Experiment

Besides the production in the workshops the Lab hosts student exercises. The students of the Department are required to make videos for one of their MA courses. This course has been shfted to the Lab where, instead of making films in groups, they use professional digital cameras and non-linear edit suites to create short individual projects. They are encouraged to explore new formal possibilities emerging out of the everyday circulation of digital media. They may decide to make scrapbooks, diaries and essays on video, create entities with sound and image that mix fiction and documentaries. This year, our students have made three digital videos and one video installation. Apart from practicing filmmakers and technicians, who supervise the whole process, media practitioners, artists, scholars, activists from various fields offer special sessions to help the students conceive every aspect of filmmaking. The idea is to engage the students with the vibrant creative and intellectual atmosphere of The Media Lab.

This is a crucial part of the larger experiment in curriculum and teaching that we have undertaken in The Media Lab. The faculty members and researchers of the Department of Film Studies, enriching their knowledge through creative engagement with the experimental projects of the Lab, will eventually intervene into the curriculum and apply this knowledge to the mainstream curriculum. Application of knowledge gained from the Lab experiments can also open up new frontiers in the modes of communication between the teacher and the student. Overall, The Media Lab is aimed at generating a platform on which conventional curricular structures, teaching modes and academic environment will be subjected to constant review and change.