Our 2017 series of digital-visual workshops offered an opportunity for staff and students to reconsider their research methods by experimenting with different visual methods, from photo-documentary, to multi-media collage, to digital story-telling. Led by scholars from across New Zealand and Australia (Sarina Pearson, Malini Sur, Ruth Gibbons) using innovative approaches in their own work, the workshops were an opportunity to think about alternative modes of expression and the ways they lead to different types of knowledge. The hands-on workshops allowed participants to both engage in new forms of practice and to have different kinds of conversations about the aesthetics of practice and ethnography. These discussions considered the strengths and limitations of different modes of digital visual storytelling. The series as a whole ended with the creation of a network of academics and students interested in exploring alternative ways of thinking about visual methods in their research spanning both sides of the Tasman.
Malini Sur screened her film, Life Cycle, as a part of her digital visual workshop. The film documents the lifeworlds and politics cyclists in Kolkata.