1st International Visual Methods Conference

Last week, I attended the 3-day 1st International Visual Methods Conference at the University of Leeds. The conference brought together over 250 academics and professionals from social and visual research and practice fields, and involved over 150 presentations.

Some presentations covered visual methods as a means of collecting insight on the field, such as disposable cameras, mapping exercises, film diaries… These methods have very similar aims to the ‘Explorations’ cultural probes method that I have used in my fieldwork in Lebanon during the summer. Other methods looked at visual methods as a way to communicate information such as the use of visuals in education, guidelines for creating effective diagrams, online communication platforms… And finally, a group of presentations focused on analysing visual material and extracting valuable information from them through qualitative and/or quantitative methods. The paper I presented at the conference would fit within this category: The methodology behind Visual Politics, which started as my MA practical project and thesis at the London College of Communication in 2007, and was later published in 2009 in the project section of ////o/ as an ongoing analysis archive of Lebanese socio-political graphics. This is a podcast and slideshow of the presentation:

I found the conference useful because it helped draw the following conclusions on visual methods:

– Visual methods can be used in different stages of the research: To collect insight, analyse insight or communicate outcomes.

– A collaboration between researchers from both social and visual fields can help social researchers understand and use visuals more effectively, and visual researchers invest their skills in needed social applications, thus bridging the gap between these two disciplines. Sheila Pontis, a PhD candidate at the London College of Communication, writes about this gap in more depth here.

– The high attendance and high volume of papers at the conference suggests that the interest in visual methods is significantly large, and many key contributors to the field attended and presented, such as: Gillian Rose, Sarah Pink and Claudia Mitchell.

Chancing on ////o/

Although I categorised this post under My Triumphs, the credit should go to my dear friend, David Habchy who recommended ////o/ (www.111101.net) to me.

I believe many researchers who are pursuing their research abroad on the context of Lebanon, would probably agree that it is challenging to find references on Lebanon in universities abroad, and particularly in the West. In my case, I found a handful of sources on Lebanon at the University of the Arts London, only one of which was relevant to my research area. So for the past year, I ordered numerous books and DVDs from Amazon and relied on the favours of family and friends to supply me with the rest upon their visit to London.

So why is ////o/ a Triumph?

////o/ is a compilaton of artworks, writings and references on Lebanon, founded and developed by Naji Zahar since 11 November 2001 – thus the name 111101. Being an online resource, it is inherently accessible to everyone with an internet connection irrespective of location, and this is very useful for both the Lebanese diaspora and foreigners. The resource brings together the works of numerous artists such as Nada Sehnaoui, Nadim Karam and Ahsraf Osman, and writers like Fawwaz Traboulsi, Mai Ghoussoub and Leila Mroueh.

Writings section

The website is structured into 4 sections: ‘Artworks’, ‘Writings’, ‘Projects’ and ‘References’. These are divided into subsections some of which are insightful and enriching (Theses, Book Excerpts, Articles, Photography…) while others are unique and intriguing (Poems, Letters, Installations, Performances…).

Site map

A 5th section, ‘Facts’, is Naji Zahar’s personal contribution in developing databases, timelines and mappings to document, one; the events of the Lebanese Civil War, and two; worldwide conflicts from the year 0 A.D to present. Both are very remarkable achievements. The website also contains a number of unusual interactive animations to keep the visitors stimulated!

World conflicts timeline

The content of ////o/ that will be most valuable for my PhD research is Fawaz Traboulsi’s PhD thesis: Identités et solidarités croisées dans les conflits du Liban contemporain, Carole Dagher’s article: Le Liban à la Croisée du Repli et de l’Ouverture Inter-Communautaire, Jayce Salloum’s installation: Untitled, and many more. I will be posting detailed reviews of these works and their relationship to my PhD in the future.

To conclude, ////o/ is a distinct and unsurpassed platform for disseminating new contributions to knowledge, in both theory and practice, about the Lebanese context.