Unveiling hidden memories: exploring the relevance of autoethnographic film for social change  

In times of crisis, the role of liberal arts education becomes increasingly significant in addressing complex global challenges. Ongoing migration, conflicts, violence and human suffering continue to plague our screens. This is the historical narrative but perhaps by focusing on individual interactions and engagements with historical memory, we can promote a diverse understanding of the past that can lead to social and political change. My starting point is the camera as the tool to locate the self at the centre of a critical question, to uncover hidden memories embedded in public and personal memory spaces that we may or may not have experienced. Memory as a visual and participatory practice gives us access to how past historical, political, social and personal violences are hidden, erased over time, but continuously present in the locations and sites that witness historical events. Drawing on Pierre Nora’s (1989) milieux de mémoire (places of memory) and the lieux de mémoire (sites of memory), I create an autoethnographic dialogue between non-western and western thought that challenges traditional paradigms. The core of knowledge is no longer on the periphery or outside of the individual but on some levels inherent and relevant to the individual. By foregrounding this, we can use filmmaking to self-reflexively investigate the complexities of understanding and interpreting knowledge. Individual perception, cultural and political heritage, identity and viewpoint become key to processing and generating knowledge. Through this framework, I start to grapple with practice-based and artistic research. How do memories in locations act as active signifiers for story content? How can a camera and film translate the abstract concept of memory and remembering? My goal is to break the exclusivity of filmmaking and make it accessible to the broader humanities by using both high-end equipment and smartphones. This approach draws on method making, practice-based and artistic research using personal voice and narrative that enmeshes the everyday to reshape ideas and methodologies. Autoethnography is a powerful tool that acknowledges personal experiences as research material and narratives themselves. It’s a dynamic encounter where the journey is an integral part of the research itself, placing the layers and stages of research into a meaningful context. Film is an emotive medium and artistic research creates a space to promote dialogue, collaboration and diverse perspectives through a critically aware and self-reflective lens.