Workshop “Tools, games and workshops for image education” - Images en bibliothèques

Images en bibliothèques has launched a new course, designed by Florian Lecron, for professionals in the library, film, education and culture sectors. I contributed to the design of the course, and led the final session: light, flexible mediation devices that allow us to take another look at the experience of an image education workshop, putting the experience and the path we want the audience to follow at the center.

Session program “How to run a video-making workshop differently”

In 2h30, my aim was to pass on a number of concrete, reproducible tools to share light-hearted yet profound methods for running audiovisual creation workshops.

Photographs to enrich ourselves through the eyes of others:
I kicked off the workshop by asking participants to each take a staged photograph of themselves, expressing an idea or emotion about the issues surrounding images in the contemporary world. The photographs were taken with the participants’ phones, and using a QR code I had distributed to them, which led to a “private cloud”, they put their photos online independently:

In the space of fifteen minutes, the digital tool made it possible to carry out in-depth individual creative work and share it with others. During this time, I reinstalled the room, with a powerful short-focus video projector I’d brought along, so that the image was bigger and brighter, and the chairs were set up as in a cinema, in a semi-circle around the screen. The technical set-up is very important, because it assigns a value to the images we make and watch.

And the most important thing is the way in which we look at these photographs together: we display them one by one in large format, and talk about them together. The person who made the image is not allowed to speak, and the others reflect back to him or her what they received, perceived and felt about the image. So, instead of “justifying” or trying to explain (i.e. reduce) the image we’ve made, we receive the often very different views of others, and we discover new things in our image, learn about ourselves, are enriched by others, and refine our perception. We also realize the extent to which images are always subject to interpretation (cf. critical thinking skills).

Books to share resources:
Next, I had brought along a large number of books on the topics of the workshop, laid out on a large table (the space had also been modified to accommodate this proposal). Each participant was asked to take a photo of one or more books, and to upload these photos to the sharing space (which will remain accessible, as it’s not a cloud dependent on a commercial service; I’m the operator and I guarantee its continuity), in order to build up a collective bibliography, decided by the participants, useful to one another, as follows:

Le fait que les livres soient ainsi appropriés et choisis par les participant.e.s change la relation à cette bibliographie.

Making animated films from paper cut-outs:
I set up four teams. Each team was tasked with creating an animated mini-film, using the cut-outs from a number of magazines I’d brought along, to be shot in sequence under a camera connected to a computer and associated with a high-quality microphone, in this set-up:

This setup allows you to see the result while filming, and gives the workshop a very collective dimension. But the same method can be used simply by filming with a phone or tablet. I also brought along some very simple musical instruments, so that the team could produce the film’s sound ambiance live. The four shoots followed in rapid succession.

Puis, nous regardons ensemble les quatre films, dont l’inventivité et la créativité surprennent tout le monde. Vous pouvez les voir ici (l’espace “cloud privé”) :

And there you have it! In 2.5 hours, all these creative activities have been carried out, invested in and returned. We’re also preserving a heritage trace thanks to digital technology.

I also invited participants to use the Capcut application, which is free, easy to use and packed with creative possibilities, and can be installed on both phone and computer. For example, from the photos created and shared, everyone can choose a photo of their choice (not necessarily their own) and create a montage from that image. The results are quicker to implement than a video shoot, and invested in the intention.

The Fifine K670 USB microphone I use (it took me several years of testing before I found this model), which is very inexpensive (40€), is chosen by participants.

I’ve also uploaded to the cloud the collective film they made at the start of the course, based on a concept I devised.

One of the most important points I’ve made, reassuringly noted by participants at the debriefing, is to never forget that what counts is the process you take people through, not the result (the film, photos, podcast...). When it comes to the feedback, it’s this process that needs to be recounted, and not just the results of the process. In this way, the participants no longer have to “improve” the films, for example, to make the feedback “rewarding”. Because “improving” the films means undermining the autonomy and responsibility of the participants in relation to the images they have produced, and thus destroying any “image education” project.

Training presentation text

Artistic and cultural education is a major concern for cultural mediators, who are increasingly turning to interactive workshops and creative initiation. This training course presents the tools needed to set up fun activities and creative workshops around cinema and the moving image.

The course gives participants the opportunity to test games, discover tools and use them to develop activities for different audiences within their own structure. The course not only presents the tools, but also gives participants the chance to play and experience them together.

The emphasis is on lightweight devices that do not require digital skills. Participants in the course will be able to appropriate and acquire them to build their own mediation actions. Part of the course will be devoted to setting up an audiovisual creation workshop, with a light version requiring no specific equipment and a more ambitious version with speakers.

Pedagogical objectives

• Acquire knowledge about film production
• Obtain the keys to setting up a film-making workshop
• Discover tools and resources
• Skills and abilities :
• Develop knowledge of cinema
• Acquire the skills needed to set up activities and initiatives to educate the public about images
• Acquire tools and working methods

The speakers

• Florian Lecron, chargé de formation à Images en Bibliothèques
• Juliette Monnier, médiatrice et formatrice cinéma
• Sylvie Matéo, créatrice de Cinaimant
• Claire Cochard, coordination Passeurs d’Image - Pays-de la Loire
• Léa Enjalbert, réalisatrice, membre du collectif Filmer l’Air de Rien
• Laurent Geniller , Coordinateur des projets audiovisuels à la Maison du Geste et de l’Image
• Bruno Bouchard, réalisateur de films, collectionneur de pré-cinéma et intervenant pour les
• dispositifs d’éducation à l’image
• Delphine Robin-Tyrek, coordinatrice des pratiques et enseignements artistiques à Ciclic Val-de-Loire
• Romuald Beugnon, créateur de la Mashup Table et la Mashup Box
• Philippe Denis, responsable numérique de la médiathèque de Lorient
• Benoît Labourdette, cinéaste, pédagogue, chercheur et consultant en innovation culturelle et stratégies numériques

Presentation page on the Images en bibliothèques website.

This workshop took place at the Maison du Geste et de l’Image (Paris) from November 8 to 10, 2023.