Abstract: In this presentation, I’ll introduce and show some of the work I’ve been doing this semester at the Radical Humanities Lab, University College Cork. This is the first chapter (or ‘sortie’) of a videographic book that analyses the video essay as scholarly form. A videographic book is a monograph-equivalent collection of videos and prose (see series webpage at https://www.leverpress.org/videographicbooks/), and my first chapter, ‘A Cyborg Erotics of Criticism’, is devoted to establishing the theoretical approach adopted in the book as a whole. However, the material (a lecture film) is treated ironically, and the speaking scholar-authority (me) is deservedly mocked in and by the film itself. How trustworthy should scholarship be? How masterful should the scholar be? Where is the line between professional activity and private life? The film foregrounds these questions and refuses to answer them…

Bio: Alan O’Leary is an academic filmmaker and Associate Professor of Film and Media in MEDJOUR. He publishes video essays in venues including 16:9 and [in]Transition, which he also co-edits. Men Shouting: A History in 7 Episodes was awarded best video essay in the BAFTSS awards 2024, and his ‘Manifesto for a parametric videographic criticism’ appeared in NECSUS in 2021.

This event is supported by Centre for Critical Data Practices, Dept. of Digital Design and Information Studies, and CUPRA research program.