What is participatory culture and how I practice it everyday?

During Visual Culture class at the University I was taught about participatory culture. At first I didn’t have any idea about what this means, but later it got clearer in my mind and I realized that it is something that I everyday make use of unconsciously. So finally a process I am going through everyday got a name. And now what is participatory culture? Being inspired by the words of Henry Jenkins, who spent two decades observing how participatory culture advanced and helped people make progress, I can relate his observations to my everyday life and practice as a crafter and interior designer. He said: “If we think of Youtube, many people produce media on Youtube, because there is something they want to show; it might be a skateboarder who did a great stand and had their friends recorded him and pasted it online. It could be an amateur Remix artist who saw a TV show they loved and set it to music…” (Edutopia, 2013). All these practices are part of the participatory culture. Nowadays Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Etsy and similar online social media pages are the most used vehicles to engage in participatory culture. The share, comment and like or favourite button can be thought of as ways to express your opinion about certain things and share information you are passionate about with the rest of the world. I everyday find and post photos of my personal areas of interest, such as interior design and decoration and Vespa scooters. In this way I am considered as multiplier, since I help things go viral online. As an artist, I like sharing my personal artworks with the rest of my Facebook friends and get comments about them. In this case I am considered as a creator of culture. I also appraise new ideas regarding the crafts I do, so in a sense I always try to engage people in my working process and this makes the whole procedure less individual and more collective. In the Interior design class, I exchange ideas with the rest of my classmates and my tutor about how a project can be improved or progress and we often use Facebook to communicate ideas. We all participate either by listening (being consumers) or actively engaging in the process (being creators). Moreover, I am passionate about sharing other infamous artists’ work on Facebook and taking interviews to share on my blog. In this way I try to multiply contents that may be not so visible and spread the artists’ word. Even being a collector of Art and crafts makes me a participator, since I am involved in the final stage of a piece. I like buying crafts and photographs other artists, such as mixed media artists or photographers make. When I have them in my hands, I like taking pictures and posting them on Facebook to show my new purchases. I especially do this when purchasing Vespa related objects, such as miniatures, pins, books and ads. I somehow feel pride to share my collection with other Vespa fans I know. I regularly do the same with crafts I purchase from etsy.co.uk with me paying extreme attention in the packaging other artists create. I like getting inspired by their ideas and expand them in my own creative way. The use of pages, such Etsy, Google, Pinterest help me develop my creative endeavors. Further, I am extremely passionate about watching Youtube videos and listening to music and that again makes me a culture participator.

A sort of digital collage that expresses the idea of participatory culture and it is participatory culture on its own (the owner created and shared it online).

Edutopia (2013). Henry Jenkins on Participatory Culture (Big Thinkers Series). YouTube [Video]. 07 May. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gPm-c1wRsQ [Accessed 10 October 2016].