Queen's Film and Media

My film/media production, associated writing and research are predicated on the understanding that art objects ask for importantly different perceptual and critical approaches from viewers than non-art objects.  (Some artists and cultural theorists want to make that distinction disappear; I support it and attempt to use it constructively.)  This approach to the artwork helps to explain artworks and film/media projects that I might not otherwise advocate in a non-art environment.  These include: nihilism and the active promotion of uncertainty, where there is a critical usefulness in artworks which strip away all value; nonsense, accompanied by the assumption that meaning is actually quite rare and difficult to achieve;  humour, where there is critical value in seeing the world and the self as ridiculous; incongruity, where the tools of world-making are consistently found to be inadequate, etc.

Research areas include aesthetic theory, humour theory, image/text relations, image theory, experimental media and literature.  I am also involved in projects about and for Tanzanian NGOs in Moshi, Tanzania.

A book of essays and scripts was produced in 2008: Grammar and Not-Grammar; YYZ Books.

The following works can be sampled on-line:

Or So We Say; 10:00 (2017) https://vimeo.com/227448007

The Child’s Concept of Chance; 5:00 (2016) https://vimeo.com/241722718

Grading Greek Philosophers; 3:00 (2016) https://vimeo.com/205468401

The Wide Wide World;  9:00 (2016) https://vimeo.com/148292062

We Move Only Ourselves; 10:0 (2015) https://vimeo.com/156358941

Only Believe Things That Are Easy To Understand; 7:30 (2014) https://vimeo.com/205460015

God Hates Himself;  20:00 (2014)  https://vimeo.com/158759242