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Max Schleser

Max Schleser (BA Hons, MA Art and Media Practice with Distinction, PhD Westminster) is Associate Professor in Film and Television and Researcher in the Centre for Transformative Media Technologies (CTMT) at Swinburne University of Technology (Melbourne, Australia), Adobe Education Leader, Founder of the Mobile Innovation Network & Association (www.mina.pro) and Screening Director of the International Mobile Innovation Screening & Festival.

Max is an award-winning filmmaker with expertise in Immersive Media and Creative Arts 4.0 with a focus on Cinematic VR and interactive filmmaking. His research explores Screen Production, Emerging Media and Smartphone Filmmaking for community engagement, creative transformation and transmedia storytelling.
His experimental films, moving-image arts and cinematic VR projects are screened at film festivals, in galleries and museums including FLEFF Film Festival (USA), Festival de La Imagen (Columbia), Museu da Imagem e do Som – Museum of Moving Image (Brazil), London Gallery West, South London Gallery (both UK), Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision - New Zealand Film Archive, Te Papa Tongarewa – Museum of New Zealand (both Aotearoa/New Zealand), Pocket Film Festival and Videoscope (both France). His mobile feature film Max with a Keitai (2007) is included in the public film archive in the Forum des Images in Paris (France) and the smartphone documentary feature Frankenstorm (2014) broadcasted on CTV, Canterbury Television (Aotearoa/New Zealand).

Max co-edited the books Mobile Media Making in an Age of Smartphones and Mobile Story Making in an Age of Smartphones, published with Palgrave MacMillan, and edited journals for Ubiquity, the Journal of Pervasive Media and the Journal of Creative Technologies. His monograph Smartphone Filmmaking: Theory and Practice is published with Bloomsbury in 2021.

He conceptualised and conducted digital storytelling workshops for a number of cultural institutes, city councils and government bodies in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. His industry consultancy includes projects for Adobe, Australian Red Cross, BBC, Nokia, Frontier Strategy, Open Lab and Telstra, among other agencies and production companies.
Address: School of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities
Faculty of Health, Arts and Design
Swinburne University of Technology
PO Box 218
Hawthorn, Victoria 3122
Australia

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Papers by Max Schleser

The Journal of Community Informatics

Seniors are amongst the most digitally excluded in Australia. Despite the increasing popularity o... more Seniors are amongst the most digitally excluded in Australia. Despite the increasing popularity of social media, seniors often lack access to technology and to basic digital skills. Thus many seniors do not derive the social benefits and service realisation that arise from online forms of communication and engagement. One barrier to digital inclusion for seniors is learning how to make use of digital and online tools in a way that incorporates their specific needs, interests and capabilities. The 60+ Online project fostered digital inclusion amongst 22 Australian seniors with varied digital skills and from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Within workshops, researchers encouraged seniors to learn basic digital skills, addressed seniors’ concerns about confidentiality and privacy, and introduced them to safe and regulated online social media platforms. Seniors were encouraged to draw upon personal and community interests to inform storyboarding and digital story develo...

Journal of Sociology

One of the issues limiting prevention of elder abuse in Australia is lack of a strong evidence ba... more One of the issues limiting prevention of elder abuse in Australia is lack of a strong evidence base to target social drivers of abuse, particularly ageism. This evidence gap is exacerbated by social discourses that perpetuate negative representations of older age as a time of vulnerability and physical decline, often in opposition to people’s actual experience of ageing. This article presents findings of the ‘OPERA Project’, which used co-designed digital storytelling to explore how ageing and ageism are perceived by older people. The project findings indicated that preventing elder abuse requires discursive intervention to combat negative social discourses representing older people, and to frame social acceptance of the inherent complexity of experiences of ageing. Using a social constructionist approach, this article puts forward a ‘middle path’ through traditional theories of ageing and associated ‘positive ageing’ discourses, which often problematise ageing itself.

AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research

Drawing from a conceptual framework that problematises and redefines the digital lives of older p... more Drawing from a conceptual framework that problematises and redefines the digital lives of older people aged 65 years and over, this panel explores how older people engage with digital communication tools and skills, and the way this plays out in their everyday lives. Each paper situates older people as experiencing a rich social life integrated with digital technologies and understood in terms of multi-faceted disparities in internet use, skills and modes of digital participation. How older people’s digital lives are negotiated and developed, and the particular frustrations and barriers to their digital participation, are situated as particular to their cultural context for use of communication tools. This panel thus contributes new understanding of how older people’s digital lives are emerging, moving away from simplistic descriptions of skills, to the multi-faceted and complex negotiations occurring when older people make decisions about connecting with digital tools.

