Costelloe-KuehnMemo36

=Memo36: Letter of Introduction to Interviewees= See samples written by Mike (Fortun) on the templates page.

Dear Interviewee,

My name is Brandon Costelloe-Kuehn and I'm a PhD student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researching "experimental environmental media." I am writing to you to explore the possibility of learning more about your work at XXXXXXX in a formal interview or a more informal conversation. I learned about your work through conversations with XXX and XXX and would love to hear your thoughts on the potentials for using media technologies to build capacity in the areas of knowledge production and circulation; networking and collaborating; and innovating protest strategies and tactics.

I have been interested for some time in the possibilities of linking art and media production with environmental justice struggles and I am currently working on my dissertation which extends work that I have been doing with groups such as the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY and the Catapult Arts Caravan in Pipariya, India. I am particularly interested in you and your organization because of your expertise in XXXX and your experiences drawing together XXXXXXX for collaborative projects which I think are shining examples of effective, collective, political action. I am also interested in hearing your thoughts on the many different "outputs" of your projects - the media "objects" themselves, but also new knowledges, relationships, experts, subjectivities, and even forms of collectivity. I am committed to keeping ethnographic interviews and first-hand experience with collaborative projects at the core of my research methodology because I find that it is the best way to draw together detail, complexity, and subtlety. I often find that conversations with people with different kinds of expertise unsettle my own preconceptions and push me in new directions.

Interviewing you about your work, about the development and practices of organization, and your take on "experimental environmental media," broadly conceived, would be an enormous benefit to my project. In a formal interview, I would tape our conversation, transcribe and edit it, and send it back to you to make any clarifications, revisions, or edits as you see fit. I've also done interviews on an anonymous basis, following the same procedures but with the added stipulation that any material I use would not be attributable to you, or to org. If for any reason you do not want to be formally interviewed, you could still contribute greatly to my project of understanding the place of art and media in environmental movements by chatting with me on an informal basis in person, over the phone, or even through e-mail exchanges.

I have attached my CV, an overview of my dissertation research proposal and a list of preliminary research and interview questions. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have, tell you more about my interests, or provide you with any other information. You can respond via e-mail, or if you'd like to talk, you can reach me any time at (518) 727 - 1623. Thank you very much and I look forward to hearing from you.

Brandon Costelloe-Kuehn