OPEN SPACE Symposium:
Aesthetics/Politics/Activism/Art: What is Radical Now?

Venue: Bush House (rear of Arnolfini Gallery), 64 Prince Street, Bristol, BS1 4QD

Date: Friday 19th September 2014

The Centre for Moving Image Research, in association with the Bristol Radical Film Festival and Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival, invited all those with an interest in radicalism in the moving image to discuss, debate and explore exactly what that word has, does, could or should mean.

From newsreel, documentary and fiction film to artists’ film and video and gallery installation the word ‘radical’ has been used to describe a variety of practices that may be broadly grouped under the banner of the moving image. From its long association with the politics of the radical left and grass-roots activism to its more general usage to describe fundamental or profound departures from the norm (whatever that is), ‘radicalism’ is a word with a variety of competing and sometimes contradictory meanings.

This event was dedicated to exploring radicalism in the moving image using the Open Space Technology (OST) format (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Space_Technology). In contrast to the traditional mode of conference organisation, the OST format allowed participants to self-organise the event on the day: collectively forming the agenda, electing facilitator/s and deciding the nature and duration of each of the processes that comprise the symposium. A CMIR representative talked through the OST process at the start of the day and there was a loose schedule to fall back on, but the idea was to design the day together and encourage free-thinking within a safe, yet ‘live’, environment.

In addition to this free-form, ‘unconference’ approach, we enabled brief (under 10 minutes), presentations to stimulate and inform the discussions. 

This was part of a weekend of events exploring radicalism in the moving image during Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival. Saturday saw the Bristol leg of ‘Vienna-Bristol-Riga: a journey in radical filmmaking’: three sessions of short films curated respectively by Encounters and the Bristol Radical Film Festival, Vienna Independent Shorts, and 2Annas International Film Festival in Latvia; while Sunday hosted a variety of 8mm film workshops, screenings and live performances. All events on both days took place at the Cube Microplex.