#Openlight

#OpenLight was founded by Dr Erinma Ochu and inspired by a line in the Audre Lorde Poem 'Coal', to provide a structure to support creative thinking and imagination in challenging times. #OpenLight is a climate and culture equity platform for Black and *minoritised artists, academics and cultural entrepreneurs to research and exchange knowledge from inclusive research practice, as a world making endeavour. *minoritised = coined by Yasmin Gunaratnum in 2003, this term refers to those with a shared experience, apart from white individuals, of exposure to systemic and individual racism. Using this term confirms that minoritisation is a social process shaped by power, and requires consideration of power dynamics connected with race, including gender, socioeconomic status, religion, sexuality, and disability. Partnering with Dr Cindy Regalado (Tekiu), the aim was to support the development of equitable principles for undertaking inclusive research by creating the conditions for setting up a community of practice to share practice and generate a framework of principles through knowledge exchange. This would build a legacy to consider how to navigate working with research organisations and research funders and to be guided by those principles. How can we disrupt, open up and repurpose emerging technologies and storytelling for worldmaking? What different trajectories for research can be imagined when culture and equity is a starting point? To explore these opportunity spaces further, #Openlight connects and thinks this through in constellation with the creative and inclusive research practices of 7 black and minoritised artists and entrepreneurs who are working towards establishing different futures, through independent research. The artists and entrepreneurs are: Dr Addy Adelaine (CEO, Ladders4Action) Artist, Maya Chowdhry Artist, Nwando Ezibie (Studio Nwando) Dr Lia Liu (CEO, Zero Point Motion) Naomi Mwasambili (CEO, Livy Africa) Anita Shervington (Director, BlastFest) Artist, Keisha Thompson (CEO, Contact Theatre) Research Internships Jen (MMU), Rob (MMU) and Fatima (Sheffield) This fledgling community of practice was supported by a Wellcome D&I Research Enrichment on Stewarding the Digital Commons and NERC Engaging Environments. NERC Engaging Environments is a national community of practice comprising researchers, practitioners who are combining and adapting citizen science, storytelling and community organising, to drive collective action to mitigate against the impacts of the climate and ecological crises, which are routed in colonialism. Activities included: Research proposal development and reflection on storytelling practices including digital storytelling and performance Building connections inside and outside academia Student research internships developing a range of practice based digital storytelling methods informed by the literature, and spanning disciplinary fields including Arts and Humanities, Education, AI, Genetics, Quantum physics, and the Circular Economy Practitioners presenting at local, national and international events e.g. Cognitive Science Society Contributed Symposium, Digital Society & Environment Event @ MMU, and Developing Principles from Practice through principled focused evaluation to support researchers to navigate the research ecosystem. Writing opportunities Collective celebration and affirmation A second, accelerator phase, was to be developed from Oct 2022, with a cultural partner to build a legacy.