RESCRIPTING FAILURE: THE REFLEXIVE STORIES THAT FIELDWORK TELLS

Researching everyday media practices is a messy and tricky business fraught with uncertainty. In this panel the authors ask how stories of failure, especially during fieldwork, can be rethought as a meaningful emergent method and approach. How can we productively reframe failure as a core part of the research process that cannot be subsumed into the telos of a success story after the research has been completed? How does does failure work in research? Our approach takes a different stance from dominant stories in the tech industry and geek economy, where failure is often represented in linear, heroic, gendered and individualistic ways, retrospectively rendering mess as instrumental to success. Similarly, within academia there are many research processes in which failure is instrumentalised or obscured—from writing up fieldwork into neatly packaged case-studies, to causal accounts of effective intervention. Progress narratives of knowledge production have been subject to much debate and criticism. What has been less discussed is how failures work as sometimes uncontainable aspects of research praxes—how they are endemic to the process of data collection and analysis, materializing while in the field. In this panel we suggest that these experiences are core to the thickness of fieldwork—they disclose the messiness and dynamics of the social, and should be included in the stories we tell. This panel aims to liberate discussion about failure to render it visible and core to understanding the politics and ethics of fieldwork and the research process. Through a series of stories from our fieldwork, we seek to further critical understanding of methodologies and techniques of failure, and argue for our obligations as researchers to talk about what happens when things go wrong

Space on Earth: Assessing the Feasibility of Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality for a Visitor Experience

There is growing interest in using mixed and virtual reality in galleries, libraries, archives, and museums. This paper assesses the feasibility of situating such technologies in the visitor experience at Goonhilly Earth Station. Insights were gathered through three focus group studies conducted early in the design phase (N = 25), and questionnaires at three prototype showcase events (N = 72). This data reveals enthusiasm about the potential of immersive technology and willingness to pay for premium quality experiences. However, several considerations emerged, including: differing preferences and reservations between key audiences; the need to holistically package the experience; further consideration to encourage social interaction; and the need to address friction when using multiple technologies. Installation designers working with immersive technologies for visitor experiences should consider such concerns to enrich the quality of the visit

Initial results of coring at Prees, Cheshire Basin, UK (ICDP JET project): towards an integrated stratigraphy, timescale, and Earth system understanding for the Early Jurassic.

International audienceDrilling for the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) Early Jurassic Earth System and Timescale project (JET) was undertaken between October 2020 and January 2021. The drill site is situated in a small-scale synformal basin of the latest Triassic to Early Jurassic age that formed above the major Permian–Triassic half-graben system of the Cheshire Basin. The borehole is located to recover an expanded and complete succession to complement the legacy core from the Llanbedr (Mochras Farm) borehole drilled through 1967–1969 on the edge of the Cardigan Bay Basin, North Wales. The overall aim of the project is to construct an astronomically calibrated integrated timescale for the Early Jurassic and to provide insights into the operation of the Early Jurassic Earth system. Core of Quaternary age cover and Early Jurassic mudstone was obtained from two shallow partially cored geotechnical holes (Prees 2A to 32.2 m below surface (m b.s.) and Prees 2B to 37.0 m b.s.) together with Early Jurassic and Late Triassic mudstone from the principal hole, Prees 2C, which was cored from 32.92 to 651.32 m (corrected core depth scale). Core recovery was 99.7 % for Prees 2C. The ages of the recovered stratigraphy range from the Late Triassic (probably Rhaetian) to the Early Jurassic, Early Pliensbachian (Ibex Ammonoid Chronozone). All ammonoid chronozones have been identified for the drilled Early Jurassic strata. The full lithological succession comprises the Branscombe Mudstone and Blue Anchor formations of the Mercia Mudstone Group, the Westbury and Lilstock formations of the Penarth Group, and the Redcar Mudstone Formation of the Lias Group. A distinct interval of siltstone is recognized within the Late Sinemurian of the Redcar Mudstone Formation, and the name “Prees Siltstone Member” is proposed. Depositional environments range from playa lake in the Late Triassic to distal offshore marine in the Early Jurassic. Initial datasets compiled from the core include radiography, natural gamma ray, density, magnetic susceptibility, and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). A full suite of downhole logs was also run. Intervals of organic carbon enrichment occur in the Rhaetian (Late Triassic) Westbury Formation and in the earliest Hettangian and earliest Pliensbachian strata of the Redcar Mudstone Formation, where up to 4 % total organic carbon (TOC) is recorded. Other parts of the succession are generally organic-lean, containing less than 1 % TOC. Carbon-isotope values from bulk organic matter have also been determined, initially at a resolution of ∼ 1 m, and these provide the basis for detailed correlation between the Prees 2 succession and adjacent boreholes and Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) outcrops. Multiple complementary studies are currently underway and preliminary results promise an astronomically calibrated biostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, and chemostratigraphy for the combined Prees and Mochras successions as well as insights into the dynamics of background processes and major palaeo-environmental changes