[Commlist] Call for Papers - Images at Work: Labour and the Moving Image

German Screen Studies Network (GSSN) & King’s College London

CALL FOR PAPERS

*/Images at Work: Labour and the Moving Image/*

King’s College London
Thursday, 22 and Friday, 23 June 2023
Deadline for Proposals: *31 March 2023*

In the nearly 130 years since the Lumière brothers filmed their 
employees in /La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière à Lyon/ [/Workers Leaving the 
Factory/] (1895), artists and filmmakers have explored the capacities of 
the moving image to examine labour as a crucial facet of everyday life 
and modern society. The Lumières’ iconic /La Sortie /– shot multiple 
times over several days (including a Sunday) – is emblematic of film’s 
history in witnessing both the evolution of work and the challenges and 
complexities of capturing those social and political realities of labour 
often abstracted or concealed from vision (Brecht, 1932; Comolli, 1996). 
In more recent times, renewed interest in /La Sortie/, through its 
re-appropriation by artists such as Harun Farocki, Kevin Jerome Everson, 
Sharon Lockhart, and Andrew Norman Wilson has coincided with a growing 
exploration of the status of labour in film (Gorfinkel, 2012; Mazierska, 
2013; Pinkus and Rhodes, 2018; Skvirsky, 2020). Meanwhile, the 
discussion around work has evolved, incorporating new voices and other 
immaterial, affective, digital and globalised forms of labour affected 
by changing economic models, technologies, media and means of production.

The /Images at Work/ conference takes its inspiration from this juncture 
of old and new. It builds on the long-established political history and 
theory around labour – especially that associated with German critical 
thought, such as the work of Karl Marx, Max Weber, Rosa Luxemburg, and 
the Frankfurt School – and seeks to reassess the subject of labour and 
the moving image from diverse contexts and perspectives, looking beyond 
the prevalence of the Global North and the white, male working class in 
these debates. This international event, incorporating film screenings 
and artists’ talks, aims to bring together practitioners and 
professionals with researchers working across film studies, cultural 
studies, media studies, critical race studies, history, sociology, 
economics, politics, philosophy, and anthropology. It intends to foster 
new, interdisciplinary conversations on labour and the moving image that 
address the breadth of representations of labour in non-narrative film – 
particularly in artists’ film practices, such as video installation, 
experimental film, essay film, and activist, or radical documentary 
practices – and the global histories and evolutions of labour practices, 
providing a long overdue reassessment of this perennial yet often 
overlooked subject.

We welcome all critical and creative approaches to examining 
representations of labour on screen and invite proposals for 20-minute 
presentations that span diverse historical and geographical contexts.

We would particularly encourage proposals on topics including, but not 
limited to:

  * Revisiting the /Workers Leaving the Factory /scene and other
    reflexive practices that explore the representation of labour
    through the moving image
  * The (In)visibility of labour and the political and ethical
    implications of representing workers, workspaces and/or the working
    class
  * Archive-based research and preservation work on labour in film
  * Reassessing German histories around labour in film and theory
    (especially through examinations of race, class, gender, sexuality,
    and other perspectives)
  * Marginalised, post-colonial histories of work
  * Experimental film/media around workers, strikes and labour
  * New concepts around labour in moving image practices (‘immaterial’,
    digital or virtual labour, affective, key, care and domestic
    workers, precarity etc.)
  * Film form and spectatorship as labour/work
  * Circulation, distribution, and exhibition of films on labour
  * Film and video activism around work conditions and strikes
*Submission Guidelines*

Abstracts of 250-300 words (including 3-5 bibliographical references), 
and a short biography of no more than 100 words should be sent to 
(imagesatworkconference /at/ gmail.com) by *31 March 2023.*

Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 01 May 2023.

*Note: *this is primarily an in-person event, if you are unable to 
attend in-person please state this clearly in your submission. A limited 
number of travel bursaries are available to support self-funded 
post-graduate students and precariously employed early career 
researchers. To apply, please confirm your eligibility at the bottom of 
your abstract, along with a brief summary explaining why you require the 
support.

/Organised by Laura Lux (KCL) and Georgina Le Breuilly (KCL), this 
conference is part of the German Screen Studies Network’s DAAD-funded 
Promoting German Studies Project, "German Screen Studies Network (GSSN): 
Media, Cultures, Histories” led by Dora Osborne and Paul Flaig (German 
and Film Studies, University of St Andrews) in partnership with the 
Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures (DLLC) at King’s 
College London./
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