Core Research Streams (2013 - 2017)
CMIR explored the histories, theories, aesthetics, cultures and politics of moving image production, interaction and reception.
Digital Cinematography: Technical, Physiological
The emerging parameters of the digital cinematographic, as opposed to the prior photo-chemical paradigm, represent a step-change in performance of delivery in both the capture and display of the moving image. With digital capture it is now possible to gather images at a million frames per second; the dynamic range of capture and display are now equal to the parameters of the eye brain pathway, and the capture of resolution has now increased beyond eye and brain but this research stream has at its heart the question: what is it that happens within the psyche when images are produced that affect human physiology? Importantly the question now arises what do these technical changes mean for the human condition?
Film and Television Studies
From analyses of industrial production to studies of radical film culture, artists’ film and video or British national cinema, scholars working in this research stream explore film and television from a variety of cultural, historical and theoretical perspectives. Since their inception film and television have occupied a central position in the cultural life of millions of people around the globe. As such, film and television have played a fundamental role in shaping the way in which we understand ourselves, each other and the world around us. The nature, significance and historical development of film and television as entertainment, art and information are therefore central to any appreciation of how the modern, mediated societies operate. Today, with digital technologies and the internet transforming the ways in which moving images are produced, shared and consumed, our relationship with film and television remains as complex as ever, profoundly shaping social, political and cultural life. Scholars in CMIR’s Film and Television Studies research stream thus explore film and television from a variety of cultural, historical and industrial perspectives. Our areas of expertise include: production studies; genre, performance, and stardom; radical film culture; world cinema; artists’ film and video; British film and television; historical and theoretical approaches to cinema; and representations of class, gender and race in film and television.
Moving Image: Art & Practice
A significant number of researchers and affiliates in CMIR are practitioner-artists, film-makers and cinematographers, engaged in a wide range of practice-as-research activities. The revolution, growth and development of digital media has brought about a convergence of previously distinct audio-visual media such as broadcast television, cinema, computer graphics and video. This technological and creative revolution, combined with the phenomenal transformation of the world-wide-web over the past decade has instigated a profound cultural shift and led to the creation and development of a vital and dynamic contemporary moving image culture that has finally been recognised by the art establishment. Practice-as-research is central to CMIR's philosophy and ethos. CMIR research engages, embraces and explores the implications of these cultural and technological changes and opportunities, developing new techniques, questioning the implications and potentials they provide and the new territories and thresholds they open up.
Hybrid Reality and Culture
The CMIR core research stream ‘Hybrid Reality and Culture’ addresses the following design and research grand challenge in the context of socio-technical environments like apps on mobile devices: how can the design process and design thinking advance or bridge our social/cultural capital? For example, this core research stream leads for UWE on work in the European research project Learning Layers (http://learning-layers.eu/) which is aimed at enhancing practices surrounding professional learning (e.g. Healthcare domain in North England) and linking this to theories on informal learning. Our approach shows how we employ empirical and design work and a Participatory Pattern Design method to move from (kernel) theories via Design Principles and prototypes to social machines articulating the notion of a Hybrid Social Learning Network or HSLN. We illustrate this approach with the example of tools, in particular through the development of the Confer app, the Hybrid Cinefest app and the Hybrid Zone of Possibility app. Click to see main page for Hybrid Reality and Culture
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Investigating canonical ideas
Previously the invention of film marked the beginning of moving image history; now that image capture is no longer photo-chemical but electronic, we look to Baird’s experiments with creating televisual images, Faraday’s experiments in electro-magnetism in the early 19th century and further still in the history of mathematics we discover that Al Kwirizami, the 9th Century Arabic mathematician invented the Al-gorithm - which powers today’s digital imaging revolution. Due to this understanding we aim to produce an investigation of canonical ideas with the intent of re-framing where we are now, to allow a different point of view to allow innovations in theorising the entire domain of moving image studies.
David Hall, sometimes called 'the Father of Experimental Moving Image', said of this appellation that in itself 'this is a fallacious term - images do not move, this is simply a time based medium'. See here for the other father of British Independent Video, John Hopkins
Below: Aperture by Lucietta WIlliams - captured on a 4k camera without a lens, using pinhole optics.
