In the research project “The Video Essay: Memories, Ecologies, Bodies,” funded by the SNSF and co-hosted at the Università Svizzera italiana (USI) and Hochschule Luzern (HSLU), the current state and future potentials of the video essay is investigated. We look at the video essay as a digital media format that produces and shares (audiovisual) knowledge in such a way that it enables us to critically reflect on the media processes we’re surrounded by.

Memories: how do contemporary digital environments impact our capacities and experiences of memories (our own and others’)? And how do videographic practices express and respond to this? What is the role of the ‘archive’ in this day and age? What does ‘original’ and ‘copy’ even mean anymore?

Ecologies: where do video essays live? Who produces them? Where and how do they circulate within and beyond festivals, academic events, online journals, video platforms, social media, and museum spaces? How do these various spaces interfere with video essay production? Who makes money with them and why can some afford not to?

Bodies: how do we make and experience video essays with our bodies? How do we inhabit, perform, and present research and criticism in an ‘embodied’ way? And how might video essays respond to our bodies as markers and agents of our identities and voices?