Workshop
Erik Viskil and Thijs Witty
In 2022, Erik Viskil, Thijs Witty and Julia Morandeira started the minor Creative Strategies for a Society in Change at Leiden University. They developed a programme consisting of two parts focusing on strategies and methods from artistic practices that can be applied in other contexts too. In one part of the minor, students reflect on the world; in the other, they take action in the world. On several moments exiting crossovers between reflection and activism happen. Reflection in the minor takes place through the essay film, a film form characterized by subjectivity and reflectivity. Students attend film lectures and screenings, study literature on the history and theory of the essay film, and practise in small groups, using a more analytical book on the essay film, in making such a film. My contribution to Fragments is about this: how do we guide our students in this process and how do we enable them to present their own essay film at the end?
Erik Viskil is professor of Research and Discourse in Artistic Practice and academic director of the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts at Leiden University. He combines this position with that of lector of Film at the University of the Arts The Hague and co-director of ReCNTR, a research centre focusing on multimodal and audiovisual research methods in social science, humanities and the arts.
Thijs Witty is assistant professor at Leiden University, where he works in the department of Film and Literary Studies and the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts. He is also a tutor in the arts education MA program at Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam.