Walking approaches allow us to explore the affective connections that people have to spaces such as streets and neighbourhoods. Though less atmospheric and embodied than being on an outdoor walk, the walk through digitally-mapped space is promotes the interviewee to recall memories and feelings. The non-verbal elements of “vitality, performativity, corporeality, sensuality, and mobility” (Vannini, 2015, p. 318) are partly captured through the visual records. These interviews complement other biographical or life story techniques and are particularly useful for meeting people some distance away. In my case I seek to explore the attitudes and values of people who are now considered to be older. The main application for my project is to develop participatory walking tours (Evans & Jones, 2011). The stories that people share through these interviews are interpreted by performance artists, whose playful approach helps to communicate with the public (people of all ages). This is an edited 2-minute film captured using the spatially-led digital walking interview technique developed though my project. The participant reveals her memories of Newport Library being opened on April 5 1968.

This ESRC Fellowship project will explore the sensibilities which attach to post-war aesthetics and how those born in the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s are navigating the present. Through a focus on the environment in which the UK's ageing population grew up, and spaces including semidetached houses, cul-de-sacs, red brick universities campuses, primary schools, and shopping centres, the research will examine how these spaces still influence contemporary life and maintain an affective appeal. Spaces built between the late 1950s and early 1970s form a large bulk of the UK's built environment. But beyond architecture and planning, they also attract deeper affective, sub-emotional or unconscious connections (Pile, 2010). This study will generate insights on how these generations are adapting and navigating social and cultural change.