Visual Methods: Film and Photography as/in Research

Thursday 23 & Friday 24 March 2023

This event features a series of presentations, roundtables and workshop on visual research
methods and their application, opportunities and challenges in Arts and Humanities. It has been curated and organised by Dr Estrella Sendra, Lecturer in Culture Media and Creative Industries Education (Festivals and Events), from the Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s College London, and supported by the London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP).

It brings together practitioners, artistic researchers and innovative educators in order to share and exchange practices. It aims to inspire innovative research design, making it more inclusive and accessible. It seeks to offer tools and guidance to postgraduate researchers and early career researchers to conduct research in Arts and Humanities, enhancing the audiviosual opportunities of photography and video.

It thus invites researchers to challenge and contest the privileged position of the written ‘text’,
when this is just understood as the written word. Ultimately, it encourages more self-reflexivity,
by embracing positionality and emphasising effect. It thus has a decolonising potential, offering
diverse and inclusive ways of producing, disseminating and accessing research.

This event is open to all postgraduate researchers, particularly LAHP PhD candidates, as well as early career researchers from partner institutions affiliated to King’s College London, SOAS, University of London, and Learning on Screen. However, due to the venue capacity and the interactive dimension of the sessions, places are limited to 45 participants, so registration is needed through the Eventbrite pages for each of the events. Participants are welcome to register in as many events as desired, as long as there’s space for it.

It will be held in person in the REACH space (Research and Engagement in the Arts, Culture and Humanities) at King’s College London on 23 and 24 March 2023.

The events will be recorded, allowing participants outside of London or unable to attend, to benefit from the initiative once it has already taken place. They will be uploaded to the CMCI Research Blog and CMCI YouTube Channel.

Registration: Eventbrite page here.

The two-day programme includes:

Thursday 23 March

10.00 – 10.10 am Welcoming Words by Dr Estrella Sendra

10.15 – 11.15 am Film in/as Research: a presentation by Dr Estrella Sendra (King’s College London) and Lily Ford (Birkbeck, University of London)

In this introductory presentation, Dr Estrella Sendra will offer an overview of the series. This will be followed by a dialogue with filmmaker and historian Dr Lily Ford. They will both share insights on the way in which film can enhance and be understood as research, illustrated with examples from their own practice.

11.15 – 11.30 am Tea break

11.30 am – 12.30 pm Photography in/as Research: a presentation by Dr Meghan Peterson (King’s College London)

This presentation will offer an overview of diverse ways in which photography can serve as a creative and inclusive research tool, based on projects that are still ongoing. It will identify different photographic techniques and uses, and address the opportunities and ethical considerations to take into account when photographing in research.

12.30 – 1.00 pm LUNCH BREAK (provided for all participants)

1.00 – 3.00 pm Decolonising Research through Film: a multi-modal roundtable with the Screen Worlds collective (SOAS, University of London)

Artistic researchers and filmmakers Dr Nobunye Levin and Dr Michael W. Thomas, will discuss and share extracts from their research films as part of their work on the ERC-funded research project Screen Worlds: Decolonising Film and Screen Studies, led by Prof Lindiwe Dovey at SOAS, University of London. Dr Nobunye Levin will speak about, Reverie, a collaborative project, which lies at the nexus of the essay film and videographic criticism, made with South African filmmaker Palesa Shongwe. Reverie is a work in process assembled from “pieces” – film fragments, fragments of text and conversation, and out-takes – to reveal a feminist love praxis in the collaborative life of the two filmmakers and to consider reverie as a political concept for “emancipatory dreams” (Verges, 2021) and dreaming. Dr Michael W. Thomas will share extracts from his documentary film Cine-Addis, also approached collaboratively, with Ethiopian filmmaker Yidnekachew Shumete. This examines love in Ethiopian movies and Addis Ababa’s film and cinemagoing culture.

This event is open to all postgraduate researchers, particularly LAHP PhD candidates, as well as early career researchers from partner institutions affiliated to King’s College London, SOAS, University of London, and Learning on Screen. However, due to the venue capacity and the interactive dimension of the sessions, places are limited to 45 participants, so registration is needed through the Eventbrite pages for each of the events. Participants are welcome to register in as many events as desired, as long as there’s space for it.

Friday 24 March

10.30 – 11.30 am Copyright considerations, fair and creative (re)use: a workshop by Bartolomeo Meletti (Learning on Screen)

The workshop ‘Copyright considerations, fair and creative (re)use’ will explore how existing materials such as films and photographs can be reused creatively and lawfully for research purposes under UK copyright law, with a focus on copyright exceptions and other provisions that enable the use of protected materials without permission from the copyright owners.

11.30 – 12.30 pm Bring Your Own Lunch Break

12.30 – 1.30 pm Video-Essays: An overview of their production and dissemination: a workshop by Dr Estrella Sendra (King’s College London)

Informed by the Introductory Guide to Video Essays, Estrella Sendra will offer an overview of the process or producing and disseminating video essays. This seeks to be a starting point for researchers of all levels interested in videographic criticism and practice research.

1.30 – 2.00 pm Closing remarks by Dr Estrella Sendra (King’s College London)

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