Call for Proposals: Art at the Frontier of Film Theory: the Work of Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen

Art at the Frontier of Film Theory: the Work of Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen.

A student-led symposium: Saturday 29 June 2019

Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image and the Essay Film Festival is inviting proposals from doctoral students for a one-day student-led symposium about the work of Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen. The symposium will be the culmination of a programme of events dedicated to Mulvey and Wollen, taking place at Birkbeck from 22 March to 24 May 2019.

The programme is in three parts: an exhibition entitled “Art at the Frontier of Film Theory” which, according to the curators, Oliver Fuke and Nick Helm-Grovas, “uses the gallery space to refract the work of Mulvey and Wollen through the prism of art”; a retrospective of Mulvey-Wollen’s collaborative films, including Riddles of the Sphinx, and Penthesilea: Queen of the Amazons; and a series of public talks and workshops on topics such as “Film as Theory” and “Feminist Film Curating”. Information about the exhibition, the film season, and the public talks, is available from the CHASE website and from the website of BIMI and the EFF.

The symposium will take place on Saturday 29 June 2019, in Birkbeck Cinema. This is more than a month after the end of the programme, and therefore the idea of the symposium is to provide a space for critical reflection and debate, with a certain detachment from the programme itself.

Proposals are now welcome from doctoral students wishing to engage with any aspect of this programme of events, or indeed with aspects of the work of Mulvey and Wollen which are not covered by the programme.

Students with interests in any of the following fields may wish to put forward proposals: critical theory, feminism, sexual politics, film theory, experimental film, art practice, history of art, curatorial studies (art or film), cultural history, and others.

In addition to conference papers, the symposium will be open to presentations that take the form of video essays, sound compositions, visual studies, and other creative interventions in the debate around the legacy and contemporary relevance of the Mulvey-Wollen corpus.

We would also like to hear from CHASE students interested in taking an active role in the organisation of the symposium, and/or in the realisation of the actual programme as it unfolds – whether that be assisting with the preparation of certain events, or reporting on them in the form of written blogs or other forms of critical reflection (photography, video, sound).

Deadline: 22nd May – Expressions of interest and conference proposals should be sent to the following address, marked “Mulvey Wollen Programme”: bimi@bbk.ac.uk

On behalf of Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image and the Essay Film Festival: Matthew Barrington, Leila Nassereldein, Michael Temple.

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BIMI/Vasari Digital Animation Series: Joey Holder and Candida Powell-Williams – Friday 2 February 2018 6.30pm

Vasari Digital Animation Series: Joey Holder and Candida Powell-Williams
Friday 2 February 6:30 – 9:00
In collaboration with the Vasari Research Centre for Art and Technology

Artists Joey Holder and Candida Powell-Williams both use animation to explore the relationship between digital and biological forms. Holder’s work considers the structures and hierarchies of the technological and natural worlds, and how these systems are constantly abstracted. Powell-Williams’ practice merges sculptural installations, performance and GIFs, using them to address the construction of identity through objects and memory.
Following screenings of work by both artists, Holder and Powell-Williams will discuss hybrids, molluscs, fantasy and the interplay between the digital and the corporeal in their work.

Joey Holder is a London based artist who received her BA from Kingston University (2001) and her MFA from Goldsmiths (2010). Her artistic practice and research spans video and multimedia installations both online and offline. Her work raises philosophical questions of our universe and things yet unknown, regarding the future of science, medicine, biology and human-machine interactions. Working with scientific and technical experts she makes immersive, multi-media installations that explore the limits of the human and how we experience non-human, natural and technological forms. Mixing elements of biology, nanotechnology and natural history against computer programme interfaces, screen savers and measuring devices, she suggests the impermanence and inter-changeability of these apparently contrasting and oppositional worlds: ‘everything is a mutant and a hybrid’. Connecting forms which have emerged through our human taste, culture and industrial processes she investigates complex systems that dissolve notions of the ‘natural’ and the ‘artificial’. GM products, virtual biology and aquatic creatures are incorporated into an extended web; challenging our perception of evolution, adaptation and change. By contrasting so-called ‘organic’ and ‘man-made’ substances and surfaces through a series of abstractions, she creates a world of manifold layers, none more unified or natural than the next. These hybridities may suggest a particular function or natural form but remain elusive through their odd displacement.

