Welcome back to our CLCF profile series, where each month we interview a CLCF researcher to hear more about their projects (check out our previous profiles here). This winter term, we’re chatting with Dr. Claudia Sicondolfo about her research and teaching approaches in the age of GenAI. Claudia is Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream in Arts Management (Part-time faculty) in the Department of Arts, Media, Culture, at University of Toronto, Scarborough. Her research sits at the intersections of cultural policy, film festivals, cinema urbanisms, screen publics, anti-colonial research methodologies, and affect in the creative industries.

Courtesy of Claudia Sicondolfo

I’ve always been fascinated with media audiences of all kinds: fans, anti-fans, cinephiles, activists, learners, teachers, youth and adults alike. Broadly, I’d say I do research about and with media and art publics. I think about sustainability and engagement tactics in four kinds of media publics in my work: institutional publics (places like film festivals, art galleries, cultural events, fairs, etc), creative workers (filmmakers, curators, arts workers, etc), educational publics (online/offline labs, workshops, classrooms, etc), and activist publics. More specifically, my research questions take me within the borders of cultural policy analysis to think about the kinds of structures, programs, and tools that can be mobilized to support media arts organizations, artists, and audiences.

Since I’m a researcher who is motivated by theories of media communities, audiences, and publics, it is ethically and methodologically important for me to be actively involved and participating in the kinds of media engagements and policies I analyze. This kind of work is challenging because it involves deep trust building with community members, which can take a lot of time. I have a post-it note on my home computer to remind me that my work should “move at the speed of trust,” which is something the very brilliant and extremely fabulous writer, facilitator and activist adrienne maree brown famously wrote.

 

M.E.: Can you tell us a bit about your research on cultural policy and film festivals? How has your thinking shifted with today’s GenAI context?

Claudia: I am mostly interested in working with “micro media arts organizations” like regional or identity-based film festivals. These are organizations that tend to operate with small staffs and on limited budgets, but have broad reach across a diversity of audiences, publics, and job training potentials. For example, I’ve done work with The Regent Park Film Festival, The Toronto Queer Film Festival, The Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film, and with smaller programs in larger organizations like with TIFF’s long-standing regional-film touring program called Film Circuit. I’ve also worked with regionally-focused artist run centres like Winnipeg Film Group and community media arts archives that engage underserviced publics like the ArQuives.

I look to these micro arts organizations for cultural engagement and resiliency tactics that are instructive. Because these are “smaller” organizations, they are most often willing and permitted to practice cross-sectoral solidarity and activism in their organizational, curatorial, and labour practices. Policy makers at all levels of the Canadian government (federal, provincial, and municipal) have much to learn from the kinds of organizational tactics practiced by micro and activist media arts organizations. Notably, because these organizations operate on a small-scale—in terms of budgets, staff, and operations—their tactics and needs are not often accounted for within larger neoliberal cultural policy frameworks. My research projects aim to legitimise the implications of the current arts crisis on micro and activist media arts organizations and on their tactics of resilience.

My thinking hasn’t shifted so much in today’s GenAI context, because I believe these organizations are really good at practicing long-held organizational resilience tactics. At the height of the COVID pandemic, for example, many festivals led the way on setting community safety standards by moving (and keeping) programming online, or mandating masks even before or after they were municipally or provincially required to.

I am curious about what kinds of community AI standards are being embraced and challenged in these micro organizations. How does AI use within these organizations, for example, impact donor databases and curatorial expectations? I’m predominantly interested in the impact of AI on workflow and efficiency expectation outputs on a sector that is already under-funded and over-worked. We do need to have more cross-sectoral, cross-jurisdictional, and cross-expertise conversations about the impacts of AI on cultural heritage organizations. I’m interested in hearing directly from these organizations about what they need, what kinds of pressures they are facing, and how cultural policy interventions could better serve them.

 

Daphne: You’re very engaged with the GenAI & Classroom Dynamics ACM Working Group. Can you tell us a bit about your pedagogical approach and teaching process this term?

Claudia: The GenAI & Classroom Dynamics ACM Working Group has been one of my biggest teaching support networks this year. I get to meet with some of the most brilliant minds I’ve ever met—people like Dr. Jas Rault, Dr. T.L. Cowan, and Dr. Hadiya Roderique— to discuss how we can continue to best serve our students in the age of AI. It’s become a space where we can help each other through all of the challenges that accompany this time. There is no GenAI Gaslighting allowed – all gripes are welcomed!

In this working group, I’ve come to realize we’re really in a pedagogical paradigm shift and I’ve changed much of my in class engagement exercises back towards analog. We go back to basics in class with note-taking and close reading—two pedagogical skill sets at the risk of extinction in our age of AI. My students are asked to use analog note taking tools in my classes and we spent a considerable amount of time in group work settings reading the required texts, together. I can’t tell you the number of students who have expressed such gratitude for these kinds of analog resets. They tell me they have little to no other opportunities to leave their laptops and phones behind for a few hours, and my classes provide them with a bit of digital hygiene relief. Last semester, in my course about “World-building in the Arts and Media Sectors,” we spent a whole class playing childhood games like designing and throwing paper planes, musical chairs, and telling a continuous story with one word per student! Don’t get me wrong: these are not always ideal or perfect scenarios. For some students, these can be frustrating or debilitating scenarios, so I always try to find common ground so that students feel supported while simultaneously challenged.

 

Rafael: What is your star sign?

Claudia: This is one of my favourite questions, because I always like to tell people I’m a Double-Taurus (Sun and Moon) and I’m a Rising Leo … and then I like to see their reactions. So, I’m a bit of what some would call an intense person: I’m reliable, dedicated, and hard-working in my core, and I’m passionate about life’s indulgences in my day to day. I love food, travelling, books, arts, and friends. I’m fun, I swear, just know that once you’ve got me on board, you’re kinda stuck with me!

Follow Claudia’s work with CLCF here.