The video essay as “liquid criticism”
- Submitting institution
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The University of Kent
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 20841
- Type
- Q - Digital or visual media
- Publisher
- -
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2021
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
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-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- Yes
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- A Machine for Viewing was designed to be composed from a unique hybrid of different media and exhibition platforms. Supplementing the Sundance 2020 version, the final output would have brought together a series of responses to the project’s underlying research question of how video essays adapt to different media platforms. Cancelled events: 1. One-on-one live performances for headset-based users, Sheffield DocFest 2020; 2. A stand-alone VR experience produced by Live Cinema UK and installed in lobbies of cinemas and arts centres across the UK, Autumn 2020; 3. A COVID-adapted streamed version commissioned by Melbourne Film Festival (deferred to January 2021).
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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2
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This submission comprises two outputs: a video entitled In Praise of Blur and an interactive VR experience entitled A Machine for Viewing. Together they address the following research question: in what ways can hybridisation with artistic forms including experimental film and immersive media extend the methodological and aesthetic scope of the academic video essay?
In Praise of Blur forms a part of my AHRC project, ‘The Audiovisual Essay: a digital methodology for film and media studies’ (2015-17, AH/M010392/1), which investigated the synergies between videographic criticism and experimental filmmaking. It did so by bringing together academics and artists through a symposium and workshop at the Whitechapel Gallery. The resulting collaborations generated eight video essays, including In Praise of Blur, that explored the theme of ‘indefinite vision’ by utilising the visual and sensory methodologies of experimental film.
In Praise of Blur’s use of experimental techniques to generate embodied knowledge is developed further in A Machine for Viewing, the main output of my AHRC follow-on project, ‘Cinema Unframed: exploring the screen in virtual reality’ (2017-19, AH/R004854/1). A Machine for Viewing incorporates outputs from the initial project into a real-time VR experience that enables haptic interaction with moving images. In Praise of Blur was developed and remediated into Episode 2: A Pillow of Light.
The project’s aesthetic insights are evidenced by the works themselves, and in particular through their hybridisation of forms (including video essay, experimental film, immersive nonfiction, and expanded cinema) and their fluid movement across platforms (including online video, cinema exhibition, headset-based installation, live performance, and streaming video). The aesthetic and critical potential of this versatile and liquid form of essay is recognised by the inclusion of A Machine for Viewing at Sundance Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -