Towards a Cinema of Imperfection: Participatory Film as Research
type: CreativeWork
description: This PhD is a practice as research interrogation of the emancipatory potential of the idea of imperfection. It is framed around the key leading question: ‘How can the generation of imperfect praxis – cultural production in and through social dialogues challenging notions of technical expertise – affirm emancipatory value in a film practice? The thesis documents the development of a participatory film practice, operating in-between d.i.y subcultural activity and practice as research. The film component of the submission engages with the problems involved in representing and authenticating the collective dimension of participatory filmmaking. The emancipatory potential of imperfection has been explored via a broad range of interdisciplinary participatory practices. The core project is Imperfect Cinema, an open-access micro-cinema collective, which navigated the intersection between film and do-it-yourself punk. This interplay between the contested idea of punk and its inherent activism, with the democratic/accessible implications of audio-visual media, is seen as an exemplary site for examining, and dismantling the boundaries between disciplines. In this sense, the nature of the work can be seen as being ‘in-disciplinary’ (Rancière 2008), requiring a mobility and responsiveness to the emergence of contemporary participatory and collaborative processes. The concept of imperfection draws from punk as a set of d.i.y methodological practices and is key to understanding and developing participatory cinema. Imperfection, as a generative conceptual tool, can be described as incorporating and examining methods ‘against methods’ (Feyerabend 1988) in order to acknowledge the uncertainty and fluidity of participatory work. This forms my understanding of what I term imperfect praxis. This praxis requires the emancipatory potential of imperfection to be easily communicable and accessible to different kinds of participants. The emergence of imperfect praxis developed out of collect…
abstract: This PhD is a practice as research interrogation of the emancipatory potential of the idea of imperfection. It is framed around the key leading question: ‘How can the generation of imperfect praxis – cultural production in and through social dialogues challenging notions of technical expertise – affirm emancipatory value in a film practice? The thesis documents the development of a participatory film practice, operating in-between d.i.y subcultural activity and practice as research. The film component of the submission engages with the problems involved in representing and authenticating the collective dimension of participatory filmmaking. The emancipatory potential of imperfection has been explored via a broad range of interdisciplinary participatory practices. The core project is Imperfect Cinema, an open-access micro-cinema collective, which navigated the intersection between film and do-it-yourself punk. This interplay between the contested idea of punk and its inherent activism, with the democratic/accessible implications of audio-visual media, is seen as an exemplary site for examining, and dismantling the boundaries between disciplines. In this sense, the nature of the work can be seen as being ‘in-disciplinary’ (Rancière 2008), requiring a mobility and responsiveness to the emergence of contemporary participatory and collaborative processes. The concept of imperfection draws from punk as a set of d.i.y methodological practices and is key to understanding and developing participatory cinema. Imperfection, as a generative conceptual tool, can be described as incorporating and examining methods ‘against methods’ (Feyerabend 1988) in order to acknowledge the uncertainty and fluidity of participatory work. This forms my understanding of what I term imperfect praxis. This praxis requires the emancipatory potential of imperfection to be easily communicable and accessible to different kinds of participants. The emergence of imperfect praxis developed out of collect…
author: Gall, Allister
language: eng
keywords: participatory film, imperfection, d.i.y, imperfect cinema, punk, underground film, socially engaged, micro-cinema, experiential practice, imperfect praxis, film as research
date published: 2016-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:49:27Z
provider: University of Plymouth
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Plymouth