Events
The network organised a series of events that enabled network members to develop critical dialogue between environmental media practitioners and academics.
Workshop 1: King's College, London
Date: 6th September 2010
A series of network members gave short 10 minute presentations which were followed by a much longer breakout set of discussions in the afternoon of that day. There were about 10 different people involved in the workshop through Skype/web presentations.
Network Meeting: Wildscreen Festival, Bristol
Date: 9th-17th October 2010
Members of the network attended the Wildscreen Festival, internationally acknowledged as the most influential and prestigious event of its kind in the world. Its aim is to celebrate, applaud and encourage excellence, and responsibility, in wildlife and environmental film-making - films which increase the global viewing public's understanding of the natural world, and the need to conserve it.
Conference Session: 'Capitalism, Environmentalism, Spectacle and the work of Natural History Film'
Location: Nature Inc Conference, The Hague
Date: 30th June-2nd July 2011
This panel reported some of the findings of an event ethnography conducted at the 'Wildscreen' festival of natural history film, a bi-annual event in Bristol, where the BBC operates the largest Natural History Production Unit in the world. The session explored the technologies, discursive registers and vocabularies, and some of the histories and alliances within and around the 2010 festival. In our exploration of the role of different kinds of spectacle, and strategies for audience involvement in such films, and their politics, we focused on the short prizewinning film 'Green' about the Indonesian rainforest, as yet undistributed through mainstream media but greeted with acclaim in numerous settings.
Workshop 2: King's College, London
Date: 7th-8th of July 2011
Members of the network gave short presentations on the themes of: 'star power', 'spectacular visualisations/representations', and 'spectacular communication forms/politics', considering the role of celebrity (in human and animal forms) and spectacle in environmental campaigning. The final part of the workshop was spent discussing future plans and outputs.
Achievements
Work is underway on a special issue of the journal Celebrity Studies, and on web-resources for the network. The members of the network hope to continue the work completed by the project through future funding.
Project website: http://studyinggreen.wordpress.com/
Award details
Duration: June 2010 - October 2011
Principal Investigator:
Dr Michael Goodman
Higher Education Institution:
Department of Geography, King's College London
Related links