Recent

solo/duo exhibitions include ‘SELACHIMORPHA’, Photographers Gallery, London (2017), ‘Ophiux’, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge (2016), ‘TETRAGRAMMATON’, LD50, London (duo w/ John Russell) (2016), ‘Lament of Ur’, Karst, Plymouth (duo w/ Viktor Timofeev) (2015);

‘BioStat.’, Project Native Informant, London (2015) and ‘HYDROZOAN’, The Royal Standard, Liverpool (2014). Recent group exhibitions include ‘HYDROZOAN’ at the 7th Moscow International Biennale Of Contemporary Art, Russia (2017), ‘WALLPAPERS’ at New Forms

Festival, Canada (2017), ‘Designing Desire’ at FACT, Liverpool, UK (2017), ‘Alien Matter’, Transmediale, Berlin (2017), The Noise of Being, Sonic Acts, Amsterdam (2017), ‘Winter is Coming’, Georg Kargl, Vienna (2016), ‘The Uncanny Valley’, Wysing Arts Centre,

Cambridge (2015); BODY HOLES, New Scenario, online exhibition at the 9th Berlin Biennale, Berlin, Germany (2016), ‘Sunscreen’, online and at Venice Biennale (2015); ‘A Plague of Diagrams’, ICA, London, UK (2015), ‘#WEC- Whole Earth Catalyst’, The Composing

Rooms, Berlin, Germany (2015); ‘h y p e r s a l o n’, Art Basel Miami, USA (2014); ‘Vestige: The Future is Here’, Design Museum, London (2013) and ‘Multinatural Histories’, Harvard Museum of Natural History, Massachusetts, USA (2013).

http://www.joeyholder.com/index.php/2017/porphyrin/

Candida Powell-Williams lives and works in London. She graduated from the RCA, London in 2011. Selected exhibitions include: ‘Boredom and its Acid Touch’, Frieze Live (2017); ‘Tongue Town’, Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo; ‘Cache’, Art Night, London (2017); and ‘Coade’s Elixir’, Hayward Gallery, London (2014). In 2013 Powell-Williams was awarded the Sainsbury Scholarship at BSR, Rome. She is currently artist in residence the Warburg Institute London.

https://www.candidapowell-williams.com

Elizabeth Johnson is an Associate Research Fellow in the Vasari Centre for Art and Technology, Birkbeck

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Derek Jarman Lab – Essay Film Course: 10-13 November 2017

For all those interested in using film in their research, the Derek Jarman Lab offers a short course in essayistic filmmaking. The dates are 10th – 13th November.

Essay Film Course

An intensive 4-day course in all aspects of audiovisual production related to essayistic and research-led filmmaking. Students work in small groups and learn how to use widely available DSLR cameras and popular editing software to create professional looking and intellectually engaging videos. At the end of the course they complete a short training film. This gives them an opportunity to put their new skills to use immediately and experiment with the form of the essay film in a stimulating environment and with the support of the Lab’s team. Key elements of the course are:

  • introduction to film theory,
  • session on making an impact with research,
  • tips on production management,
  • hands-on skills in lighting set-ups,
  • recording sound,
  • using cameras (Canon and Panasonic DSLRs, Blackmagic Cinema Camera),
  • a supervised location shoot,
  • editing theory
  • editing on Adobe Premiere Pro.

Courses are designed to cater for a variety of levels of experience and to consider the different ways in which moving images can be used. An integral part of the training is discussing students’ research interests and how to make the best use of film in an academic context. We explore the conventions of documentary film making but also talk about its alternatives, such as the essay film. The focus of this course is on films which combine an artistic form with an argumentative structure. We also engage with the concepts of visual methods of disseminating and conducting research in the humanities and social sciences.

The sessions take place in our offices:

The Derek Jarman Lab
36 Gordon Square
London WC1H 0PD

The training begins at 10am on each day of the 4-day course, and we aim to finish around 6pm.

The cost of the course for Birkbeck students and staff is £300.

