The Accident (Provocations Session 4 Friday 7 September)
RIS ID
77367
Link to publisher version (URL)
Abstract
In a culture that likes to document and celebrate its successes, accidents are out of place. Yet no matter how big or how small, the accident has the potential to disrupt any event. Whether we believe the accident to be an essential part of an event or not, it is often in the accidental encounter, or the contingent, non-essential aspect of bodies and their relationships that we find materials for documentary engagement. The unintended slip, the malfunctioning machine, the plane or car crash, and the aftermath, all offer something about experience and our relationships with each other. What is accidental about documentary? How should the accident be documented? In what ways is the accident productive of new aesthetics and new ways of thinking? Weaving together three very different understandings of the accident, this session will examine productive, critical, and painful encounters with the glitch, gaps in transmission, and the blank page.
Publication Details
Ballard, S. "The Accident (Provocations Session 4 Friday 7 September)." Expanded Documentary Seminar @ ISTR. Wollongong: University of Wollongong, 2012.