I am starting my Post-Doctoral Research in Panteion University of Social and Political Science with Prof. Seferiadis. The title of my research is: “Suspended spaces of memory: Heterotopic historical narratives and contentious politics in contemporary cinematic practice”.
Two more Universities are also in this research as collaborating Universities. University of Central Lancashire with Prof. Knudsen and Audio Visual Arts Department of Ionian University with Dr. Papadopoulou.
Abstract:
Michel Foucault, in the prologue of his book “Order of things” and in his lecture “Des Espace Autres”, referred to the notion of Heterotopias (Foucault, 2005). He described them as existing and real spaces in our society that work as “anti-spaces”, a kind of utopias that actually exist. In these heterotopias, we can observe traits of our society being represented, questioned and reversed (Foucault, 2001). Films have the capacity to preserve collective memory and transfer historical truth through very troubled periods of time (Stavrides, 2006). This cross-disciplinary research will focus οn the use of heterotopias as an ideal location for memory preservation and for the purpose of representing alternative historical narratives in cinematic practice.
The research involves, first, conducting in-depth analysis of the use of heterotopias as suspended locations of memory in Greek cinema, with the goal of detecting the ways it has been used as a tool for presenting alternative historical narratives. I will then use ethnomediaology and semi-structured interviews in order to gather information from Greek filmmakers’ use of heterotopia in contemporary cinematic practice (Knudsen, 2018). Finally, I will summarize and implement the research findings to produce of a short film, an example in the use of heterotopia as an ideal location of representing alternative historical narratives in cinematic practice.