JUNE 2021 | MULTIMEDIA VIDEO

The future of rural is… creative was made as a contribution to a compilation titled “The future of rural is…”, curated by University of Guelph PhD Candidate Ashleigh Weeden for the ICRPS2021 Video Contest.

Our brief from Ashleigh was to create a 1-minute video (on/for TikTok) that addressed the overarching ‘future of rural’ theme while reflecting our own area of research/expertise.

My contribution explored rural creativity both in message and in method, playing with (‘repurposing’, in a way) existing photo, video, and audio materials and experimenting with overlays to reflect the rich, ongoing interrelation of creativity and islandness, and all that they encapsulate.

→ Watch on TikTok (1 min)
→ Watch full compilation (6.5 min)

More about the “The future of rural is…” compilation:
(‘Liner notes’ from Ashleigh Weeden)

“In response to the call for submissions to the ICRPS2021 video contest, I invited friends, colleagues, and frequent co-conspirators on all-things-rural to use the massively popular platform TikTok to share bite-sized versions of their thoughts about the future of rural with me. Together, we came up with quite the list! The future of rural is inclusive, Indigenous, feminist, sustainable, creative, active, digital, connected, and last, but certainly not least, fun! Using TikTok to create the “chapters” within this video was intended to push some personal boundaries and find ways to share rural expertise in new ways.

The result of this generative, creative process is a compilation that uses imagery from rural landscapes around the world (including footage from ICRPS2019 in Lapland and from my RPLC-supported fieldwork in northern Scotland) paired with music and words that tie together all the ways we “choose our choice” to pursue uniquely rural futures. In just over six minutes, it takes viewers on a whirlwind tour of what “the future of rural” means to contemporary rural scholars and community activators – using humour and creative means to communicate the lessons we learn from the places we call home.

The final message of this video (and my work, writ large) is that future of rural is whatever we make it – so let’s reinvent the future of rural together!”

LEARN MORE ABOUT ASHLEIGH AND HER WORK HERE.