More than meets the “I”: A polyphonic approach to video as dialogic meaning-making

Abstract

This paper summons Bakhtin's principle of visual excess to the field of video research. Bakhtin's dialogic approach emphasises the visual as an effort of the eye, as well as the subjective “I”. Seeing is thus re-caste as an event where subjective and cultural boundaries are encountered, lived, and offer insight to those involved. Video is therefore posited as a visual and axiologic encounter that allows one to perceive beyond one's own limits. Here the researcher does not come with a predetermined set of categories or criteria, but seeks to encounter the form of language and the meaning of those forms, from multiple (polyphonic) visual and ideological standpoints. I argue that taking this approach opens up possibilities for seeing as an opportunity for dialogic speculation and interrogation- one that forms the basis of my research orientation. By way of demonstration the paper will introduce an example of video filmed in an infant educational setting which highlights the additional insights offered through different visual fields and their interpreted meanings. Synchronising four visual fields of the same event - from the view of the infants, teacher and researcher - visual surplus is thus operationalized as a multi-voiced polyphonic event. Dialogues concerning their pedagogical significance - for the teacher and the researcher - are discussed alongside the footage itself. Together they highlight subtle, yet highly significant potentialities for video work that set out to engage with the experience of the eye as an encounter with ‘other’. I argue that such visually oriented engagement can act as a central source of understanding and insight that far exceeds traditional approaches in educational research that view participants as mere objects for amusement or manipulation. Moreover, this approach poses a new video methodology in which meanings take precedence over what is aesthetically received.