Raising the word from images of fiction: a matter of public science or public art?

Abstract

Based on a novel approach to interviewing that was recently applied in the context of an interdisciplinary research project combining sociology and cinema, this article proposes a discussion of the stakes involved in the use of video-elicitation, i.e. the conducting of interviews prompted by the viewing of images, and in this case realistic fiction images. One can first see video-elicitation as an opportunity for social science research when it seeks to overcome a wellknown difficulty associated with the risk of having the researcher imposing issues on the respondents in the context of an interview survey. On a broader level, one can also see it as an opportunity for a public, citizen-based science that is attentive to the involvement of social actors in their questioning and analysis, and that respects their practical expertise and integrates the latter into a form of co-construction of knowledge. Finally, it can be seen as an artistic opportunity, with the opening up of a new repertoire of public expression combining artistic productions from the past (fictional audio-visual archives), the renewed use of these productions in multimedia works that stimulate emotions and reactions, and the proposal, through new technological media, of an aesthetic appropriation that is closer to sensory experience, and that takes the form of public art. Under these conditions of use, audio-visual fiction archives could find a renewed value that one could associate with the heritage movement and the search for roots that characterize our globalized and ever-changing societies.