Health Promotion Journal of Australia

AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples

In New Zealand, the burden of obesity is greatest among Pacific people. However, targeted prevent... more In New Zealand, the burden of obesity is greatest among Pacific people. However, targeted prevention strategies among Pacific communities are needed to learn about how to partner with indigenous groups to successfully apply such strategies. The aim of this study was to pilot the Pasifika Youth Empowerment Programme (YEP), which consisted of five interactive learning modules, among 15 Pasifika youth (18–24 years) from Wellington, New Zealand. This article describes the YEP methodology, to understand how to address obesity-related issues for Pasifika youth. At the completion of the YEP, the participants identified three causes of obesity relevant to Pasifika youth and developed preventative action plans targeting these causes: (a) poor diet, (b) lack of education, and (c) lack of physical activity. This study highlights that capacity and capability development of young people in understanding the key issues related to obesity is important to champion culturally acceptable strategies.

MOBILE SCREEN CULTURES AND DIGITAL SOCIETY

Mobile Media Making in an Age of Smartphones, 2014

This chapter examines the recent phenomenon of ‘selfies’ as a starting point to discuss self-refl... more This chapter examines the recent phenomenon of ‘selfies’ as a starting point to discuss self-reflexive and self-representation as a narrative strategy within mobile filmmaking. The presented analysis argues that creative mobile media practice can produce representations, which have intimate and immediate characteristics, allowing filmmakers and citizen users to establish new connections with their audiences through digital storytelling. This chapter also establishes a link with the proliferation of mobile filmmaking and the use of mobile camera phones, pocket cameras, and smartphones for self-representation and selfreflexive approaches in mobile filmmaking. It explores mobile devices as a tool for creating self-representation and looks at a user-based interpretation of the autobiographical discourse.

This thesis investigates the potential of and prospects for mobile documentary filmmaking. As a r... more This thesis investigates the potential of and prospects for mobile documentary filmmaking. As a result of practice-led research, the city film Max with a Keitai was produced on mobile camera phones for cinematic projection. The feature-length documentary portrays the contemporary Japanese megalopolis through the lens of a mobile phone and records the mobile filmmaking process. Simultaneously, the project experimented with mobile phones as viewing devices for &amp;#x27;micro-movies&amp;#x27;. Through curating an international mobile art ...

Mobile Media Making in an Age of Smartphones, 2014

Ubiquity: The Journal of Pervasive Media, 2013

ABSTRACT

Ubiquity: The Journal of Pervasive Media, 2013

ABSTRACT

The Journal of Community Informatics

Journal of Sociology

AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research

Health Promotion Journal of Australia

AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples

MOBILE SCREEN CULTURES AND DIGITAL SOCIETY

Mobile Media Making in an Age of Smartphones, 2014

Ubiquity: The Journal of Pervasive Media, 2013

ABSTRACT

Ubiquity: The Journal of Pervasive Media, 2013

ABSTRACT

Mobile Storytelling in an Age of Smartphones, 2021

can expand screen storytelling concepts in form and function. Existing scholarship on mobile medi... more can expand screen storytelling concepts in form and function. Existing scholarship on mobile media making and mobile story making (Berry & Schleser, 2014; Schleser & Berry, 2018) explored mobile media through an interdisciplinary approach. The Mobile Story-Narrative Practices with Locative Technologies introduced "sitespecificity", "urban makeup" and "creative misuse" (Farman, 2014, pp. 3 and 4). Since then, mobile stories continued to "reimagine our relationship to technology, place, and our own sense of self in the spaces through which we move" (Farman, 2014, p. 5). Mobile media is becoming more ubiquitous than ever and morphs audio-visual content into novel formats,
merging online, short-form and site-specific authorship.
Mobile stories can be crafted within existing screen industry struc-
tures and storytelling formulas. In a similar way, as a film is composed
of shots, scenes, sequences and narrative structures Bernard (2016), film-
makers, screen producers and storytellers work with these formats to
create engaging mobile stories. In addition, mobile media makers, story-
tellers, filmmakers, artists and designers further expand on existing story
structures. As part of the Mobile Studies Congress in 2020, Schleser
co-created the key-note presentation Imaginative Mobile Storytelling. As
mobile media is based on a peer and network structure, scholarship
should reflect the diversity and multiplicity in voices and approaches
within mobile storytelling. This chapter will highlight the comments
and positions by Camille Baker, Michael Osheku, Martin K. Koszolko,
Krishna S. Kusuma, Anne L. Massoni, Adrian Jeffs, Patrick Kelly, Andrew
Robb, Felipe Cardona, David Scott Leibowitz, Eugenio Tisselli, David
Cowlard, Gerda Cammaer and Max Schleser, who are featured in this
video (Schleser, 2020). Scholars responded to the prompt; what are the
changes, challenges and chances for Mobile Storytelling. This chapter
explores these mobile media researchers’ approaches within the Creative
Arts to mobile screen production and how they approach storytelling
with, on and for mobile devices. In a transdisciplinary research context,
mobile media can bring together artists, designers, creatives, digital story-
tellers and researchers with various approaches to and perspectives on
storytelling. This chapter further develops the prospect and potential for
mobile media as a transdisciplinary field of study as mobile media can
interconnect with various disciplines and approaches via storytelling.

