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All Outputs (35)

The Message (2022)
Book Chapter
Sobers, S. (2022). The Message. In C. Leith, & P. Wrigglesworth (Eds.), Left Cultures: A Lexicon Of Stories Past And Present. Bristol: Left Cultures

How listening to 'The Message' by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five in 1982, became a life changing class-conscious moment for a 10 year old boy.

What came first, the Black or the Arts? An autoethnography (2016)
Presentation / Conference
Sobers, S. (2016, March). What came first, the Black or the Arts? An autoethnography. Paper presented at Framing the Critical Decade: After the Black Arts Movement, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

This highly personal paper will discuss what inspired me about the Black Arts Movement and the critical decade’, and how has it continued to influence my arts practice and thinking. Growing up in Bath in the 80s, leaving school in 1988 aged 16 to... Read More about What came first, the Black or the Arts? An autoethnography.

Walking interconnections: Walking in someone else's shoes (2014)
Presentation / Conference
Sobers, S., Porter, S., Parfitt, A., & Wheeler, A. (2014, November). Walking interconnections: Walking in someone else's shoes. Presented at Thinking Futures, MShed, Bristol, UK

'Walking Interconnections' is a research project that worked in the Bristol region from 2013 – 2014 using walking, conversation and creative activities as methods to trigger communication between self-identified disabled people and sustainability pra... Read More about Walking interconnections: Walking in someone else's shoes.

The social vocabulary of Hidden Presence: British History and the need to talk through the silence and acknowledge true stories of African presence (2013)
Presentation / Conference
Sobers, S. (2013, October). The social vocabulary of Hidden Presence: British History and the need to talk through the silence and acknowledge true stories of African presence

When British spaces, rural and otherwise, are full of celebrated and re-told myths and legends – from sites such as Stonehenge through to character based fables such as Robin Hood – why do some resist to allow true stories, which are no less fantasti... Read More about The social vocabulary of Hidden Presence: British History and the need to talk through the silence and acknowledge true stories of African presence.

Hidden Presence: British history and the need to acknowledge true stories with African descendent casts (2013)
Presentation / Conference
Sobers, S. (2013, September). Hidden Presence: British history and the need to acknowledge true stories with African descendent casts. Paper presented at Black History in Wiltshire Symposium, East Tytherton

British culture is full of legend and folklore, yet true stories about the Black presence in pre-20th century UK, which on the surface are even more fantastical than fiction, struggles to find a place in the historical British narrative. The functi... Read More about Hidden Presence: British history and the need to acknowledge true stories with African descendent casts.

Walking interconnections: Researching the lived experience of disabled people for a sustainable society (2013)
Presentation / Conference
Sobers, S., Adams, S., & Heddon, D. (2013, September). Walking interconnections: Researching the lived experience of disabled people for a sustainable society. Paper presented at Walking in the City: Mapping Borders Symposium, The Parlour Rooms, Bristol

‘Walking Interconnections’ is the name of a collaborative research project. As the name suggests, the project’s focus is on the ways in which walking, as an activity, can prompt the sharing of experiences between people. The interconnections we expl... Read More about Walking interconnections: Researching the lived experience of disabled people for a sustainable society.

Enthusiastic facilitator, reluctant anthropologist (2013)
Presentation / Conference
Sobers, S. (2013, July). Enthusiastic facilitator, reluctant anthropologist. Paper presented at International Visual Sociology Association, Goldsmiths, London, UK

After 17 years of working in community media video projects as a facilitator and later as a researcher, I felt the time was right to now reconnect with my own creative practice of photography and filmmaking. As a facilitator I was ever conscious of t... Read More about Enthusiastic facilitator, reluctant anthropologist.

Re:Interpretation: the representation of perspectives on slave trade history using creative media (2013)
Book Chapter
Sobers, S., & Mitchell, R. (2013). Re:Interpretation: the representation of perspectives on slave trade history using creative media. In M. Dresser, & A. Hann (Eds.), Slavery and the British Country House (132-139). English Heritage

This chapter describes the process, production and context of Re:Interpretation, a participatory media project carried out by Firstborn Creatives in partnership with the National Trust. The brief was to explore the challenging subject of transatlant... Read More about Re:Interpretation: the representation of perspectives on slave trade history using creative media.

