Participate

What kind of video content can I submit?

Videos should be as short as possible, ideally not longer than five minutes.
Present your research, your artistic, activist, or journalistic practice, a research experience, a conversation, an event, a commentary on a pressing issue, a book review, recommend a related website (your blog, for instance), share a report on a workshop, a conference, an exhibition, or a performance. Feel free to propose anything related to the Web Lab’s theme to us.
You are invited to submit selfie videos, screen recordings, videotaped interviews, recorded online conversations, photo essays (a slide show with voice-over/text), video collages or any other format you want to experiment with.

How can I produce my own video?

Don’t be perfectionist! Even if you don’t have much experience, it is easy to produce your own video. Here are some tips:

Possible devices

Record with your smartphone, your digital camera or your computer. Test which of your devices creates the best video, often smartphone cameras are better than computer webcams. When recording with your computer, you can use the standard recording software such as QuickTime (Mac), or the Camera App (Windows). You can also use the recording function of your video conference software (Skype, Zoom, Webex). These programs give you various options: you can record yourself and/or your computer screen.

Audio

Keep in mind that a good audio is often more important than a good image. Try to record in a quiet space without too many background noise, except if you want to record ambient noise to capture, for instance, the affective atmosphere of a place. Take care when you hold a mobile phone in your hand while selfie-shooting so that you do not create strange noises while touching the microphone or covering the microphone completely. It might be a good idea to use a second microphone in addition to your video recording device, so you can choose from two audio sources.

Image & framing

Think about image composition and framing. Usually a 16:9 horizontal format is the standard. So, if you are using a mobile phone to record your video, make sure to hold it horizontally. Be careful that there is not too much space above your head. If you are alone in the frame, it often looks better if you position yourself not in the centre but slightly at the left/right of the frame while looking at the camera. If there are two people in the frame, it is ideal to not have too much space between them.

Lighting

Make sure you do not have too much nor too little light, so that the face or objects you are filming are easier to recognize and do not appear too overly or under saturated.

Background

Being in front of a white wall creates a flat image. Having some “depth of field” (by positioning yourself, for instance, in front of an object such as a book shelf or trees in a park) will look better. But make sure that you are in focus and not your background. The auto-focus of a camera might put your background in focus and leave you out of focus.

Camera movement / Zoom

It often looks better to move around with the camera instead of staying at one spot zooming and panning too much back and forth. Try not to shake too much. You can also place the camera somewhere to have a fixed frame. If you do not have a tripod, placing your camera on top of some books at the desired height, for example, also works.

Editing

Your video is not as difficult to edit as you might imagine. There are free and easy-to-use programs such as Windows Movie Maker (Windows) and iMovie (Mac). Many mobile phones have tools to do simple and easy editing, such as cutting parts out or making parts shorter. If you need help with editing, we support you to finalize your contribution.

How do I submit?

Please submit (1) your video file(s) together with (2) a title (max. 60 characters), (3) a short teaser text (250 characters) as well as (4) a short biographical note (150 words) and (5) a profile picture (landscape format).
You can either send us the materials via a download link to our email info@aac-weblab.net. We can also send you a link to a website where you can upload your files.

What happens once I submit a video?

We will review your submission and a member of our editorial team will write you an email.
If necessary, we can help with the final editing of your video.
We will add the AaC-intro and outro to the video.
We will insert English subtitles for your video in cooperation with you. If your video is not in English, we will translate the subtitles.
We will upload the video to our Vimeo account and you will have the opportunity to review the final version before publication.
Your video will be shown on the Web Lab as well as on our Facebook page. We will also produce 20-50 second long snippets and stills of your video that we would like to post on our Instagram and Twitter accounts. If you do not want us to promote your video on social media, please let us know!

Who can apply?

Scholars and practitioners working on the intersection of affect and colonialism with an interest in exploring digital forms of communicating knowledge. We welcome applications from inside and outside academia, particularly from the Global South. We invite artists, journalists, activists, filmmakers, researchers, writers, architects, curators, among others. You can apply as an individual or as a tandem of an academic and a non-academic.

How to apply?

Your application should consist of a CV, a one-page cover letter / letter of intent and a one-page idea sketch for a digital exhibition format that you would like to realize on the Web Lab. Please send your application to: info@aac-weblab.net. Please make sure to send in your application until September 26th 2021 at the latest. We will get back to you with our decision in the beginning of October 2021.

What do we offer?

Each fellow receives a stipend of 6.000€ for the time of the fellowship. The fellowships are online, residence in Berlin is not required, you can work from anywhere in the world. Additional funds for realizing the online exhibition (technical support to accommodate innovative digital formats and the commission of digital artworks) are available.

Who are we?

The Affect and Colonialism Web Lab is a generative space to discuss colonialism’s affective lives and afterlives. Knowledge makers within and beyond academia explore new modes of co-learning and creative forms of collaboration. The Web Lab allows for agile interventions on pressing issues related to the entanglement of affect and colonialism in various parts of the world. The Web Lab’s three main areas are: (1) a platform for short videos by a diverse community of authors from academia, the arts, political activism, and journalism, (2) a podcast series, (3) a digital fellowship program with a tandem of fellows curating larger online exhibitions every semester. The Web Lab is administered by the Collaborative Research Center “Affective Societies” at Freie Universität Berlin in collaboration with Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Please contact us if you have further questions: info@aac-weblab.net. We are looking forward to your application!