Movement, Space, and Torture: Exploring Contemporary Dance and Experimental Filmmaking as a Method for International Relations

Abstract This paper looks at contemporary dance and experimental filmmaking as transdisciplinary research methods for international political sociology. Our main argument is that understandings of torture which underlie prevention strategies are shaped by what is made visible in the representation of violence and, therefore, aesthetic products can support such prevention strategies by challenging these assumptions and introducing spaces for collective accountability. We show this by, discussing Grievable//Ungrievable, a short film realized in collaboration with Geneva-based artists as part of an immersive exhibition about the lived realities of perpetrators of torture. In particular, we highlight how the short film questions the ways in which torture is represented while eliciting sensations that are productive of embodied knowledge. To do so, we introduce transdisciplinary debates on the representation of violence and on filmmaking and dance as international relations methods, in order to illustrate the epistemological and theoretical background of the short film. We believe that our contribution shows the potential of transdisciplinary, experimental, and creative approaches to international political sociology that participate in the production of heterogenous knowledge and challenge disciplinary boundaries.