THINKING WITH A VIDEO CAMERA  Workshop in Ethnographic Filmmaking with Judith and David MacDougall

AARHUS UNIVERSITY SUMMER SCHOOL, Denmark
AUGUST 20-26, 2010
Organised by Christian Suhr
Level: BA
Credits:10 ECTS

The Aarhus University Summer School in visual anthropology is an intensive course designed for Danish and international students interested in a brief but challenging educational experience during the summer.

The course is open to students in anthropology and related disciplines from Denmark and elsewhere and is intended for people with no or little previous experience with filmmaking. The language of teaching is English.

The course approaches video as a new language that students and researchers can acquire and apply to their own disciplines, addressing it as both a research method and medium of expression in the humanities and human sciences: An audiovisual language that has particular relevance in anthropological studies of the role of the senses and emotions in human life, our experience of time and duration, and the relations between human beings and their immediate environments.

The course provides practical training in basic video techniques as well as in-camera editing through a series of exercises enabling researchers to use a video camera in the field with some degree of confidence. The emphasis will be upon the use of video to create knowledge significantly different from that of written texts, rather than merely gathering visual records. The course assumes no prior knowledge of video-making. Participants will be requested to provide their own video cameras for the period of the course. For students who do not have access to cameras it will be possible to lend equipment from Aarhus University.

Course aims:
Participants will gain confidence to create their own video footage as an integral part of methodology in their own disciplines and to recognize the diverse ways in which video fundamentally differs from written texts.

Learning outcomes
: The ability to think clearly about what is important to film
Basic skills in using a video camera; avoiding the beginner’s mistakes
Skills in recording good sound; natural sounds and interview

Full participation in the course and a successfull oral presentation will attract 10 ECTS.

Tuition fee
: Provided that the student will be able to have the course inserted into his/her original study programme as credit transfer, there is no tuition fee for:

Danish, Nordic and EU/EEA students.
Students from Aarhus University and partner universities who have been nominated by their home university as part of an exchange agreement
Students of a foreign nationality holding a permanent residence permit in Denmark

A fee of DKK 1.520 will be charged to non-EU/EAA students and will cover tuition fees for the summer school regardless of a possible credit transfer.

Danish, Nordic and EU/EAA students who will not have the summer course inserted into his/her study programme as credit transfer, will be charged a fee of DKK 1,500 (10 ECTS) for the summer school.

Entry requirements:
To be admitted you must be enrolled at a university. Students applying for admission at bachelorís level must have completed at least one year of study in a relevant subject. Students are expected to have a high level of English proficiency, to be able to read the relevant literature and follow the teaching. Documentation may be required verifying the studentís proficiency in English at a specified level.

How to apply
: All applicants who wish to participate in the University of Aarhus Summer School must fill out and send the application form along with a copy of your passport,
a transcript from the Registrar or a degree diploma or the like to document your level of study. It is also required that you get an authorised representative from your home university to sign a pre-approval of credit transfer, if you wish to have the summer school credited towards your degree. The application form can be downloaded here:
http://www.aal.au.dk/en/antro/studies/summer2010/apply

For further information and questions about the summer school, applications etc. see:

http://www.aal.au.dk/en/antro/studies/summer2010/home

or contact:

Christian Suhr (suhr@hum.au.dk)
Department of Anthropology and Ethnography
Moesgaard, Aarhus University