Mobile Storytelling in an Age of Smartphones, 2021

In examining and exploring the currents and trends of mobile story- telling, we shall also take a... more In examining and exploring the currents and trends of mobile story-
telling, we shall also take a look at the historical developments of mobile
media and mobile stories. Mobile media as such is not new. The Greeks
(mid-eighth century BCE) and Romans used wax tables (43–410 AD) for
documentation and communication. From then up to now, mobile media
have been evolving in their respective forms, features and functions. By
2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet
traffic—15 times higher than it was in 2017 (Cisco, 2020 online). By
2023, nearly two-thirds of the global population will have Internet access
and over 70% of the global population will have mobile connectivity.
Having experienced many changes, challenges and chances over centuries,
mobile media have always been functioning differently to the same overall
objective, that is, to create and cater to time-specific needs, tastes, prefer-
ences and styles in storytelling as mentioned in the second chapter of this
collection (Fig. 1.1).
In the context of constant innovation, one should remember that those
who do not change and adjust to the changing condition can go out of
business rapidly. Steven Sasson invented the world’s first digital camera
while working at Eastman Kodak in 1975. It weighed 3.6 kg and shot a
mere 0.01MP. The camera could store 30 images on a delicate cassette.
The “Kodak moment” became a signifying moment in photography. In
1976, Kodak had 85% market share in cameras and 90% market share
in film. In 2021, however, the company filed for bankruptcy. The first
camera phone was introduced in Japan, the SHARP J-SH04 – 2000 and
as indicated in the first chapter, most early mobile filmmakers used a Nokia N95. In 2007, Nokia tried to develop everything, including soft-
ware for mobile devices, operating systems and an online video platform,
which was called OVI. Apple’s business model based on the App store
changed the entire smartphone landscape. With the iPhone 4s, which
introduced 1080p as broadcasting standard video, Apple has secured its
market share by October 2011.

Mobile Storytelling in an Age of Smartphones, 2021

This chapter focusses on co-created mobile storytelling examples and case studies that have engag... more This chapter focusses on co-created mobile storytelling examples and case studies that have engaged participants in collaborative processes through most of the production process. While some are more focused on the collaborative nature of production, others emphasise the story more significantly, with each method producing very particular impacts on the production, the producer and the participant. Using case studies from a number of digital storytelling projects including 60+ Online
(McCosker et al., 2018), May Days (Prasad, 2012), Oma’s Applesauce
(Van Genderen, 2020), Grey Matter AR (Vanderborght, 2019) and
The OPERA Project (Bossio et al., 2019a, 2019b), we reflect on the
role of co-design in mobile screen production. Further to this, we also
discuss the impact of co-creation processes during the OPERA Project
(Schleser & Bossio, 2019) on digital and online representation of vulner-
able communities. The project used in-depth co-creation relationships
between researchers, video producers and participants over a long period
of time and we argue that engaging this methodology shifted the conver-
sation from a horizontal to a vertical plane of co-producers and creators.
This allows a conceptual shift to take place (Schleser & Berry, 2018,
p. 2), which results in stories that are told from a community perspective,
rather than an author or auteur focusing on story elements and structures.
The personal stories empower older people to engage with new technolo-
gies by a mix of interest-based learning, co-design storytelling and online
sharing to make a positive contribution to representation of older people
in online and digital spaces. Furthermore, surveys conducted after the
project was completed showed that participants valued the intimate smart-
phone production framework and the extended co-design consultation
phase and community engagement activity, which resulted in partici-
pants’ reporting of increased confidence to use and engage with digital
technologies and modes of online representation.

