The GoPro is a so-called “action camcorder”, a small, easy-to-use and particularly robust camera which allows making video recordings under water or during a parachute jump and other situations that are difficult to shoot.
It was first launched as an analog photo camera for surfers in 2004. The objective of this new culture is inscribed in its brand “Go-Professional”: alleged professionalization of image production under extraordinary conditions.

With the GoPro as the “world’s most versatile camera”, as said in the advertising text, the gesture of this promoted mobility is transferred to the actions of the camera operator and the possibility of linking the camera to various moving objects and subjects.
A genre of daring (existential) images emerges. For example images of the falling (skydivers, base jumpers and wingsuit fliers) and the fallen (when helmet cameras of militants record combat situations) as well as images of situations beyond control (animals hijacking the camera). Even more as in images shot with a hand camera perspectives become shaky; they flip vertical or horizontal, with the filmmakers’ bodies in the center. GoPro not only introduced a new camera segment but also changed the way of amateur filmmaking. This cannot be reduced solely to technical means, but rather to assertive brand communication.

Topics that are to be discussed at the conference from the perspective of this still relatively new device include: the transformation of amateur filmmaking and its correlating visual worlds; the gesture of venturous action and increased risk-taking; the impact on (citizen) journalism; aspects of the the circulation of images in social networks; new gestures such as selfies as well as the effects of the device on the body; surveillance (when the GoPro is mounted on drones) as well as recording the unexpected or the unintended.

The workshop will be held in English and German.
https://versatilecam.de/

ORGANISATION
Winfried Gerling
Florian Krautkrämer.

Programm:

Day 1 – 21.06.2018

10:00–11:00
Introduction
Winfried Gerling and Florian Krautkrämer Fachhochschule Potsdam/Hochschule Luzern

11:00–11:15 Coffee

11:15–13:15
Going Beyond the Human Perspective: GoPro Cameras as Subversive Image-Making Devices
Philippe Bédard, Université de Montréal
Filming Animals: Portable Media and Non-Human Media Practices
Marek Jancovic, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz

13:15–15:00 Lunch

15:00–17:00
Vision Machines and the Body in Conflict
Svea Bräunert, University of Cincinnati
Neues Sehen. Die Multiperspektivität des GoPro-Cyborgs
Fabian Goppelsröder, Freie Universität Berlin

17:00–17:30 Coffee

17:30–18:30
Mit der GoPro in den Heiligen Krieg
Simon Menner, Berlin

Day 2 – 22.06.2018

9:30–11:30
Watching ›a Skyscraper on its Side‹ – From the Sky. Horizontale Macht aus vertikaler Perspektive und Ästhetiken der Konstruktion und Destruktion
Tobias Conradi, ZeM Brandenburg
Sehen lassen. Spekulationen zur Technisierung des Blicks
Jan Distelmeyer, Fachhochschule Potsdam

11:30–12:00 Coffee

12:00–14:00
Driftung und Wirbalisierung: ambulatorische fun-und-thrill-Techniken medio-as-sociativer GoPro-Aufzeichnungsekstasen
Matthias Thiele, TU Dortmund
Der Sumpf film(t). Bewegtes Bild und Umweltlichkeit in ‘Swamp’ (Nancy Holt/Robert Smithson)
Julian Jochmaring, ZeM

14:00–15:30 Lunch

15:30–17:30
Nicht alle Fische haben Augen. Vom Untergehen und Auftauchen
Nanna Heidenreich, Internationale Filmschule Köln
Wie GoPro den Weltraum bewohnbar macht
Anne Quirynen, Fachhochschule Potsdam