Goldsmiths - University of London

Manuel Ramos

Manual Ramos is a PhD candidate in Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, University of London.

Thesis title: "Visual Murmurs: Cinema and Processes of Nomination"

Academic qualifications

MA Contemporary Art Theory, Goldsmiths, University of London
BA Art History - Universidad Complutense, Madrid & Universite de la Sorbonne (Paris IV)

Teaching

Introduction to Art History Labs A & B

Research interests

My current research explores the re-articulation by contemporary cinema of names most often condemned to the past of our politicality: the names 'worker', 'factory' and 'people'. I understand the cinema of Wang Bing, Straub and Huillet or Peter Watkins as interventions to make us hear and see differently these names and their obsolescence. Cinema is affirmed as a field to re-think the relation between the political and the concept of name. My theoretical companions in this research are: Ranciere (on emancipation), Derrida (on proper names), Foucault (on murmurs), Guattari (on collective assemblages of enunciation), Laclau (on populism).

Selected publications

Articles (refereed):
- 'We Are All Spectators' pp.124-128 in Parallax, Vol.15, No.3, 2009
Contributions to books:
- 'Image and Emancipation' in Visual Reader [tentative title], edited by James Elkins, Routledge (Forthcoming, 2012)
- 'Betrayed Borders: Double Agents and the Crisscrossing of Conflicts' pp.256-263, SARAI Reader 2007 - Frontiers, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, 2007

Grants & awards

Mutua Madrid Foundation Postgraduate Grant 2006 - 2008

Professional activities

Writer (London correspondent of ArtNotes)
Art theory teacher (Goldsmiths, Art Institute of Madrid)
Co-ordinator of 'Peer-Assisted Learning' in Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths

Papers presented

- 'A Film-Factory: Tie Xi Qu, West of the Rails', Relocating Media Conference, Network of European Cinema Studies (NECS), University of Lund, Sweden, June 2009
- 'Image and Emancipation, Between the political and the cinematic in the work of Jacques Ranciere', Philosophy and Film Conference, University of West England, Bristol, June 2008