Making Space for Cultural Infrastructure: The Breakdown and Maintenance Work of Independent Movie Theaters During Crisis

Title of the Paper

Making Space for Cultural Infrastructure: The Breakdown and Maintenance Work of Independent Movie Theaters During Crisis

Bibliographic Information

• Subject Area: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Cultural Infrastructure, Social Space and Collaboration
• Keywords: Cultural Infrastructure, Independent Movie Theaters, COVID-19, Sociotechnical Practices, Sense of Place, Community Engagement, Human-Computer Interaction

Research Background and Problem

• Issues and Challenges:

  • The COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of independent movie theaters (IMTs) across the United States, causing significant disruptions to cultural infrastructure, including the breakdown of art dissemination and community interaction.
  • The collapse of cultural infrastructure complicated the associated maintenance work, necessitating exploration of how to repair and rebuild these systems.
  • A pressing issue during the pandemic was how IMTs could fulfill their role in cultural dissemination while maintaining their business operations.

• Significance:

  • Cultural infrastructure (e.g., independent movie theaters) serves not only as physical spaces for sharing art and culture but also plays a crucial role in fostering social interaction within communities.
  • Understanding the impact of the pandemic on cultural infrastructure can help us prepare for future crises and design more suitable technological support systems.

• Research Motivation:

  • Existing HCI research on infrastructure primarily focuses on healthcare, education, and technology, with little attention paid to cultural spaces, which are vital infrastructures closely tied to local communities.

Solutions

• Proposed Methods or Solutions:
  This study investigates three sociotechnical practices adopted by IMTs to maintain cultural infrastructure through surveys and interviews:

  1. Collaborating with community partners and external stakeholders to seek resource support.
  2. Using online virtual cinema platforms to screen films, aiming to maintain continuity in art dissemination.
  3. Retaining community member engagement through social media platforms to enable online interaction.

• Innovations:

  • Conceptualizing cultural infrastructure as a sociotechnical system, focusing on both its material properties (e.g., the physical space of theaters) and its symbolic significance (e.g., a sense of place for community cultural gathering).
  • Highlighting often-overlooked but critical "invisible labor" in maintenance work and exploring the potential for redefining culture and community during the pandemic.

• Implementation Steps and Key Technologies:

  1. Outdoor Screenings: Shifting screenings to other community spaces (e.g., donated parking lots or university sports fields) and overcoming resource and organizational challenges through coordination with multiple stakeholders.
  2. Virtual Cinemas: Leveraging online platforms developed by independent film distributors, which allow theaters to offer on-demand video services via their websites. However, issues with technical support and platform consistency remain unresolved.
  3. Social Media Interaction: Maintaining connections with audiences and theaters through online promotion and discussions, though challenges include content scarcity, low engagement efficiency, and replicating the atmosphere of community spaces.

Research Findings

• Specific Findings:

  • Identified key sociotechnical maintenance practices of IMTs: outdoor event coordination, online screenings, and social media interaction.
  • Revealed the strengths and weaknesses of technological solutions (e.g., virtual cinema platforms) and proposed recommendations for the future design and development of cultural spaces.

• Advantages and Comparisons:

  • Compared to abandoning cultural functions entirely, these practices preserved certain forms of cultural dissemination and community connection during the pandemic.
  • Emphasized the symbolic significance of locality and cultural spaces, which remains a core value that technological platforms struggle to replicate.

• Experimental and Evaluation Results:

  • The effectiveness of virtual cinemas was generally below expectations, with low audience engagement and success rates (30% of participants deemed them failures, 50% considered them of limited effectiveness).
  • Social media interactions achieved some success in maintaining relevance and engaging community members but faced challenges due to the competitive nature of online spaces.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations:
    1. In-person observations were not feasible during the pandemic, so the study relied primarily on interviews and surveys with theater staff.
    2. Limited discussion of regional differences, focusing solely on U.S. theaters.
  • Future Directions:
    1. Conduct more extensive surveys with community members to understand their needs and experiences with cultural infrastructure.
    2. Explore how to design more effective technological support systems that align with local cultural needs.
    3. Advance participatory design of cultural spaces to ensure fairness and representativeness in technological solutions.

Conclusion

This study, using the case of independent movie theaters, reveals the fundamental disruptions to cultural infrastructure during the pandemic and the maintenance and reconstruction efforts in response. The research highlights the changes in both the symbolic and material aspects of cultural infrastructure and underscores the limitations and potential of technological solutions in supporting these interactions. Additionally, the paper calls for the HCI field to focus on the future development of cultural infrastructure and how technological design can aid in its recovery and redefinition post-crisis.