[EDIT/or] Research for interviews

As part of the publication of the Architecture Festival City conference a journal is to be produced alongside a book and website. This journal will intra-disciplinary and document some of the papers presented as well as new works created out of the themes of the conference. In addition their presentation the keynote speakers (Eric Parry, Rosie Kay and La Fura dels Baus) are to be interviewed about the themes; Festival and Genesis, Festival and Performativity and Festival and Conflicts and extracts from these discussions will be integrated into the journal.

La Fura dels Baus – Spanish Theatre Company

Eric Parry – Architect

Rosie Kay – Choreographer and dancer

As a group we researched each of the keynote speakers to gather material from which we could develop interview questions with the hope of gaining information related to the topics. Using various sources including newspaper articles, interviews carried out by others and published media we were able to get an insight into each speakers work and conceptual approach. From this base of information we were able to pick out areas we thought needed further investigation in our own interviews and would provide expanded information on the topics outlined above.

Next we put together 5 questions for each speaker that we thought would most successfully draw out the information we are hoping to include within the journal, appealing to both attendees of the conference and those with a more general interest in the topics and / or speakers. These questions have now been submitted for approval by the team preparing the journal and the interviews are scheduled for later in the process.

Preparing questions for interview is a task that none of us had undertaken previously and was not as straightforward as we imagined, with a lot of upfront research and time spent in order to get 5 questions suitable for both the audience and interviewee. We are hopeful that our questions will provide interesting dialogue that contributes and expands on the content, which we will be transcribing and editing afterwards for incorporation in the journal.

– Tom Sheldon