Illumina Training: Artistic Research Methods – Archive, Memory, and Filmmaking
We invite early career researchers (Master’s students, PhD candidates, and postdocs) to an in-person two-day workshop on Artistic Research Methods: Archive, Memory, and Filmmaking, taking place at National Film School at LMTA (Vilnius, Lithuania) on 17-18 April 2025.
This workshop is an opportunity to explore various filmmaking practices—video art, dance film, and documentary cinema—guided by experienced artistic researchers and filmmakers. Participants will engage with different tools and methodologies to enrich their artistic research and creative process.
Workshop Programme
Day 1: 17 April
- 10:00 – 13:00 | Film as Research Inquiry – Workshop by Kumjana Novakova
- 14:00 – 15:00 | Documentation as a Creative Process – Greta Grinevičiūtė
- 15:00 – 16:00 | Mediated Travelogues – Miglė Križinauskaitė
- 17:00 – 18:30 | Excursion to Art Exhibition
Day 2: 18 April
- 10:00 – 13:00 | Film as Research Inquiry (Part II) – Workshop by Kumjana Novakova
- 14:00 – 17:00 | Why Cut When You Can Fade – Experimental Research Collective
Meet the Speakers & Topics
Kumjana Novakova is a research-based filmmaker, working also as a curator and lecturer in cinema and audiovisual arts. As an author, she develops projects between cinema and contemporary art, exploring the relationships of war, power, collective memories and resistances. Her work has been presented at numerous festivals and exhibiting venues, including MoMA, Tate Modern, Museum of the Moving Image, IDFA, Cinema du Reel, Punto de Vista, HotDocs, MG+MSUM, etc. Kumjana currently lives between Skopje and Sarajevo.
Film as Research Inquiry. Workshop in research-based filmmaking strategies
What if we think of process-oriented artistic research as a process of archiving knowledge?
How can we activate these archives of knowledges in and through public space, i.e. films, video art, or any other type of work of art?
The frame of imagining one’s own research as an archive can provoke a process of “sensemaking” through conceptualisation, and can provoke us to experiment differently with the body of work we create: gather, assemble, and interrelate. The participants will be introduced to the potentialities of the artistic research process as a way of developing precision in research methodologies, with focus on film and audiovisual art.
Greta Grinevičiūtė is a Lithuanian choreographer, performer, director, and PhD candidate exploring the intersection of dance and cinema. As the co-founder of the independent dance company BE COMPANY, her work merges movement, film, and narrative, often drawing from personal experiences. She lectures at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA), guiding dance and cinematography students in discovering creative connections between movement and the moving image. Her artistic research focuses on developing a mutual language between dance and cinema, aiming to expand the landscape of dance films and explore documentation as a creative process in choreographic and cinematic practices.
Documentation as a Creative Process: Choosing the Right Archival Model in Artistic Research
This presentation will examine the role of documentation in my artistic research at the intersection of contemporary dance and cinema. Documentation is not merely a means of recording movement—it actively shapes the research process and artistic practice. Therefore, the critical question is not just how to archive, but what kind of archival model best aligns with the specificity of the creative process. By engaging choreographic and cinematic methodologies, I explore how alternative documentation strategies can preserve the ephemerality, spatial configurations, and temporality of movement, expanding the possibilities of archiving movement as a living form.
Miglė Križinauskaitė is an audiovisual artist, photographer, and filmmaker exploring the intersections of time, memory, landscape, and the still and moving image. She holds an MA in Film Directing from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (2020) and is currently a PhD candidate specializing in experimental filmmaking. Rooted in analogue photography and experimental film, her practice is shaped by autoethnography and psychogeography. She creates cinematic experiences that blur the boundaries between landscape and dreamscape, investigating how encounters with the environment become shared, fluid experiences. Through the tactile materiality of 35mm slides and Super 8mm film, as well as immersive soundscapes, her work explores the artist’s embodied gaze, presence, and intention, revealing the ephemeral and sensory dimensions of place.
Mediated Travelogues: Mapping Place, Memory, and Embodied Experience
This presentation will explore the use of mediated travelogues as a methodology to investigate the intersections of personal experience, place, and memory. By exploring both tangible and intangible worlds through experimental film, I will demonstrate how autoethnography and psychogeography can be intertwined to document and reflect on the fluid, ephemeral qualities of landscapes and self. Drawing from my artistic practice with Super8 analogue film, I will highlight how these approaches navigate both physical and emotional terrains, moving beyond traditional travel narratives to uncover deeper, often invisible layers of experience. Engaging with the concept of dreamscapes and focusing on the sensory and emotional dimensions of places, I aim to show how mediated travelogues can serve as a tool for introspective inquiry and creative exploration in artistic research.
Why Cut When You Can Fade is a fluid artistic research practice, where we explore agency through active collaboration. Through a sustained dialogue between codes of poetics, cinema, choreography, dance, movement research and other fields, we develop experiential methods, and embrace the knot of not-knowing. The practice was initiated by Miklós (Miki) Ambrózy, Greta Grinevičiutė, and Migle Križinauskaitė.
Who Should Apply?
- Master’s students working in film, media arts, and performance
- PhD candidates researching artistic methodologies
- Postdoctoral researchers interested in expanding their creative practices
Practical Information
Location: National Film School at LMTA, Vilnius, Lithuania
Dates: 17-18 April 2025
Application Deadline: 2 April 2025
Results Announced: 4 April 2025
How to Apply?
Submit your application here.
