Our Conference Call for VRN 2019 is Now closed. Thank you.
The two-day conference will consist of a series of panels that discuss the experience of the workshop but also analyze, from a theoretical perspective, how ways of seeing, representing and reshaping “the real” are conceived by different researchers. This conference will be open to the wider public and it will count with the keynote speech of the filmmaker and anthropologist Catarina Alves Costa. Abstracts for papers, films and visual proposals are welcome on the following themes:
Pushing the boundaries of aesthetics and the human in visual representation
Representations of lived experience may be meticulous and articulated as in Lévi-Strauss writings and Hitchcock's films, or expressed as excessive, ambiguous, marginalized, and repressed as evident in Roeg's films and Lotman's semiotics. The unique ways in which everyday life is audio-visually represented highlights the multiple realities and subjectivities that characterise our world. To understand the nuances of human experience, Deleuze and Guattari (1986) called for the production of “assemblages of collective enunciation” whereby participatory engagement with people and places operates as a hosting device for a multiplicity of subaltern beings and stories. This implies “taking seriously” the experiences of others (Viveiros de Castro, 2010) and realizing that representation is dynamic and political and thus, it creates new conditions of possibility and room for alter-ontologies (Ingawanij, 2013). Representations are not solely constructed through individual agency. Intersubjective relationships in collaborative practice, external entities in audio visual media, and the wider environment also shape the way that the world is perceived, represented, and lived in (see Harman, 2011; Sparrow, 2014; Torren 2014).
This conference aims at exploring these ideas, and welcomes papers that critically engage with how audio-visual media can be used to express everyday lived experiences, and how processes of creative representation are influenced by socio-spatial interactions (Askins & Pain, 2011). It further question how power hierarchies are maintained and negotiated through these interactive processes, and the ways in which dynamic representations empower or marginalize diverse people, objects, and places.
Our proposed format of a residency / conference creates a perfect environment to test and explore various approaches to both theory and practice – through a cycle of action and reflection – in a collaborative and mutually supportive practice – allowing practice and theory to shape and influence each other – while constituting a collaborative and shared training experience.
We invite paper and audio-visual contributions, which address these concerns. Papers might consider, but are not limited to, the following:
- Individual expressions of perception, emotion, and identity
- Cultural representations, memories, imaginings, and visions
- Sociospatial encounters and understandings between different people and places
- The politics and ethics of representation in visual research
- The dynamic power relations at play in the construction and dissemination of images
The conference will be held at the University of Manchester and is open to any other UK or international researchers, or students that undertake audio-visual research as part of their PhD.
Pushing the boundaries of aesthetics and the human in visual representation
Representations of lived experience may be meticulous and articulated as in Lévi-Strauss writings and Hitchcock's films, or expressed as excessive, ambiguous, marginalized, and repressed as evident in Roeg's films and Lotman's semiotics. The unique ways in which everyday life is audio-visually represented highlights the multiple realities and subjectivities that characterise our world. To understand the nuances of human experience, Deleuze and Guattari (1986) called for the production of “assemblages of collective enunciation” whereby participatory engagement with people and places operates as a hosting device for a multiplicity of subaltern beings and stories. This implies “taking seriously” the experiences of others (Viveiros de Castro, 2010) and realizing that representation is dynamic and political and thus, it creates new conditions of possibility and room for alter-ontologies (Ingawanij, 2013). Representations are not solely constructed through individual agency. Intersubjective relationships in collaborative practice, external entities in audio visual media, and the wider environment also shape the way that the world is perceived, represented, and lived in (see Harman, 2011; Sparrow, 2014; Torren 2014).
This conference aims at exploring these ideas, and welcomes papers that critically engage with how audio-visual media can be used to express everyday lived experiences, and how processes of creative representation are influenced by socio-spatial interactions (Askins & Pain, 2011). It further question how power hierarchies are maintained and negotiated through these interactive processes, and the ways in which dynamic representations empower or marginalize diverse people, objects, and places.
Our proposed format of a residency / conference creates a perfect environment to test and explore various approaches to both theory and practice – through a cycle of action and reflection – in a collaborative and mutually supportive practice – allowing practice and theory to shape and influence each other – while constituting a collaborative and shared training experience.
We invite paper and audio-visual contributions, which address these concerns. Papers might consider, but are not limited to, the following:
- Individual expressions of perception, emotion, and identity
- Cultural representations, memories, imaginings, and visions
- Sociospatial encounters and understandings between different people and places
- The politics and ethics of representation in visual research
- The dynamic power relations at play in the construction and dissemination of images
The conference will be held at the University of Manchester and is open to any other UK or international researchers, or students that undertake audio-visual research as part of their PhD.