Dr Susannah Clement¹

¹University Of Wollongong

GoPro is a brand synonymous with small but relatively high powered, versatile and durable, sports action cameras. As they are lightweight and able to be mounted to bodies and equipment they are increasingly being used in ethnographic research. Yet a GoPro is not just a recording device which non-intrusively ‘captures’ everyday life. Rather, a GoPro’s agency, in particular its affective capacity to shift relations between bodies and place, means its place in the research assemblage is important to consider. This paper considers the use of a GoPro in a research project which investigated the everyday walking experiences of families with young children. It explores the moments where families’ recorded walks with a GoPro, renamed in the paper as GoProing, blurred the divides between participant, researcher, human and technology. The paper concludes by highlighting some of ethical dilemmas that should be addressed when doing research with families and GoPros.

Biography:

Dr Susannah Clement is an early career researcher interested in exploring everyday mobility and family life through a material feminist lens. She is an Honorary Associate Fellow with the Australian Centre for Culture, Environment, Society and Space, University of Wollongong.