Foraging Media
A symposium, screening and workshop, 4- 5 November 2024
Foraging Media is a symposium, screening and workshop bringing together artists and researchers to discuss ecology, materialism and media. The event responds to an emergent field of artists’ practice and media theory: that is, practitioners working with finite or perceived to be ‘obsolete’ media that have to be ‘foraged’ and maintained within small-scale DIY, community-based cultures of repair and recycling. Foraging is associated with analogue photochemical 16mm film practices but also includes media practitioners working with DIY approaches to digital media such as open source coding and ‘green hacking’. Foraging and frugal media practices value slower, sustainable cultures based in community and environment in contrast to neo-liberal capitalist cultures of consumerism and built in obsolescence. These ecologically minded practices emphasise the specificity of the artwork’s location and encounters with audiences in smaller localities and communities as opposed to large-scale streaming platforms.
Keynote speakers are Dr Kim Knowles author of Experimental Film and Photochemical Practices, 2020, Dr Abelardo Gil-Fournier, co author with Jussi Parikka of Living Surfaces: Images, Plants and Environments of Media ( 2024) and artist and filmmaker Dr Karel Doing author of Ruins and Resilience: the Longevity of Experimental Film (2024). In addition to screening a selection of his 16mm films, Dr Karel Doing will lead a phytography workshop on Tuesday 5th November. Phytography is a technique that combines plant chemistry with photography: ‘human and non-human media collide and combine within phytographic practice, opening up a shared space between people and plants’. Foraging Media is supported by the NUI, NCAD Research and the Media Department, School of Fine Art, NCAD and convened by Sarah Durcan, Cliona Harmey, Chloe Brenan and Claire Nidecker.
All events are free, but booking is required via the Eventbrite links below.
Foraging Media Symposium
Schedule [booking required]
Monday 4 November
Harry Clarke Lecture Room, NCAD
Speaker bios and abstracts available here.
9.30
Arrival
9.45 – 10.00am
Welcome
Dr Sarah Durcan, NCAD, IRL
10– 10.45am
Keynote: The Sustainability Paradox: Is the Medium the Message?
Dr Kim Knowles, Aberystwyth University, UK
10.45-11am
Q&A
11-11.30am
Break
11.30-12pm
Solar and Saline: The Unfixed Image
Cliona Harmey, NCAD, IRL
12-12.30pm
Foraging as Decolonial Ecomedia: Small-file Media to Jumana Manna
Dr Radek Przedpelski, Trinity College Dublin, IRL
12.30-12.45pm
Q&A
12.45 -2.15pm
Lunch Break
2.15-3pm
Keynote: Imaging in times of an Ecological Aesthetics of Surfaces
Dr Abelardo Gil-Fournier ES
3-3.30pm
Break
3.30 – 4.30 pm
Roundtable Discussion
Chair: Dr Timothy Stott Trinity College Dublin, IRL
Discussants: Dr Kim Knowles, Dr Abelardo Gil-Fournier, Dr Karel Doing, Cliona Harmey and
Dr Radek Przedpelski
Screening [booking required]
Monday 4 November
Harry Clarke Lecture Room, NCAD
6-7.30 pm
A screening of 16mm films by artist filmmaker Karel Doing followed by a conversation
between Karel and artist Chloe Brenan.
The Mulch Spider's Dream
16mm, 14 minutes, colour, 2018
This film attempts to kindle the vision of a spider by using experimental phytochemistry; creating organic shapes, rhythms and colours directly on expired 16mm film.
Phytography
16mm, 8 minutes, colour, 2020
Phytography dives into the rich and varied world of plant chemistry. This collection of
organic 'objets trouvés' demonstrates how nature generates multiple creative solutions, each one structured intricately.
A Perfect Storm
16mm, 3 minutes, colour, 2022
A Perfect Storm is a landscape film or, more precisely, a landscape imprinted on the film's emulsion.
Oxygen
16mm, 6 minutes, colour, 2023
Blades of grass are racing across the screen.
Phytography Workshop with Dr Karel Doing
Tuesday 5 November
Room 2.07, 2 nd Floor Design Building, NCAD
10am – 12.30pm Workshop 1 [Reserved NCAD students]
1.30pm – 4pm Workshop 2 [Booking Required]
Participants meet in the Front Square at NCAD. You should bring a small selection of plant material for the workshop.
Phytography is a technique invented by Karel Doing that makes it possible to create detailed chemical traces of plants directly on photographic emulsion. The process takes place in full daylight and makes use of biodegradable chemistry. During the workshop the artist will explain his technique, placing it in a historical lineage of experimental photography and film while also connecting it to ecological awareness. After this introduction, a hands-on demonstration is provided. Participants can create their own images and see the results in projection.
The workshop will begin with a visit to NCAD FIELD, a 0.4 hectare site adjacent to the campus which was ‘guerilla composted’ in the last decade and now is a wild and biodiverse haven in the inner city. NCAD FIELD operates ‘rhizomatically’ serving staff and students across all College departments with established courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level, while also interfacing with expanded communities of place and interest in Dublin city and beyond.
Foraging Media: Eco-Materialist Media Practices in a Digital Era is supported by funding from the National University of Ireland.
