Audio-visual production and shortcomings of distribution in organisation studies

Abstract

This article considers the relation of audio-visual media to research in organisation studies, a scholarly market of the cultural economy. Guided theoretically by affect, audio-visual media place emphasis on mental and physical sensations that most organisation studies research, whether objective or subjective, tends to overlook or only imply. Too often, underlying disciplinary assumptions impose controls that are incompatible with the transmission of affect. Now, it is the case that those who have accumulated cultural capital within the field privilege conventions already found in the logic of the printed word. At issue is the implication that the culture of print effectually suppresses experimentation with audio-visual media as an alternative form of presentation. To illustrate the problem, I draw on first-hand experience of efforts to establish the research contribution of a short film.

KEYWORDS:

• affectivity
• audio-visual media
• cultural capital
• organisation studies
• research methods
• short film

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank Dr Heather Douglas, Dr Lisa French, Dr Stephen Gaunson, Dr Jon Roffe and the two anonymous Journal of Cultural Economy reviewers, for their insightful comments and critical engagement with earlier drafts of this article.

Notes

1. The short documentary film Lines of Flight, which the content of this paper supports, is available to view at: www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/bus/LinesofFlight/index.html.

2. In 2010, Lines of Flight won the Jury Prize at the Torelló Mountain Film Festival (Spain) and Best Film on Mountain Culture at the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (Canada). It was a nominee for Best International Short Film at the Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival (New Zealand) and finalist for Best Film on Mountain Culture at the Banff Mountain Film Festival (Canada). Torelló and Banff are founding members of the International Alliance for Mountain Film.

3. Versions of this line of criticism concerning film's philosophical contribution can be found in Mullarkey (2009) and Sinnerbrink (2011, pp. 117–135).

4. Heading taken from Wetherell (2012, p. xx).

5. Data submitted to the Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences research cluster as part of the 2012 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) evaluation did allow creative works at the Business and Management Field level of classification.