#phonar (Photography and Narrative) is a JISC Funded BA Hons third year undergraduate class run by Jonathan Worth and Matt Johnston at Coventry University in the UK under the guidance of Jonathan Shaw. The degree course’s core tenet is the “development of a sustainable practice”, key to which is the investigation of contemporary photographic practices and their implications for the medium as a whole.
The phrase “Trans-media” is often used to describe contemporary multi-media / multi-platform practices as well as non-linear, and vicariously dynamic narrative approaches to story telling. #phonar explores these themes and considers them in relation to what we do as photographers throughout ten weeks of practical study. The nature of the open class leads us to collaborate with other practitioners and subjects, as well as forces us to question our notions of ownership and authorship along the way.
For our attending degree students the class plays a crucial role sitting , as it does, at the foot of their third and final year. It’s purpose then, is to inspire, challenge and maybe even provoke them into producing a number of impassioned photographic responses. There’s no demand on them for these responses to be polished final artifacts when submitted, instead the emphasis is on generating ideas and leads which will inform final major degree projects. You can check out some of our class of 2012 work here.
Material from this class is open for use and re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.