multimodal research centre

Work in the multimodal research centre focuses on multimodal mediation and phenomenology in the widest sense. Of particular interest from this theoretical point of view is the social actor acting in the world. Here, at the centre, we are taking both external and internal mediational means into consideration, and are working across the areas of communication, linguistics, psychology, anthropology and sociology, often conducting extended video-ethnographic fieldwork.

method

Largely, we work in a multi-methodological framework, taking mediated discourse analysis as our umbrella framework. What this means is that researchers use various methods, and often more than one, in order to arrive at new knowledge about how social actors act in the world.
While social actors are always in focus at our centre, it is of great interest to us in what ways the environment, objects and technology mediate and afford or constrain social actors' actions.

people in the centre

The multimodal research centre consist of loosely knit members who broadly fall into three categories:

Researchers who work or study at Auckland University of Technology. These are staff and research students.

Researchers, who are interested in multimodal mediation in the broadest sense, and who interact with members of the MRC on a regular basis. These may be staff or research students from within AUT or from other universities across NZ and the world, who either collaborate on research projects or who are simply interested in what is happening at the centre.

Researchers who are institute or centre directors themselves or who are renowned scholars in the field of multimodality or mediation or both and form the centre's international advisory board.

history 2007 to now

In 2007, the Multimodal Research Group (MRG) was established when Sigrid Norris first came to AUT. As the MRG grew, it earned support from the Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies at AUT and organically grew into a Research Centre.

In 2009, the Vice Chancellor Derek McCormack officially opened the Multimodal Research Centre. The day was celebrated with Plenaries and Workshops presented by Theo Van Leeuwen and Rondey H. Jones and was followed by a 3-day Research Retreat. Also, in 2009, the Centre launched Nothing Else.

In 2010, the Centre launched the Global Geosemiotics Project and conducted its first plenary-style international multimodal conference with participants from ?? different countries. With only one stream, all participants could listen to all presenters, resulting in much interaction among the participants and resulting in developing collaborations across the world.

In 2011 so far, the Centre has launched the world-wide project 'Who are we? and How is new media technology impacting our lives?' with scholars in over 18 countries participating. Further, the Centre has established a new Journal called Multimodal Communication and the first issues is scheduled to appear in December of this year.