The Format of the Series

Why Pictures? is a series of dialogues and encounters that will make use of video, audio, text, and pictures. The dialogues are to take place on whypictures.net platform, where the curators of the series will publish subsequent voices in an ongoing exchange, and with the audience able to participate in the discussion. Each dialogue will be initiated by an invited guest with a short audiovisual statement in the form of a recorded lecture, desktop documentary, or the like. After each opening statement, responses will be posted over the ensuing weeks; for example, in the form of a short text, a recording of the series’ next guest, a work or series of works by the invited artist, or a response from the audience. Each dialogue will conclude with a wrap-up discussion, which will be transmitted live (on Zoom, for example) and then later made available in edited form. The guest whose opening statement catalysed a given dialogue will be invited to write a final text, which will summarise and develop the most important issues and points discussed, and comment on the works that were cited over the course of a dialogue.

After the series finale, the Why Pictures? blog will transform into an autonomous digital publication, becoming part of the ‘New Narrations’ series of the Visual Narratives Laboratory at the Film School in Łódź.