In March I was invited to present a paper dedicated to the conditions of cultural workers from Ukraine, as part of a symposium in Berlin dedicated to working conditions generally through the full-scale invasion.
My final paper was entitled Precarious Acceleration: Cultural Work through the Full-Scale Invasion. As research, I interviewed several colleagues and heard their stories and challenges.
The final results showed a few familiar patterns: of dependency, of abuse and resistance against it, of depression and despair, and of co-operation and solidarity.
Thanks to the Centre Marc Bloc, KIU Competence Network of Viadrina University, and ZOIS in Berlin for the opportunity to be a part of things. The conference itself was full of information that painted a surprisingly normal picture of working trends in Ukraine, despite colleagues working in hugely adverse conditions and the threat from the East necessitating a lot of resource-allocation to defence.
Over
the past few weeks, I have presented a series of lectures
specifically targeted to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. These
lectures tackle subjects that, from my perspective, relate directly to
characteristics of the invasion - looking at how women have dealt
previously with war, how things have unfolded socially in a post World
War 2 context, and how violence and trauma function through the shared
cathartic experience.
These
lectures drew on key theorists of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s such as Laura
Mulvey, Linda Williams, Michel Foucault, Carol Clover, and Giorgio
Agamben. These theorists are key for understanding both screen
spectatorship and the ideologies surrounding it.
Hollywood
cinema - which is the field of reference for the lectures - is not the
only source at which we might conceive of these events. But it does
offer us some useful signposts for what is happening and what will
happen - in the sense that the contingencies of spectatorship act as a
mirror for the power dynamic of a broader society. Given the current
reliance on the screen as a communication tool through social media,
Hollywood history is also a useful portal to other times and places,
where we might reflect on our own times using a shared language of
filmmaking.
The
examples I chose over the lecture series are each drawn from post-war
contexts that had large effects on the cinema coming out of Hollywood:
Slasher films (Vietnam War and specifically the involvement of the US),
Weepies (World War 2), and Superhuman cinema (US Invasions of Iraq and
Afghanistan). These invite reflection on the contemporary context, and
especially, how the politics of the viewing experience influenced by
militarisation affect phenomena like contemporary trends in pornography
or online misogyny.
The
full lectures are available underneath, together with their
corresponding short promo clips. Each lecture lasts approximately 60
minutes, together with a 30-minute Q+A with the live audience.
During the lectures, I was proud to work together with my colleagues from Cultural Workers Studio,
who supported me through the process as well as offering me useful
feedback, particuarly my colleagues Hanna Liashenko and Anita Kopylenko.
As well, I would like to thank Public in Private for offering us their beautiful hidden performance studio in Flutgraben - the perfect location for such clandestine activities.
My experience of the social media platform Instagram over the last 2.5 years has not been filled with unequivocal joy. I understand that I should get with the times a little bit - "no-one reads long-form criticism anymore" "people communcate mostly with images and experience now", and so on, but I admit I was resistant for a long time. To me, there's nothing like - and will never be anything like - sitting down to read a piece of long-form criticism from someone who really cares about the subject enough to give it their full attention and reflection. Also, there's something self-aggrandising about the platform (and social media genreally) that doesn't fit with the intention of criticism: part of the act of criticism is staying invisible and putting the focus on the artist and their work, which doesn't sit well in the age of personal hyper-branding.
So in launching an Instagram page this week, my intentions are very much to fit my own sqaure peg into that round hole, without, I guess, over-reacting to the age of the influencer. My plan with it is to offer that most difficult of things, "access", as people have very legitimate reasons why they might sideline their critical reading: time and money pressures, lack of attention due to other demands, and simple discomfort at sitting down for an hour with ideas they fear they will not understand. I hope to be able to offer more byte-sized parts of discourse for those without the luxury to spend hours reading and dissecting a text (although in my opinion, it's time well-spent).
In conceiving this trio of lectures, I have been greatly influenced by
my colleagues at Cultural Workers Studio - both their support, which
motivates me - and the specific nature of their plight. While the 2022
Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine gets a lot of press, it can be a little
lacking in other types of attention. There have been a few dedicated
events and support for an exchange of ideas around those events in 2022,
but I observe a lack of reflection on a cultural level on what I view
as a seismic shift in philosophy represented by the last few years. Far
from being given adequate attention, these matters seem to have been put
into a category where they are viewed as uncomfortable or too
difficult.
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