By Cate Willis
A first-of-its-kind, fully accessible mobile media lab at the University of Guelph is removing long-standing barriers to digital storytelling by bringing tools, technology and training directly to communities that have historically lacked access.
REDLAB in Motion, created by U of G’s Re•Vision Centre and led by researcher Dr. Carla Rice, College of Social and Applied Human Sciences, is a wheelchair-accessible minivan outfitted with iPads, cameras, MacBook Pros, two editing suites and an insulated sound booth, creating a fully mobile studio that can travel to people where they live.
As an extension of Rice’s nationally recognized research program, the initiative uses digital storytelling to transform professional encounters, decolonize education and advance disability-informed creative research.
As sectors across Canada work to implement disability rights legislation and address social inequities, REDLAB provides research-based methods that help organizations rethink how they communicate and include diverse communities.
“Many people who are disabled, older or living in rural or on-reserve communities cannot travel to campus workshops or access professional equipment, leaving them few opportunities to create or share their own stories,” says Rice. “With REDLAB, we want to amplify marginalized voices, build intersectional alliances and imagine more just futures.
“We want to build a world where people who are often marginalized are not just included but valued – where their stories matter and shape our collective understanding.”
Expanding Access to Community-Based Storytelling
This fully wheelchair-accessible van travels across Ontario to rural areas, reserves and communities that face barriers to participating in university-based research. Having this equipment available to travel across the province in a mobile lab expands access to digital storytelling and ensures that marginalized people can share their experiences using high-quality tools, including audio/video production and editing equipment.
By supporting communities in telling their own stories, the project generates new evidence and insights that inform more inclusive cultural practices, services and policies.
The newly launched project brings state-of-the-art digital media technology directly into communities, including those of people with disabilities, aging people, fat and mad communities, Deaf individuals, rural communities and Indigenous communities, offering opportunities to tell stories where they live.
REDLAB in Motion also offers community workshops, film creation, outdoor summer screenings, on-site digital media training and support for faculty seeking to embed justice-based storytelling into their grants and community-engaged projects.
“By bringing state-of-the-art digital media technology directly into communities, we’re creating spaces where people can tell their stories where they live and in ways that reflect their lived experiences,” says Dr. Ingrid Mündel, managing director of Re•Vision. “With fully accessible tools, we’re making it easier for marginalized communities to shape how their stories are created, shared and understood.”
Accessing REDLAB
REDLAB in Motion offers new opportunities for faculty and community partners to collaborate on justice-based storytelling, community-engaged research and creative digital media projects. The Re•Vision Centre team, comprising experienced artists, videographers and facilitators, supports researchers who wish to integrate storytelling into grant proposals, engaged scholarship or community partnerships.
REDLAB provides a mobile platform for co-creating stories, generating new insights and strengthening relationships with communities across the province.
“REDLAB in Motion opens up an incredible moment for us to reconnect with communities and faculty across the province,” says Mündel. “We’re thrilled to offer new ways for people to collaborate with us, whether that’s through training, storytelling workshops or building justice-based storytelling into their research.
“Our team is ready and excited to support projects that help stories flourish.”
This research is funded by the Canada Research Chair program and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
For faculty and community partners interested in collaborating or accessing REDLAB in Motion, please connect with:
Dr. Ingrid Mündel
Email: imundel@uoguelph.ca
Phone: 519-824-4120 ext. 56951