Episode: touring exhibition and symposia

Episode is a touring exhibition, supported by a series of symposia, which represent the work undertaken in the AHRC Small Grant project, EPISODE: Experiencing the Pleasure and Persuasion of Lens Based Media.

This project considers the direct experiential affect of images framed by art and media; their power to convince us, to move us and to persuade us. The authors comparatively analyse experiential affects attributable to contemporary media artworks and media culture, with a view to understanding their contribution to a wider production of social and cultural fictions and their erstwhile mutation into, and reception as, social fact. Rather than identifying truth as being behind or beyond images, this research analyses the politics of belief in images.

The work is part of a long-term research collaboration organised by three Visual Arts academics: Jaspar Joseph-Lester, Amanda Beech (Wimbledon School of Art) and Matthew Poole (University of Essex).

The project has resulted in a touring exhibition of nine UK artists working with lens based media (TemporaryContemporary, London, January 2006 [Evidence A,C]; Leeds Metropolitan University Gallery, May 2006, [D,E] and ArtCenter South Florida, Miami, FL, USA, September 2006 [F,G]); a series of one day symposia (Leeds Metropolitan University and ArtCenter South Florida); an international conference panel and video screening (Episode, Ubiquitous Media Conference, Tokyo University, Japan [H]); and a publication of eight commissioned essays (Artwords Press)