Imagine Research is an adventurous afternoon with filmmakers Jyoti Mistry, Emilio Reyes-Bassail, Mirka Duijn and Eyal Sivan. These research practitioners will discuss their understanding of research in and through cinema practices, showing excerpts of their work, guiding us through the different phases of their explorations and sharing their expertise.  The event will conclude with a discussion about research in and through cinema practices. How can these practices act as an inspirational dialogue partner or a counterweight to other research fields?

The title of the event,Imagine Research, refers to the playful and nonconformist way in which the four filmmakers perform research, and how they critically rethink methods and re-imagine research practices. It also relates to the fact that they conduct their research through cinema, which is the standard-bearer of imagination.

It is in the specificity of the medium, the audiovisual, that we find the relevance of this practice-based research to other fields. While the world is becoming increasingly mediated, most fields of research have embraced audiovisual tools neither in their research process nor in their means of dissemination. Instead, most research practices are still dominated by text-based methods and formats of dissemination, thus missing out on opportunities to activate thinking through other senses.

Imagine Researchisproduced by the AHK lectorate of film at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam. The event is part of the future summer/winter school, a programme designed for academics. The programme allows them to experience and review their research through the expertise and methods of research practitioners from the field of cinema.