If you are interested in enrolling, please send an email to bartek@jarmanlab.org

More information about the lab can be found here: jarmanlab.org.

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2017-18 Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship: Deadline January 5, 2018

2017-18 Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship: Deadline January 5, 2018

Beginning Fall 2017, this fellowship is being administered and housed at the University of Oregon Libraries Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA).

2017-18 Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship

Deadline: 5pm, Friday, January 5, 2018

The Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Research Fellowship supports travel for the purpose of conducting research using the papers of feminist science fiction authors housed in the UO Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives. For more information on these collections, which includes the papers of Ursula K. Le Guin, visit:
http://researchguides.uoregon.edu/c.php?g=431653&p=2944560

Applications for short-term research fellowships will be accepted from undergraduates, master’s and doctoral students, postdoctoral scholars, and college and university faculty at every rank, as well as independent scholars working in feminist science fiction.

Up to $2,000 in fellowship support will be awarded for use within one year of award notification.

For complete information and application requirements, visit: https://library.uoregon.edu/special-collections/le-guin-fellowship

Submit applications to: Linda Long, Curator of Manuscripts, llong@uoregon.edu.

The Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship is sponsored by the University of Oregon Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives and the UO’s Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS).

Find more information about the Le Guin Fellowship on the UO SCUA website and/or contact Linda Long, Manuscripts Librarian.

 

Apply for the Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship

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Digital Aesthetics Reading Group – 27 October 2017 4-6pm

The first meeting of this year’s Digital Aesthetics Reading Group will take place on the 27th of October from 4pm to 6pm in the Vasari.

For this session we will explore the theme of “The Interface,” led by Dr. Scott Rodgers. Scott has chosen the following texts for us to read:

The chapter “The Unworkable Interface” from Alexander Galloway’s The Interface Effect:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a1kgf0l8me65i3s/Galloway%202012%20The%20Interface%20Effect%20Chapter%201.pdf?dl=0

 

And the chapter “Interface” from James Ash’s The Interface Envelope: Gaming, Technology, Power:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d0e5x9h0cisc1ij/Ash%202015%20The%20Interface%20Envelope%20Chapter%202.pdf?dl=0

The Architecture, Space and Society Centre lecture by Douglas Spencer is that evening at 6pm, so we will wrap up in time to attend.

All the best,

Joel

 

 

Dr. Joel McKim

Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies

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Academic Writing Sessions – Autumn Term 2017

Dear all,

You are invited to a new series of academic writing sessions, to be held twice weekly in the School of Arts. Inspired by/in unabashed mimicry of Alice Kelly’s academic writing group at Oxford, the sessions are designed to give researchers at all stages some time, space and peer support for focused work on extended writing projects.

 

 

 

 

 

The three-hour sessions will be held on Mondays and Thursdays from 10am to 1pm, starting on Monday 9th October. They will be structured as follows:

10.00-10.15: arrival, catching up and goal-sharing

10.15-11.30: first writing session

11.30-11.45: break

11.45-13.00: second writing session

There is a cap of 12 people per session due to the room size, so participants should sign up in advance. You don’t have to attend each session: if you think you would like to come at any point, email Sophie at sophie.jones@bbk.ac.uk to be added to the general mailing list. On Friday Sophie will send the email list a sign-up sheet for the next week’s sessions (first come, first served) and details of the room. If you would like to come to the first session next Monday 9th, please indicate that in your initial email.

Sophie is starting these sessions as a new postdoctoral researcher in the Department of English and Humanities and envisage that they will be particularly helpful for postdoctoral and PhD researchers, but they are very much open to all staff engaged in writing projects.

Note: The group isn’t designed as a space for sharing work, though it might well create opportunities for doing so.

Let Sophie know if you have any questions.

Dr Sophie A. Jones

ISSF Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow

Department of English and Humanities

Birkbeck, University of London

43 Gordon Square

London WC1H 0PD

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Birkbeck School of Arts Research Student Collective – 11 October 2017

Looking for a place to discuss your research?

Join our informal researchers’ forum, run by research students.

Meeting monthly, the Collective gives PGR students across the school a friendly space in which to practice, present, explore and question your work in progress.

 

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