Digital Cinematography: Technical, Physiological
The emerging parameters of the digital cinematographic, as opposed to the prior photo-chemical paradigm, represent a step-change in performance of delivery in both the capture and display of the moving image. With digital capture it is now possible to gather images at a million frames per second; the dynamic range of capture and display are now equal to the parameters of the eye brain pathway, and the capture of resolution has now increased beyond eye and brain but this research stream has at its heart the question: what is it that happens within the psyche when images are produced that affect human physiology? Importantly the question now arises what do these technical changes mean for the human condition?
Film and Television Studies
From analyses of industrial production to studies of radical film culture, artists’ film and video or British national cinema, scholars working in this research stream explore film and television from a variety of cultural, historical and theoretical perspectives. Since their inception film and television have occupied a central position in the cultural life of millions of people around the globe. As such, film and television have played a fundamental role in shaping the way in which we understand ourselves, each other and the world around us. The nature, significance and historical development of film and television as entertainment, art and information are therefore central to any appreciation of how the modern, mediated societies operate. Today, with digital technologies and the internet transforming the ways in which moving images are produced, shared and consumed, our relationship with film and television remains as complex as ever, profoundly shaping social, political and cultural life. Scholars in CMIR’s Film and Television Studies research stream thus explore film and television from a variety of cultural, historical and industrial perspectives. Our areas of expertise include: production studies; genre, performance, and stardom; radical film culture; world cinema; artists’ film and video; British film and television; historical and theoretical approaches to cinema; and representations of class, gender and race in film and television.
Moving Image: Art & Practice
A significant number of researchers and affiliates in CMIR are practitioner-artists, film-makers and cinematographers, engaged in a wide range of practice-as-research activities. The revolution, growth and development of digital media has brought about a convergence of previously distinct audio-visual media such as broadcast television, cinema, computer graphics and video. This technological and creative revolution, combined with the phenomenal transformation of the world-wide-web over the past decade has instigated a profound cultural shift and led to the creation and development of a vital and dynamic contemporary moving image culture that has finally been recognised by the art establishment. Practice-as-research is central to CMIR's philosophy and ethos. CMIR research engages, embraces and explores the implications of these cultural and technological changes and opportunities, developing new techniques, questioning the implications and potentials they provide and the new territories and thresholds they open up.
Hybrid Reality and Culture
The CMIR core research stream ‘Hybrid Reality and Culture’ addresses the following design and research grand challenge in the context of socio-technical environments like apps on mobile devices: how can the design process and design thinking advance or bridge our social/cultural capital? For example, this core research stream leads for UWE on work in the European research project Learning Layers (http://learning-layers.eu/) which is aimed at enhancing practices surrounding professional learning (e.g. Healthcare domain in North England) and linking this to theories on informal learning. Our approach shows how we employ empirical and design work and a Participatory Pattern Design method to move from (kernel) theories via Design Principles and prototypes to social machines articulating the notion of a Hybrid Social Learning Network or HSLN. We illustrate this approach with the example of tools, in particular through the development of the Confer app, the Hybrid Cinefest app and the Hybrid Zone of Possibility app. Click to see main page for Hybrid Reality and Culture
-------------------------
Investigating canonical ideas
Previously the invention of film marked the beginning of moving image history; now that image capture is no longer photo-chemical but electronic, we look to Baird’s experiments with creating televisual images, Faraday’s experiments in electro-magnetism in the early 19th century and further still in the history of mathematics we discover that Al Kwirizami, the 9th Century Arabic mathematician invented the Al-gorithm - which powers today’s digital imaging revolution. Due to this understanding we aim to produce an investigation of canonical ideas with the intent of re-framing where we are now, to allow a different point of view to allow innovations in theorising the entire domain of moving image studies.
David Hall, sometimes called 'the Father of Experimental Moving Image', said of this appellation that in itself 'this is a fallacious term - images do not move, this is simply a time based medium'. See here for the other father of British Independent Video, John Hopkins
Below: Aperture by Lucietta WIlliams - captured on a 4k camera without a lens, using pinhole optics.