Performing Documents Conference at Bristol University

Four members of the AVPhD Group (Heidi Hasbrouck, Amanda McDowell, Marianne Hougen Moraga and Didem Pekun) will be participating in the Performing Documents conference which will be held in Bristol University, 12-14 April 2013. The participation takes the form of a panel titled 'Performing the Self' and will be chaired by Dr. Tony Dowmunt. 

Performing Documents is a major collaborative research project which asks how we are dealing with the remains of Live Art today. Drawing on creative, curatorial and research strategies, this project stages a wide-reaching investigation into the problems and potential of performance and its documents. It will comprise a series of public events in 2012, culminating in a large-scale conference and exhibitionat Arnolfini in 2013.

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/research/performing-documents/

Picturing live war: frame, language, and technology by Sabine El Chamaa

The 8th of February 2013 meeting was a presentation by Sabine El Chamaa.

Abstract:

This practice-based PhD analyses 24/7 live war media coverage from the perspective of a citizen residing inside a city being bombed, by means of a film-based installation and a theoretical text. The argument of the text is that, intrinsic to the experience of contemporary wars waged by the US and its allies in the Middle East, there exists a space of co-liveness that remains absent from the scholarship that is critical of the rise of live war as ‘spectacle’. I have defined co-liveness, as the space inhabited by a citizen who is not involved in war in the function of a fighter, living the bombing of the city as both an embodied experience, as well as a mediatized live image. The research reveals the manner in which this embodied space, which is potentially political and ethical is made invisible by analyzing the rise of liveness (Telstar, 1961), and the politics of its framing where notions of peace and democracy are introduced as inextricably linked to the advancement of satellite technologies that enable the visibility of history in the ‘now’. Subsequent live war coverage (The first Gulf war in 1991 and the Iraq war in 2003 on CNN) equally formulate the confines of what can be considered “live” and “democratic” and thus “human” within a technological framework which consistently affirms the power of those who can bomb and film due to access to an aerial point of view/ of control. The practice component of the research is an installation where audio-visual, pictorial, and textual elements represent various “types” of frames that question the inherent limitations of any representation of war. In a playful and interactive space that refuses the notion of the “untouchable and museumized war images” no trajectory or map is provided. The public is asked to share their impressions in a round table discussion where co-presence lends to a renewed reading of the elements on display.

Mini Bio:

Sabine El Chamaa is a Lebanese Writer/Director, currently in her last year as an Audio-Visual Phd candidate. 

* The following meeting will take place on the 8th of March and Didem Pekun will be presenting her work. 

Women's madness, transgenerational haunting and performative practice

Amanda McDowell, Friday 11th January 2013: 


“When an unspeakable or uncertain history, both personal and collective, takes the form of a ghost it searches for bodies through which to speak” (Grace Cho, 2008: 25)

My work explores the relationship between transgenerational haunting and women's experience of the psychiatric institution, taking inspiration from Grace Cho's book 'Haunting the Korean Diaspora'.

My presentation starts with a clip from a documentary made with my mum in 2009 about her experiences of psychiatric treatment. This is followed by a few short clips of material shot in places which have significance in my own 'mad' narratives. Using Cho as a methodological guide, I am moving away from linear narrative and bringing personal and institutional archive together, searching for ways to express the affective relations between generations of women treated within the institution of Psychiatry.

Suggested reading:

Cho, G. & Hosu, K (2005) Dreaming in Tongues Qualitative Inquiry, Vol. 11 No. 3 pp. 445-457

** The next meeting will be on the 8th of February and Sabine El Chamaa will be presenting her work. 

CONFERENCE PAPERS DL 1st Feb

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

¡Documentary Now! Dates: Wednesday-Thursday 19-20 June 2013

Conference Location: UCL, Central London

¡Documentary Now! is back and is continuing its collaboration with Open City Docs Fest. The theme for this year’s conference is “Malleability”: Whether digital, animated, acted or re-enacted, fragmented, uploaded, mashed up, rubbed-up against fiction, or otherwise manipulated, documentary is undergoing momentous changes: some deepen or emphasize already developed techniques or approaches, and others fundamentally challenge them. Documentary has morphed into the galleries and online, has fragmented non-linearly, and been tampered with interactively. This year’s conference especially invites papers and presentations that consider ways in which the documentary form is being continuously recast. As always, all good proposals on any topic related to the documentary, broadly conceived, will be considered. 

