Using Video Diaries in Social Science Research

The focus of this chapter is the use of video-diaries in social research. The aim is to examine and reflect upon the particular ethical terrain and situated ethics of using visual diary method in social science research with different participant groups who arguably present specific ethical concerns, including children and older people, people with disabilities (either physical, cognitive, or psychiatric), and older people. The authors present a discussion of the specific ethical considerations arising from the use of this method due to the particular type of data it generates, namely audio and moving visual data. As such, the process of creating a video diary and the procedures involved in collecting and analysing video diary data are fundamentally different from a paper-based (non-digital) diary. For these reasons, it is important to step back and reflect on the situated ethics, including the digital ethics encountered when using this method.

Proof-of-Concept Study: a Mobile Application to Derive Clinical Outcome Measures from Expression and Speech for Mental Health Status Evaluation

This proof-of-concept study aimed to assess the ability of a mobile application and cloud analytics software solution to extract facial expression information from participant selfie videos. This is one component of a solution aimed at extracting possible health outcome measures based on expression, voice acoustics and speech sentiment from video diary data provided by patients. Forty healthy volunteers viewed 21 validated images from the International Affective Picture System database through a mobile app which simultaneously captured video footage of their face using the selfie camera. Images were intended to be associated with the following emotional responses: anger, disgust, sadness, contempt, fear, surprise and happiness. Both valence and arousal scores estimated from the video footage associated with each image were adequate predictors of the IAPS image scores (p < 0.001 and p = 0.04 respectively). 12.2% of images were categorised as containing a positive expression response in line with the target expression; with happiness and sadness responses providing the greatest frequency of responders: 41.0% and 21.4% respectively. 71.2% of images were associated with no change in expression. This proof-of-concept study provides early encouraging findings that changes in facial expression can be detected when they exist. Combined with voice acoustical measures and speech sentiment analysis, this may lead to novel measures of health status in patients using a video diary in indications including depression, schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder and PTSD amongst other conditions.

‘I’m getting the balls to say no’: Trajectories in long-term recovery from problem substance use

This study uses individualisation theory to explore identity transition in substance misuse recovery. Identity narratives gained over 4 years from co-produced video/audio interview and video diary accounts were co-productively collected and analysed using framework analysis. Results indicate a trend towards individualistic and agentic identity as recovery trajectories progress over time. Within-case analysis demonstrates agentic growth for most participants, from early-stage gratitude and reliance on support groups to self-determination and independent decision-making. This early work exploring longer-term recovery adds to the current recovery and social identity discussion and provides evidence of identity growth in longer-term stages of recovery.

Trauma, Memorialisation and Intermediality in Jasmila Žbanić’s For Those Who Can Tell No Tales

This chapter discusses cinematic intermediality in Jasmila Žbanić's film, For Those Who Can Tell No Tales (2013) as a modality of addressing the traumatic memory of atrocities and mass rapes committed during the 1992–1995 Bosnian war. Traumatic memory is not primarily formed through symbols or narratives but rather resembles ?a wounded body’ (Broderick–Traverso), and therefore it may disrupt cultural strategies of memorialisation, narrativization and representation through which personal, collective or historical trauma is approached. In Žbanić's film, intermediality becomes a mode of addressing collective trauma by ‘acknowledging’ the unrepresentable within representation and by foregrounding the interstitial and corporeal aspect of traumatic memory. The intermedial cinematic discourse that incorporates photofilmic pictures, fragments of performance art and practices of non-cinematic image-making (such as amateur video diary) performs an irresolute and affective memorialisation of war trauma engaging the viewer in potentially transformative memory work.

Implementation of Automated Baby Monitoring: CCBeBe

An automated baby monitoring service CCBeBe (CCtv Bebe) monitors infants’ lying posture and crying based on AI and provides parents-to-baby video streaming and voice transmission. Besides, parents can get a three-minute daily video diary made by detecting the baby’s emotion such as happiness. These main features are based on OpenPose, EfficientNet, WebRTC, and Facial-Expression-Recognition.Pytorch. The service is integrated into an Android application and works on two paired smartphones, with lowered hardware dependence.

Between the Bridge and the Door

This chapter explores the liminal spaces of the identity work of individuals in organizations. Following the processual outline of rites of passages by anthropologist van Gennep, the authors draw on sociologist Georg Simmel’s elaboration of the ‘bridge and the door’ as modes of transition to analyse the liminal processes of a manager of a newly formed firm. Based on video diary entries collected over a four-month period the authors illustrate how rites of transition are enacted and how these change relational patterns—bridging, opening or closing off present, past, and future possibilities. Video diaries are helpful in indicating in particular the emotive aspects of such transitions and, therefore, the often hard to study personal processes that represent liminal spaces where there is neither a new beginning nor a completed process.

Love and Amateurism in Kelly Loves Tony

This essay reflects on Spencer Nakasako's groundbreaking video work with Southeast Asian refugee youth and explores Nakasako's significant role in media histories not just in relation to Asian America, but to American media culture writ large. It pays particular attention to the role and rhetoric of the “amateur” in Nakasako's work, and the ways in which Nakasako transforms low-resolution, independent videomaking into an aesthetic as well as political force. Nakasako's “video diary” series, often called the refugee trilogy, emphasizes the significance of making film with and about community through both content and modes of production. Highlighting the ways in which gender comes into play in Nakasako's work, this essay focuses on Kelly Loves Tony (often the least discussed of the trilogy), and also includes material from recently conducted interview with Spencer Nakasako on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his trilogy.