This course explores the intimate, interdependent yet fragile relationship between words and
images and their combined potency for the creation of (cinematic) worlds.

Course Description

This course explores the intimate, interdependent yet fragile relationship between words and 
images and their combined potency for the creation of (cinematic) worlds. 
Words can often be the starting point for a piece of moving-image, unlocking feelings that gradually evolve into audio-visual experience. It can also work in reverse, that an image or series of images emerge first and through writing we can explore the emotional landscapes they open out onto. From either position, words and images spiral together leading us further into our personal, subjective experiences to then move us outwards, connecting us to our outer social and political environments.

Over 8 weeks we will draw on the work of filmmakers, writers, cultural workers, critical thinkers, 
and somatic practitioners with the aim of cultivating an experience of presence in the world, reconfiguring ways of relating and re-imagining new narratives and modes of storytelling.
Through a combination of presentations, screenings of extracts of works, discussions, writing 
workshops and sharing sessions we consider why it is that we tell stories and new forms through 
which to tell them. This course intends to create a space to cultivate a relationship to our own 
language that will lead us to reflect on and shape our differing and shared experience of the world.
References and resources will be shared throughout our sessions and participants are invited to a 
community channel where they can co-develop a pool of resources and keep up with one another 
outside of our weekly meetings.

Week 1 
Welcome and introductions 
A language for return 
In our opening session we will explore the elastic space between experience and language, where 
thought and motivation arise. This will lead us to an exploration of the somatic, silence and space as a primary location for the flow and sedimentation of experience. How can we follow this line of 
inquiry into the body to make space for a new sense of relatedness to emerge. We will explore the 
possibilities for images to arise from this place and practices for responsiveness to them. 

Week 2 
Limitation of the image: Working through memory, materiality and melancholia 
In this session we will think about the parameters of the image and the word with particular 
emphasis on how this relates to memory. We will begin to explore the alchemical process of writing 
as emotional formulating - in what ways it retains feeling, and how it might inherently embody loss. 
We will also begin to unravel the dimensionality of images and their making and reflect on our own 
position as viewers of cinema - the reciprocal co-animation process taking place between our 
perception and the presence of images themselves.

Week 3 
Film as Diary 
This week we will consider the ways in which writing relates to the unconscious and how structures 
for autobiographical language emerge through the intimate space of the journal. Through an insession writing workshop we will navigate a relationship to ‘inner’ images, exploring the manner in which writing can place us in a transitional state of discovery. Reflecting on the films we will 
explore the fluidity and motion expressed through the production of images, as well as how their 
arrangement and an approach to sound can contribute to a rhythmic, layered and embodied film 
language. 

Week 4 
We will come together this week to share an aspect of a project/idea we are developing for group 
discussion and ideas for moving forward.

Week 5 
Correspondence: Mapping terrains of distance and placemaking 
This session will focus on correspondence and letter writing as a means for transmission and 
reception of feeling. Dating from the 18th Century letter writing creates a space where the psyche 
can find form and be shared through the hands of the receiver. The letter creates a mobile 
impression of both emotional and physical landscapes, allowing us to inhabit spaces and feelings 
beyond our personal realm of experience. We will reflect on how correspondence and the form of 
the letter is explored through filmic space and consider its invitation for dialogue, friendship and 
connection. 

Week 6 
Language as action 
Language sketches a window into the relationship between the individual and society. In this 
session we will consider how storytelling can offer an exploration of agency that connects us more 
deeply to the collective through the creation of new systems of relating. We will explore our 
understanding of language, its limitations and (re)-arrangement to include visuality, editing and 
sound. What are the inherent power dynamics encoded in language? What are the things we care 
about and worlds that we long for? How do we cultivate our voice to connect with the collective? 

Week 7 
Writing beyond words, writing the feeling 
In this week’s session we will consider writing beyond text. We will explore works that don’t 
always rely on a linear narrative, are impressionistic and create a subliminal and experiential film 
language. How can we convey a sensation through writing that moves beyond verbal language and 
dialogue? How do we write the non-verbal? This session places its focus on the exploration of the 
atmosphere of particular emotions through an alternative approach to writing. 

Week 8 
Our closing session will be dedicated to sharing work from the programme and feeding back to one 
another on ideas and the materials produced. It’s an opportunity to gain feedback, consider what 
methods of practice were beneficial and to plan for development beyond our meetings.

*Week 4 and Week 8 are dedicated to the work of the group, and as such may run for an extra half 
an hour, from 6 - 8.30pm.
**The course will have a midsession break with no class on 12th November