Community Engaged Documentation and Research

Community Engaged Documentation and Research (CEDaR) is a CFI-funded, community-oriented new media and digital storytelling space within the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies (CIS) at UBC Vancouver. We provide access to tools, technologies, and strategies to support community-led knowledge production and cultural survivance.

Image: Modern, brightly lit, collaborative office setting at CEDaR, with a round wooden table surrounded by six yellow swivel chairs.

CEDaR Space is equipped with high-performance AV systems, a sound isolation booth, omnidirectional cameras and audio recording equipment, VR gear, a 3D scanner and printer, makers tools, and high-powered workstations for producing, editing, and screening podcasts, video games, data visualizations, immersive maps, and virtual and augmented realities.

A soundbooth at CEDaR Space with padded black walls and a white desk in the center. There are mics attached to the desk, facing towards a grey chair in-front of the desk. There are two large computer monitors with glowing orange screens opposite

Research Projects

Illustrated map of Vancouver with collage images displaying locations of poems within City Poems app.
Two street signs at UBC representing English names (West Mall and Memorial) as well as names in hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ (sm:entásəm, 'facing the mountains' and šxʷhək̓ʷmət, 'that which used to remember them').

CEDaR projects bring together existing and emergent research teams to foster the co-development of collaborative and reciprocal project plans grounded in context-specific needs. Community stories are situated in territory, shared through intergenerational communication, expressive of crucial identities, and governed by ethical protocols. When translated into digital spaces, these stories thus have associated technological requirements. In conversation with university researchers, multimedia developers, and knowledge exchange platforms, community parters are supported in planning projects that require immersive media technologies, including virtual and augmented reality, 3D printing, binaural sound recording, and cross-platform game engines. Cross-disciplinary teams facilitate, develop, and advance interwoven approaches to the digital documentation of community stories, the effective mobilization of this documentation using emergent media, and, uniquely, the community-guided and user-centred stewardship of such knowledge.

Events

Six people sitting around a circular table, on yellow neon swivel chairs. There is a blue projection screen behind them, and a geometric patterned carpet underneath.

Image: Bitsy and “imagining place” in pixel art workshop with Maize Longboat (November 2022) at CEDaR Space

Alongside our research, CEDaR serves as a hub for CIS community-centred events, as well as coordinating broader collaborations through our VPRI-funded Research Cluster in Relational Technologies. We facilitate and host workshops, Indigenous-focused gaming events and video screenings, speakers series, and workshops and training programs in AV production, coding, and new media skills.