Mobile Storytelling in an Age of Smartphones, 2021

Yarriambiack Shire is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the northwestern... more Yarriambiack Shire is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the northwestern part of the state, more than four hours' drive northwest from the capital city of Melbourne. It covers an area of 7158 square kilometres and, at the 2016 Census, had a population of 6674 people. Yarriambiack Shire includes a number of towns-five of which are included in these mobile-mentaries, that is, the towns of Hopetoun, Murtoa, Rupanyup, Beulah and Minyip. The populations vary for the townships, the largest is Murtoa (865 people), and Beulah has the smallest population (429 people) (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2017). The area is known for being the heartland of grain production
in the Wimmera and Mallee region with agriculture being the region’s
main industry. Many people living in the area have a shared history, as
some families have lived in the township for generations. This connection
between the land and the people that live there, and their sense of pride
in their shared history, are embodied in the digital stories. We encounter
examples of this shared history in images and conversation about, for
example, personal experiences of working in a grain “stick shed” over
fifty years ago; local community members telling stories of the history
of the founding of the township and key community members depicted
in a town mural; community members developing a lake for recreational
activities; donations to a collection of farming equipment for display in a
farming museum and an archive of horse-related memorabilia. In all the
digital stories, the storytellers fondly recount past memories, the signifi-
cance of artefacts and key community members who contributed to the
shared sense of history.
These digital stories were funded by the Yarriambiack Shire council
for the purposes of promoting local, rural and unique places and spaces
of interest with the aim of increasing recognition of local attractions and
encouraging visitors to the area.

Routledge Companion of Mobile Media Art, 2020

While the idea of VR is not new and has been surfacing since the 1990s, accessible omnidirectiona... more While the idea of VR is not new and has been surfacing since the 1990s, accessible omnidirectional video cameras that integrate with standard video production workflows launched in 2016.
One of the new VR enterprises is Humaneyes, who believes that virtual reality will “become a major communication platform in a ‘VR echo system.’”1 Beyond online viewing experiences, film festivals, independent exhibition, and art spaces are adjusting to the 360° and cinematic VR
domain. VR can be created in entirely digital environments ranging from computer- generated imagery (CGI) in animations to games to Mobile Cinematic VR, where the focus is on live action and 360° videos. As there are a number of different interpretations and understandings of what
Virtual Reality (VR) is, this chapter will define cinematic VR as a VR/360° video camera that can be operated or synced via mobile apps or are add-on cameras onto the smartphone itself. This chapter looks at small-scale VR cameras2 that can be compared to mobile, smartphone, and pocket
filmmaking’s mobility and accessibility. By embracing these qualities and mobile specific media practices over technical video standards and camera resolution choices, MCVR reveals one of the possible creative futures of smartphone filmmaking. The innovative element is twofold: it includes the participatory element of mobile media art and gives independent filmmakers and anyone with a smartphone3 and a 360° video camera the opportunity to create stories and experiences. Furthermore,
this chapter links early mobile media art aesthetics4 to the realm of MCVR and mobile media art more generally.
This chapter explores Mobile Cinematic VR (MCVR) in the context of mobile art and examines the directions that this dynamic field is taking. In an MCVR environment, viewers are performing the mobile. Mobile Cinematic VR—MCVR creates synergies between the aesthetics of mobile media art and MCVR. In 2018, the SF3 Smartphone Flicks Fest6 in Sydney and the 8th International Mobile Innovation Screening7 in Melbourne introduced mobile cinematic VR categories and showcases to their
festivals. SF3 finalists Vega Island8 and [Mynd] Journey9 premiered at the Sydney Opera House. At MINA Before I Sleep,10 PND,11 A Little Negor Boy’s Prayer,12 and Interwoven: Veganism, Ethics, Economics were featured as part of the longest running mobile and smartphone film festival with a focus on mobile (moving-image) art internationally. This chapter discusses MCVR projects in the context of mobile media art and explores the relationship between mobile, pocket, and smartphone filmmaking’s specific qualities and MCVR’s emerging characteristics. Mobile Cinematic VR—MCVR outlines intimacy, presence, and imaginative encounters as key considerations and characteristics for MCVR.
A proliferation of scholarship re-engaged with this new cinematic form and format—including Rose (2018),14 Nash (2018),15 McRoberts (2017),16 and Ross (2018)17 among others.18 In addition, there are a number of industry-led investigations such as Storyliving by Google News Lab or Max Schleser research labs engaging in this domain such as Columbia Journalism Review, MIT Open Doc Labs Virtually There conference, or Virtual Realities Immersive Documentary Encounters research project. While all of these initiatives bring very relevant work to this emerging field, one gap appears in the form of MCVR. Furthermore, the context of creative arts and mobile media arts is not well represented. Bucher’s Storytelling for Virtual Reality (2017) only very briefly references
“Experimental Art Installations” as a storytelling principle for Immersive Space, and Virtual Reality Filmmaking (2016)25 provides a summary of the alternative approaches to VR through immersive theater, dance, or sculpture. This chapter will explore Cinematic VR in the context of mobile
art, with a particular focus on experimental mobile, pocket, and smartphone filmmaking as well as mobile moving-image arts.

