Short Abstract

This experimental lab initiates collaborative and process-oriented exchange with (audio)visual researchers about moving images that create, disrupt, and reconfigure ‘affective publics’. By working hands-on with audiovisuals we explore how these media move us and how we can use them to move publics.

Long Abstract

This lab investigates how (audio)visual productions create, disrupt, and reconfigure ‘affective publics’. In today’s interconnected world, social and political groups, ethnic minorities, artists, and activists are increasingly using audiovisual production as interventions to produce affective communities, evoke emotions, foster solidarity and loyalty, and inspire people to take action.

Through critical engagement with ethnography, innovative methods, and experimental didactics, we explore ‘who moves with images?’, or who is ‘moved’ by images?’ in emotional, material, or political ways during times of social transformation. When (audio)visual productions (including AI-generated images) not only inform, but also move people, they touch, intervene and provoke on various affective levels, transcending public discourse.

This experimental lab facilitates collaborative, process-oriented exchanges with visual anthropologists and (audio)visual researchers regarding their multimodal research and teaching experiences and approaches. In the first part, participants are invited to present their (audio-)visual material, including film, photography, drawings, illustrations or graphic novels to archives, installations, and digital platforms (e.g. work-in-progress or final products) as well as the methodological challenges or innovative approaches they have encountered. In the second part, groups will work hands-on with this material addressing questions such as ‘How does it move?’, ‘How does it speak to each other’ and ‘What new representation or story lines does it lead to?’

We invite contributors to send a portfolio of up to 3-5 (audio)visual examples). Please send a description of your project along with their key questions, challenges, and contributions to the lab (max. 200 words), including a download link for the material.