Being a PhD candidate means access to some pretty cool events. Last week, I attended a critical feminist Arts/Research and Zine making workshop called Affect, Knowledge and Embodiment (AKE).
The focus of the workshop was to collaboratively experiment with sociological fiction, participatory visual methods and zine making as a way to further explore themes of affect, knowledge, and embodiment.
This AKE workshop is for established social researchers as well as postgraduate students who are interested in a practical introduction to arts/research methods.
In the workshop, we explored ways of practically extending critical and feminist social research– specifically through photos, writing and
The workshop had 3 talks (see abstracts below) – each followed by some activities and discussions: we did three generative writing activities after Ashleigh Watson’s sociological fiction. Then in pairs, we discussed/shared photos we had brought after Dr Laura Rodriguez Castro’s participatory visual methods session. The last session was Samantha Trayhurn’s zine history and culture presentation – and for the rest of the workshop, we worked on creating our own page to contribute to a collective workshop zine.
The idea for the zine was to produce
To produce the zine page, no perfection or prior artistic skill required, just a willingness to experiment, explore and express an idea – awesome!
It was great to see what people did for their individual pages – and then to see the final collated product was even more impressive. See link below.
Read the AKE Zine we made during the workshop here!
I had a great time at this workshop. It was great to meet new researchers from different fields and different universities. I only knew two other people when I first arrived, but make a point of chatting to those I didn’t know.
It was also great to have a mental and creative break from the usual solitary read-and-write research work that most of us do. And so awesome to collaboratively produce an official publication by the end of the session!
A massive big thank you to Ashleigh, Laura and Samatha for putting on such an interesting and productive session. And to all the participants who contributed ideas, energy, points for discussion and their pages to the zine – it was a delight to meet you all! Thanks!
This zine is a ‘curated sociology’ of photography, research writing and fiction interventions and was published with Frances St Press. AKE Zine is a collaboratively
Here is a copy of the first AKE Zine which was made on November 16, 2018, at Monash University (Melbourne). This particular volume drew on a different stimulus – it used Audre Lorde’s essay The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.
For more info about the AKE sessions, contact: ashleigh.watson@unsw.edu.au.
Affect, Knowledge and Embodiment Presentations
A Critical Feminist Arts/Research Workshop Series
‘Working within entanglement: Considering epistemologies in participatory visual research’ Dr Laura Rodriguez Castro
Participatory visual research centres epistemic questions about power, ethics and positionality. Drawing from my experiences collaboratively organising and curating two photographic exhibitions with Campesina women in rural Colombia in 2016, and with participatory visual projects embedded in decolonial feminist epistemologies, I explore the entanglement of emotions, bodies and worlds in academic, artistic, and community research and engagement. These entangled experiences reveal political and practical implications about negotiating power, spatiality and creativity. Thus, I also discuss the implications of considering epistemologies for doing and curating public and creative research.
‘Sociological Fiction’ – Dr Ashleigh Watson
Sociological fiction opens important avenues for creativity in analysis and engagement. In this talk I chart a background of social scientists who have written fiction, discuss So Fi Zine and The Sociological Review’s new fiction series, and outline some stylistic criteria for writing and evaluating sociological fiction. These criteria include characterisation, voice, poetics, aesthetics, and verisimilitude. Using these criteria I make practical and conceptual suggestions for aspiring sociological fiction writers.
‘Body/Text/Form: Analogue Zine Making’ – Sam Trayhurn
When French philosopher Helene Cixous declared that we ‘must write the body’ she called for a literary practice that transcended binary classification and spoke from within a spectrum of bodily forms. Here, I will discuss how my investigation into corporeal writing and corporeal philosophy led me to the practice of zine making as an extension of these ideas. In a fast moving digital age, analogue zine making encourages increased presence, and an increased connection between writing and the body, as the physical act of creation manifests itself as a unified object. I will discuss how analogue zine creation is rooted in a praxis of rebellion that questions and challenges political/social norms, and provides legitimate alternative modes of presentation for literary and academic purposes.
