Background

Established in 2004 the CTMP has promoted the development of ethnographically-driven media production scholarship. Attentive to the methodological concerns of cultural studies and visual anthropology, the Centre foregrounds the use of lens-based practice as a transdisciplinary research orientation, thematically engaged with questions of migration and globalization, transculturalism, civic participation and transnationalism. This media deployment has resulted in a productive interface between transcultural mediated research, public policy/education and civil society activism.

Our use of the term ‘transcultural’ suggests the lived, temporal, spatialized and intersubjective contingencies of identity formations – the necessity to acknowledge and respect cultural differences, while recognising the possibility for shared commonalities within and across diverse ethnic groups. A critically informed media practice, we argue, is capable of mediating between different constituencies and communities; it has the ability to break down preconceived cultural barriers and prejudices, to amplify voices and perspectives previously overlooked and marginalized in mainstream media representation. It has the unique potential to re-present complex social worlds and human experiences to a wide range of audiences through a variety of accessible formats.

The work of the Centre dates back to an inaugural conference in 2001 titled ‘Migration and Location: Visual Media Research’. In this context international media practitioners, activists, migrant constituencies, NGOs, voluntary sector workers, academics and policy makers came together to present transnational media projects on the subject of migration. What emerged from this forum was recognition of the transformative role and impact of media in representing the everyday reality of the immigrant experience. The critical use of media in response to questions of social justice remains a central and organising concern of the Centre, disseminated through documentary film, photographic exhibitions, installation, CD/DVD-ROM, online distribution and written publications.

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