Re:Interpretation: The representation of perspectives on slave trade history using creative media (2013)
Presentation / Conference
Sobers, S. (2013, March). Re:Interpretation: The representation of perspectives on slave trade history using creative media. Paper presented at Conservation and (Post) Colonialism Conference - Association for Studies in the Conservation of Historic Buildings (ASCHB), Museum of London, Docklands

This presentation describes the process, production and context of Re:Interpretation, a participatory media project carried out by Firstborn Creatives in partnership with the National Trust. The brief was to explore the challenging subject of transa... Read More about Re:Interpretation: The representation of perspectives on slave trade history using creative media.

Reflections on partnership working: Case Study of BBC partnership with UWE photography programme (2012)
Presentation / Conference
Sobers, S., Smart, D., Connolly, S., Weston, P., & McGinn, C. (2012, December). Reflections on partnership working: Case Study of BBC partnership with UWE photography programme. Paper presented at Engage 2012 - National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement Conference, Bristol Hotel

This presentation discussed the partnership that was built between BBC Bristol and the UWE photography programme, which saw students working with BBC staff on the 'More Than Words' festival, producing imagery across the city. Reflections on the succ... Read More about Reflections on partnership working: Case Study of BBC partnership with UWE photography programme.

Adinkra Poster Series (2012)
Exhibition / Performance
Sobers, S., & Mitchell, R. (2012). Adinkra Poster Series. 1 November 2012 - 1 November 2012. (Unpublished)

These poster images are work in progress of a series of 54. They explore the Adinkra symbols which originate from Ghana, dating back to the pre-historic era. The symbols are still widely used by Ghanaians to the present day, as well as by the wider A... Read More about Adinkra Poster Series.

Real and Imagined Lives (2012)
Exhibition / Performance
Sobers, S. (2012). Real and Imagined Lives. 20 October 2012 - 6 January 2013. (Unpublished)

Real and Imagined Lives explores identity through works drawn from the National Portrait Gallery Collection. Fictional character sketches written by well known authors accompany Tudor & Jacobean paintings of unknown sitters, while writers offer an a... Read More about Real and Imagined Lives.

Words Inside (2012)
Exhibition / Performance
Sobers, S. (2012). Words Inside. 1 October 2012 - 1 January 2013. (Unpublished)

Solo photography exhibition - This photography series is interested in marginalia – notes in the margins of books, and the other markings they carry that were not there when new. The photographs on display are a combination of my own books, and ones... Read More about Words Inside.

Identity in community media (negotiating marginal positions within photographic practices) (2012)
Presentation / Conference
Sobers, S. (2012, April). Identity in community media (negotiating marginal positions within photographic practices). Paper presented at Rendering the Real: Negotiating marginal positions within photographic practices, 198 Contemporary Gallery, London

Invited to discuss how notions of identity, self, and place feature for participants in community media projects, where those themes are related to the project contexts.

The business of community media: Stakeholders and sustainability (2012)
Presentation / Conference
Sobers, S. (2012, March). The business of community media: Stakeholders and sustainability. Paper presented at Community Media Symposium 2012, University of Gloucestershire

I was invited to discuss the economic, ethical, pedagogic, political and other factors relating to community media activities, and their bearing on the sustainability of the businesses carrying out the work. "This interdiscplinary Symposium brough... Read More about The business of community media: Stakeholders and sustainability.

Roots & Wings (2012)
Exhibition / Performance
Sobers, S. (2012). Roots & Wings. 12 February 2012 - 30 October 2012. (Unpublished)

Touring group photography exhibition - 2012. Locations included The Hawth, Crawley, Steel Shed Gallery in Barbados, Martinique art gallery, and Brighton Photo Fringe. Curated and coordinated by Urban Flo Creative Consultancy, in partnership with... Read More about Roots & Wings.

Socially engaged arts practice in the current economic climate (2010)
Presentation / Conference
Sobers, S. (2010, September). Socially engaged arts practice in the current economic climate. Paper presented at Demanding Conversations, Knowle West Media Centre, Bristol

Demanding Conversations was a conference that took place at Knowle West Media Centre, Bristol on 22nd and 23rd September 2010. The conference involved practitioners, artists, policy makers, and commentators in debate about socially engaged arts pract... Read More about Socially engaged arts practice in the current economic climate.

Myths, facts and feelings: Bristol and transatlantic slavery (2010)
Book
Sobers, S., Mitchell, R., Lynas, L., Burton, E., & Cavannah, K. (2010). S. Sobers, R. Mitchell, L. Lynas, E. Burton, & K. Cavannah (Eds.), Myths, facts and feelings: Bristol and transatlantic slavery. Community Media South West