Viscom 35 kicked off with a reception at Tolovava Inn, Cannon Beach, Oregon.
In this issue of VCQ the research and imagery harken back to traditional media forms, analog, and black-and-white imagery. Of course, the impact of social media and digitization still plays a role in almost everything we do, but it is the interplay between past and present, old and new, traditional and nontraditional, and analog and digital that creates a convergence of forms. This is the theme of VCQ 28(3).
And speaking of tradition, one of my favorite traditions took place earlier this June: Viscom 35. After a year of dormancy due to the COVID pandemic, this small, wonderful conference took flight again in Cannon Beach, Oregon, June 16–20. Itself a convergence, scholars and practitioners came together for what at times seemed like scholarly group therapy. The—dare I say “mystique”—of this conference still felt intact. Indeed, this small, unassociated conference, where half-baked ideas are the norm, has over the years nurtured and inspired unique ideas, fledgling research agendas, theoretical developments, and teaching techniques. The casual mix of filmmakers, rhetoricians, visual sociologists, students, professors, photojournalists, and graphic designers, several with their families, friends, and significant others, breaks the mold of your typical conference, just as we broke out of the pandemic-induced seclusion for face-to-face intellectual interaction. Perspectives of all sorts were considered, horizons were widened, conceptualizations were deepened, new connections and friendships were formed, and old ones renewed. With all participants present at what amounted to a series of plenary sessions, everyone was on the same page, so to speak, which enhanced later discussions at lunch, dinner, and at beach bonfire gatherings late into the night. If any conference can be said to engender a real sense of comraderie, a sense of real support for fellow travelers, a sense of openness to new ideas, a sense of fun, indeed a sense of love, Viscom is that conference.