Mobile Media Making in an Age of Smartphones, 2014

This chapter elaborates on the creative dimensions of mobile media practices point at prospects t... more This chapter elaborates on the creative dimensions
of mobile media practices point at prospects to further
expand the field of creative arts and design. It contributes
to existing debates around co-presence in networked media
and the impact of smartphones on our understandings
and interactions with space and place; emergent socialities
associated with social media to contextualize the notion of
‘sharing’ and how this concept is replacing ‘community’; the
aesthetics of mobile media; and how storytelling shapes and is
shaped by mobile media.

This collection of essays by Australian based practitioner–theorists brings together new research... more This collection of essays by Australian based practitioner–theorists brings together new research on interactive documentary making. The chapters explore how documentary theory and practice is influenced by digitisation, mobile phones, and new internet platforms. The contributors highlight the questions raised for documentary makers and scholars as new production methods, narrative forms, and participation practices emerge. The book presents an introduction to documentary techniques shaped by new digital technologies, and will appeal to documentary scholars, students, and film-makers alike.

With the rise of smartphones and the proliferation of applications ("apps"), the ways everyday me... more With the rise of smartphones and the proliferation of applications ("apps"), the ways everyday media users and creative professionals represent, experience, and share the everyday is changing. With the overlay of location-based services, these experiences and representations are providing new social, creative, and emotional cartographies. This collection discusses the prospects of the proliferation of mobile and digital filmmaking opportunities, from videographic citizen journalism to networked, transmedia collaborative filmmaking and photography, and the embedding of filmmaking and photography in social media practice. The contributors reflect on emergent creative practices as well as digital ethnographies of new visualities and socialities associated with smartphone cameras in everyday life.

Expanding Documentary: XIIIth Biennial Conference, Ng ā Wai o Horotiu Marae, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, 7- 9 December 2011 / Geraldene Peters (ed.), pp. 172-180, 2011

Mobile filmmaking entered the mediascape from 2004 onwards and not only introduced a new aestheti... more Mobile filmmaking entered the mediascape from 2004 onwards and not only introduced a new aesthetic but also established prospects for cultural innovation. The paper will point a t the development in mobile video towards the sociability (de Souza e Silva 2006) and ‘connectivity’ of mobile filmmaking. The transformation of audience in creating these new documentary practices as an alternative cultural practice (Schleser 2009) is an indicator for not only a transforming art and design environment but also the emergence of a new understanding of creative processes. I I n the recent study Documentary and New Digital Platforms – an ecosystem in transition , one of the key elements outlined in the report by the Documentary Network is the dynamic new relationship with audiences. The current work - in - progress 24 Frames 24 Hours investigates the new forms of “cultural mediation” (Houle 2011). 24 Frames 24 Hours is an international collaborative mobile documentary capturing the life in 24 hours in 24 different cities. The project kick started with an internat ional collaborative mobile film making workshop in Paderborn (Germany) and Wellington (New Zealand) and one in New York City (USA). The proje ct examines collaborative practices and applies Cinéma vérité and Kino - Pravda practices in the digital realm. The study draws upon new paradigms of participation and simultaneously analyses creative processes. Besides the aesthetic refinement, the research project functions as a prototype for community involvement through creative practices. The paper will review contemporary crowd - sourcing film projects and will analyse the emerging distinction between collaborative and co - creative practices. Moreover t he paper points at the industry pr ecedents and will argue that process driven and participatory approaches require new frameworks to evaluate these media text. The paper will relate these developments to the bigger picture of innovation through a user - base d interpretation of technology (Edgerton 2007) and will examine collaboration as a creative process (G auntlett 2011 ).