Cam Hunters Presents: Research-Creation Methodologies in Research

Led by the performance duo Cam Hunters, featuring Drs. Stéfy McKnight and Julia Chan, this workshop examines the use of research-creation as a methodology for research production, specifically in surveillance and media studies. We will begin by introducing our research-creation project Cam Hunters by showing a brief performance video, have a brief period for questions and discussion, then give a brief overview of how scholars can use research-creation in their interdisciplinary scholarly work. This workshop will demonstrate the ways that art and research co-exist and engage with timely and important cultural, social, and political events.

Cam Hunters was created in 2018 by artist-scholars Stéfy McKnight and Julia Chan to investigate the ways that Airbnb hosts may use cameras in their Airbnbs. However, the project has quickly developed and now includes a podcast, interactive website, and an archive of tools. Cam Hunters have also created a “Statement on Declining Online Images,” a guideline for meeting hosts and faculty with remote teaching duties.

We hope this interdisciplinary workshop will bring light to how scholars can use research-creation in their work and identify connections between media, technology, art, and culture through performance and video making.

Cam Hunters (Drs. Stéfy McKnight and Julia Chan)

STÉFY is a white-settler artist-scholar based in Katarokwi/Kingston (Queen’s University). She is an Assistant Professor in the Bachelor of Media Production and Design at Carleton University. Her work explores surveillance as a contemporary form of colonialism in Canada post-9/11 through the methodology of research-creation.

Julia Chan is a mixed-race settler, writer, artist, and academic living in Tkaronto/Toronto. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Criminology and Criminal Justice at Carleton University. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from Queen’s University. Her research interests include intersections of surveillance, visual culture, visual criminology, image-based sexual abuse, sexual violence in film and media, critical race studies, gender studies, and technology and culture.

Event Program: FPA Carleton Research Series talk_CamHunters