Professional Practice: Images with words — Art Film Writing workshop

Film criticism and filmmaking have been folded into one another since the inception of cinema, the respective practices complementing, supporting, questioning and also opposing each other in modes that have been fundamental in defining both fields.
The relatively recent consolidation of cinema into the context of contemporary art has called for a need to find and invent appropriate conceptual tools in order to respond to artworks, installations and screenings that stand across film and art. This workshop is aimed both at those who are specifically devoted to envisaging moving-image based works as well as those interested in investigating specific areas of art writing. We will explore such topics as:
How to write about moving-image based works that stand in-between art and cinema? How to approach, react to and critically analyse films and videos through writing? How to attend to the material, temporal and discursive specificities of these works while taking into account the varied fields of expertise in potential readers? How to write about a medium that is embedded within its own coded language? How to consider a tradition that is unique while at the same time engaged in close dialogue with other artistic forms of experimentation? What are the traditions, canonical figures, and histories of writing surrounding the relation between film and art?
These topics will be deliberated and examined through a combination of readings, discussions, practical advice and writing exercises.
Led by Filipa Ramos and Ben Eastham.