Through Autumn of 2015, Digital Prisoners are working with OVADA and Museum of Oxford to collect selfie video portraits of people and places along Oxford’s rivers, streams and canal. These portraits will be added to a Cabinet of Luminosities as part of the museum’s 40th anniversary celebrations.

This project is inspired by Oxford photographer Henry Taunt. A Victorian pioneer of photography, Taunt’s work included the first pocket guide to the River Thames illustrated by photographs. He was also a magic lantern showman. In January 1892 he presented a children’s party at Oxford Town Hall, using this early projection device to take them with Alice Through the Looking Glass

Digital Prisoners create interactive spaces and projections. The Cabinet of Luminositiesis a contemporary twist on the magic lantern, providing visitors to Museum of Oxford a novel way to delve through the looking glass and explore the selfie video portraits that you create!

To take part in this project is easy! Find a place along one of Oxford’s many waterways that inspires or engages you, take a short (20s-60s) selfie video, and share it with us.

A few simple rules:
-Make sure you’re in shot for at least some of the video.
-Make sure we get to see something of where you are.
-Be creative, and have fun.
…and hopefully it doesn’t need saying, but be careful!

Once you have your video you can share it with us online throughYouTube, Twitter or Facebook, using the hashtag #MyRiverOxford. Or email: info@digitalprisoners.co.uk

For further information please visit the project website: www.myriver.video

Come along to the Old Museum to see the Cabinet of Luminosities in action! Free public sessions will be held on:

Thursday 10 December 2015, 5:45 – 6:30pm
Friday 11 December 2015, 6-7pm
Saturday 12 December 2015, 5:45 – 6:30pm

Please use the Museum entrance on the corner of St. Aldates and Blue Boar Street.

This project has been commissioned by Museum of Oxford and produced by OVADA.