The Co-Creation Studio researches and incubates alternatives to a singular authorial vision.
The Co-Creation Studio is a new initiative at the MIT Open Documentary Lab. The studio researches and incubates alternatives to a singular authorial vision through a constellation of media methods, seeking to transform the systems that perpetuate inequality. People co-create within communities, across disciplines, and even with non-human living and artificial systems.
Collective Wisdom
The Co-Creation studio at the MIT Open Documentary Lab published Collective Wisdom: Co-Creating Media within Communities, across Disciplines and with Algorithms. This first-of-its-kind field study of the media industry highlights trends, opportunities, and challenges to help advance the understanding and recognition of co-created works and practices—efforts that function outside the limits of singular authorship.
“Co-creation carries with it a profound respect for each person’s unique expertise, and also the knowledge that we must share both the burden and the liberation of determining our future collectively. There is an urgency to the challenges we face in this moment in history, and no one person, organization, or discipline can determine all the answers alone.” — Katerina Cizek and William Uricchio, Collective Wisdom
This report sets out to map, define, and shed light on co-creation methods within media (arts, documentary, and journalism) and adjacent areas of knowledge (design, open-source tech, urban and community planning). Four types of co-creation in media are identified in the study: within communities (in person and online); across disciplines and organizations; and increasingly, humans co-creating with living systems and artificial intelligence (AI). This playlist presents some of the projects highlighted in the report.