Languages and Cultures under Lockdown: SELCS-CMII Photography Competition

‘Everything we see is propped on something we have previously seen’ (Kaja Silverman)

When I took over as the Head of SELCS and Chair of CMII in September 2019, my goals were to: 1) consolidate after a decade of expansion; 2) review the relocation of admin support to the first floor of Foster Court; 3) oversee the reconstruction of our website; 4) complete the search for a new name for SELCS-CMII, and, 5) re-start the annual photography competition.

Looking back, this all now looks so (relatively) straightforward. I could never have imagined we would be conducting ‘business-as-usual’ remotely and under lockdown from March; that all first year undergraduate assessment would have been replaced by the UCL-wide Capstone; that alternative forms of assessment would have been introduced for students in other years; that the Year Abroad would have come to an end half-way through for most, if not all of you, and that we would waiting for UCL directives on the coming Year Abroad at the beginning of June 2020 …

It is then, in the spirit of business-as-usual (in so far as this is remotely possible), that we are opening up this year’s Photography Competition to all SELCS-CMII students. We would love to receive photographs that reflect your experience of studying language and cultures under lockdown in SELCS-CMII. There is no rush: we know you all face challenges as we move through Term 3, so the deadline will be the start of the next academic year and prize-winners will be announced during the November Reading Week. Please submit your photograph with a title and brief explanation (of about 100–200 words) and we will showcase entries on the SELCS-CMII website.

First Prize £300 – Second Prize £200 – Third Prize £100

If I were eligible (which, of course, I’m not), the photograph above would be my slightly ironic ‘Still Life of Languages and Cultures under Lockdown with some Canary Island Influence …’ It is based on Kaja Silverman’s notion that ‘everything we see is propped on something we have previously seen’¹ and it is a collection of images ‘propped up’ on the themes of culture, language, ‘seeing’ and sustainability. The photograph of ‘Virgen mirando al mar’ (Francisco Curbelo, 2002), is one I took for an article on public art in Fuerteventura (Canary Islands), although she is looking out here over the potential ‘rise of universities’ rather than the sea. The message ‘There will always be something’ (hidden in the middle, unless you can zoom in) is the title of a work by the artist and photographer, Jane Hodgson (not Hispanic related and made before the pandemic, but of interest to what it may leave in its wake). The postcard in the foreground is by another artist and sculptor from the Canary Islands, Martín Chrinio (El viento/The Wind, 1966), and the message, half-hidden, to do with language and communication is by Roderick Field.

(by 16 November 2020)