If you would like to give a 20 minute paper/presentation at the conference OR send proposals for themed panels of 3-4 people, please send proposals (including 250-300 word abstracts of papers) to: docnowconference@gmail.com

The deadline for proposals is Friday, 1 February 2013

There is no fee for attendance but registration is required.

¡Documentary Now! has been bringing together scholars, filmmakers, students, and interested members of the public since 2007 to discuss current trends in documentary film, from the return of documentary as a theatrical box office phenomenon, to broadcast television, the web, and beyond. It explores questions of industry, audience, aesthetics, political engagement, documentary and the mainstream media, and much more. What’s new in documentary? Where is documentary headed? This year’s conference organiser is Alisa Lebow of Brunel University. 

¡Documentary Now! is made possible with support of Brunel University, UCL, Open City Docs Fest & Lincoln University.

The American Waitress: (Re)producing the Icon - A performative presentation by Heidi Hasbrouck

“Can I getcha some coffee with that?”

Placing myself as the central figure in my fieldwork, I set out to address the political economy of the iconography of the American Diner waitress and how it produces and reproduces her affective, precarious labour.  Through a combination of performance, lecture and documentary footage I will relate, play, recreate, critique and affect my audience/customers' understanding of the icon and our labour.  I aim to reveal the feedback loop that exists between the iconography and narrative associated with the affective labour of waitressing and how that then feeds back into waitress' identity formation. Through integrating performance and documentary filmmaking into my research I attempt to affect the narrative of the icon with new sticky ideas, reveal it's power and find ways of re-appropriating its power back into the hands of the workers from which it demands.

Heidi Hasbrouck - BIO

Along with currently being a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths Centre for Cultural Studies, Heidi Hasbrouck is a practicing filmmaker, performer and lecturer in London.  Heidi moved to London after years of precarious work in the restaurant industry in the US to pursue an MA in Screen Documentary at Goldsmiths and somehow never left.  Her research primarily pulls from a feminist Marxist tradition particularly American, British and Italian feminist critiques of work, feminine labour, precarious labour, and affective labour.  Her research interests also include her background in media including identity politics, media representations and nostalgia in American culture.

The next meeting is scheduled to the 11th January 2013 when Amanda McDowell will be presenting.    

http://soundcloud.com/audiovisualphd/tas008-0508

Sudo Document

A Lecture series curated by Modern Language experiment. Sat 8th & Sun 9th Dec 2012 At Angus-Hughes Gallery!

SUNDAY 9TH DECEMBER 1 - 2.30PM
COLIN PERRY
Is a freelance art writer based in London, UK. Colin writes reviews and profiles for Art Monthly, Frieze, ArtReview, Art in America, Modern Painters, Catalogue magazine, MAP, and catalogue texts. Currently he is working part-time as an editor at Phaidon and has presented talks with artists and academics, organised film screenings, and collaborated with artists on texts and performances. For his lecture Colin will be discussing: 

Into the mainstream: Experimental film and video on TV

SUNDAY 9TH DECEMBER 3 - 4.30PM
JON CAIRNS
Is Co-ordinator of Critical Studies for BA Fine Art at Central St. Martins. Jon's work in the last few years has engaged with queer historiography and the ambivalence of interpretation, hinging on the mobile relationships between photography and performance, and between ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’. For his lecture Jon will be discussing:

Feeling Your Way: art, affect and value in times of recession

check for more details:
http://www.angus-hughes.com/Sudo-Document

MIRAJ Call for Papers DL Jan 13th

For issue 2.2, The Moving Image Review & Art Journal (MIRAJ) features section will include themed articles on 'Illusion'.

They welcome submissions that address the broad resonances of this theme in artists' moving image, including but not limited to: the politics of anti-illusionism, its history, and its contemporary repercussions; ideology as illusion; magic and the moving image; special effects; illusionism and virtuality; computer-generated imagery; the relevance of historical and contemporary theoretical conceptions of illusion to experimental practices; the unreliability of vision.
 
All submissions should be in English and adhere to the Intellect Style Guide (http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/page/index,name=journalstyleguide/).
 
Please submit completed manuscripts only. Send all contributions and proposals by e-mail in DOC or RTF format to the Editorial Assistant: miraj@arts.ac.uk

Check http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=207/view,page=2/

for outlines of what they are looking for.