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We have updated our Terms and conditions.

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WHAT: A 6-week online course including introductory lectures, screenings, group exercises, individual research, and group discussions.

WHERE: Online distance learning, take part in this class from your home with a computer/tablet.

WHEN: Tuesday evenings, 29th April – Tuesday 3rd June. (7-9 pm)

WHO: Run by Alda Terracciano, visual artist, curator, director and activist.

HOW MUCH: Full Price: £195 | Students/Concessions: 185 | UCL Students: £175

COSTS & BURSARIES: Bursaries and concession rates are available for this course. Please see our Terms & Conditions for information.

Deadline: Please book your place by Monday 21st April.

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During the last two decades multisensory art, filmmaking, and the role digital technologies play in their production has been explored both in academic discourse and art practice. Theoretical frameworks and artistic and curatorial approaches have particularly focused on the design, production, and fruition of multisensory experiences that go beyond the visual (Cranny-Francis 2009, Marks 2002, Rush 2005, Durcan 2021). This trend has run parallel to the expansion of the concept of ‘scenography’ beyond more traditional theatrical and film settings to include potentially all environments, objects, actors and actions (McKinney & Butterworth 2009, Lotker & Gough 2013, McKinney & Palmer 2017, Aronson 2017, Von Rosen 2024, Terracciano 2021). Other areas of study and research, such as sensorial urbanism and visual anthropology, have continued to shown interest in the transformative potential of embodied and multisensory dimensions of public and artistic events (Howes 1991, Vannini, Waskul, and Gottschalk 2011, Ingold 2022, Pink 2015).

The course is aimed at filmmakers, or anyone interested in the field and in particular in theories and applications of visual and public anthropology in the context of experimental multisensory storytelling. Students are encouraged to carry out independent research for a real or hypothetical project and explore methodologies and technologies that can help them with the development of a multisensory film, art installation, or virtual media.

The course will combine introductory lectures, screenings, group exercises, individual research, and group discussions. A book list and weekly reading will also be provided.

Course Content over six sessions:

Week 1. The Multisensory field of perception (29th April 2025)

This week we explore multi-sensory engagements with the environment and how different areas of anthropological studies engage with and explore sensory perception.  We will also discuss the expansion of the concept of ‘scenography’ beyond more traditional theatrical and film settings for the purpose of experimental multisensory storytelling.

Films & other resources:

Leviathan, by Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel (2012)
People’s Park, by Libbie Dina Cohn and J.P. Sniadecki (2012)
Manakamana, by Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez (2013)
The Silent World, by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Louis Malle (1956)

Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab

Week 2. Experimental filmmaking and sensory representations (6th May 2025)

This week we look at how experimental filmmakers and visual artists engage with the multi-sensory world by looking at some case studies including sensory (visual but also sound), digital-virtual, interactive visual art (installations), and performance art and the technologies employed.

Films & other resources:

Cool and Crazy, by Knut Erik Jensen (2001)
Bergensbanen minutt for minutt, by Thomas Hellum (2009)
Rapture, Shirin Neshat (1999)
Vertigo Sea, by Akomfrah (2015)

Haegue Yang’s multi-sensory environments and filmmaking (2024)
Sanctuaries of Silence, A Virtual Reality Experience by Adam Loften
and Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee (2018)
Awavena, by Lynette Wallworth (2018)
Virtual Futures: A Manifesto for Immersive Experiences

Week 3. The multisensory urban space, cross cultural identities, and migration (13^th May 2025)

This week we explore the intersection of questions of identity, migration, and the diverse cultural heritage of contemporary urban spaces and the role they have played in expanding the boundaries of ethnographic visual research towards multi-sensory dimensions of socially engaged artistic practices and documentary filmmaking.

Films & other resources:

Fire at Sea, by Gianfranco Rosi (2016)
… And the Pursuit of Happiness, by Louis Malle (1986)
A Ciambra, by Jonas Carpignano (2014)
New Realities, Ten Young Women, Ten Countries, One World, by Ava DuVernay, using Lenovo Technology (2021)

Week 4. Participatory research and the everyday life (20^th May 2025)

This week we explore how participatory research methods and new critical perspectives of representation, digital technology, and activist engagement are reframing the field of ethnographic filmmaking, including the use of multisensory and experimental visual arts. Students will be asked to devise strategies of investigations, including oral history interviews, liaising with community or activist groups, schools, old people homes, and anyone else who might be relevant to explore everyday life through multisensory lenses.

Films & other resources:

The ‘vital’ role of mobile phones for refugees and migrants, by Gavin Lee (2015)
Filming the Revolution, by Alisa Lebow (2011)
Corona Diaries, by Sandra Gaudenzi (i-Docs), Sandra Tabares Duque (audiovisual producer), Francesca Panetta (MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality) and Halsey Burgund (sound artist) (2020)
Zelige Door on Golborne Road, by Alda Terracciano (2017)
Life in a Day, by Kevin Macdonald. Produced by Ridley Scott (2010)
The last Goodbye, Shoa Foundation (2017)

Nicola Abraham, Wonder VR: Interactive Storytelling through VR 360 Video with NHS Patients Living with Dementia (2020)

Week 5. Independent research (27^th May 2025)

During the week students will work independently to gain primary knowledge and documentation on a topic of their choice connected with case studies discussed in the previous weeks, including the technology involved, such as multisensory devises, locative media and digital art. They will be invited to consider experimental documentary filmmaking as a domain of anthropological inquiry, exploring ways of creating stories in culturally, socially, and historically specific contexts as well as other sensory ways of engaging with the environment. Students will be supported through one-on-one tutorials.

Week 6. Project sharing and peer discussion (3^rd June 2025)

Presentation of individual or group projects (including short films, assemblages, performance photographs, multimedia installations) for groups sharing and peer discussion. The discussion will focus on students’ individual projects and their relation to experimental documentary as a domain of anthropological inquiry, discussing ways of creating stories in culturally, socially, and historically specific contexts as well as other sensory ways of engaging with the environment.

Course Outcomes

• A critical understanding of different theoretical traditions and practical applications of multisensory storytelling within public anthropology (with a focus on film, installation art, visual media, including immersive media).
• An expanded understanding of ethnographic writing practice and scope (e.g. within immersive environments, installations, etc)
• An ability to develop ideas for an individual project, focusing primarily on experimental and multisensory physical/digital work.

Please note that this course is not designed to be a practical filmmaking course with tutorials on how to develop students’ personal projects. It rather is a course which offers students the opportunity to experiment with the ideas, concepts, aesthetics, and theories discussed during the sessions by applying them in the development of a short multisensory film, video or personal project in the event students wish to do so. No one should feel obliged to develop a personal project if they do not wish to.

Students will be free to use any video camera (including mobile phones) and sound recording system of their choice and there is no other equipment needed.

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If you would like to:

• Find out more information about UCL Public Anthropology Short Courses
• Be updated with info such as future course dates and prices
• Be the first to know when  new courses go online

please subscribe to our mailing list.

If you still have other questions relating to a specific course or request, please get in touch with us via emailing shortcourses@opencitylondon.com

or call us at +44 20 3108 7586