Delta Futures: (In)Visibilities in Audiovisual Culture, an international hybrid conference and a forum to share experiences, projects, and strategies for action

Adrian Hernandez (Francisco-J. Hernández Adrián) and Angelos Theocharis

School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Durham University

Delta Futures took place both online and in person at Durham University on 24-25 March 2022. Exploring notions of visibility and ‘(in)visibility’ in a range of audiovisual practices and experiences, the conference attracted participants from 16 universities and 14 research centres and projects. Presenters from Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, the UK, EU, and US, engaged with urgent challenges and shared practices around the power of visuality and aurality (what can be seen and heard) to render discussions of invisibility, vulnerability, fragility and the empowerment of communities and networks more central to the Living Deltas Hub.

Delta Futures Group

 Since the inspiring and energising days of the conference, the organizers and many participants have been busy with research trips and urgent commitments, including the marking season in the UK and the continuation of fieldwork and planing. However, the ideas and possibilities that we explored at the conference continue to impact our vision for the Hub. Indeed, as we heard during the lively discussions at the recent Digital Annual Meeting on 9-13 May, consensus is forming across the Hub around the importance of articulating, communicating, and preserving our collective work through audiovisual means.

 We couldn’t report properly on the Delta Futures https://deltafutures.co.uk/ conference without thanking our three fantastic keynote speakers for presenting us with an impressive constellation of challenging ideas: Subhankar Benerjee (University of New Mexico), Philippa Lovatt (University of St Andrews), and Som Supaparinya (Chiang Mai and Berlin). Their interventions provided both conference days with a series of engaging and provocative vistas – a kind of conceptual, theoretical, and practice-based matrix that informed and inflected the entire conference. We hope that these inspiring presentations and the discussions that ensued will now impact ongoing conversations and projects with a renewed sense of the centrality of thinking and acting audiovisually across the delta regions.

 Our seven panel chairs kept all discussions well-focused, lively, and impressively on time, while displaying a welcome agility for patient problem-solving, technical resourcefulness and humour. Our warm thanks to Maggie Roe, Adam Hejnowicz, Siobhan Warrington, Vinita Damodaran, Andy Large, Syeda Sadia Mehjabin, and Terry Cannon. 

 The panels included these topics: ‘Audiovisual Narratives of Delta Presents and Futures’; ‘Climate Change and Environmental Migration’; ‘Communicating Climate Emergencies’; ‘Waterscapes of the Anthropocene’; ‘Audiovisual media in Environmental Science Research’; ‘Multimedia Representations of Climate Crisis’; and ‘Visual Action Research with Vulnerable Communities in the Bengal Delta’. A final roundtable engaged with the topic of ‘Endangered Delta Futures and Visions of Emergence’.

 We learned much from the presenters working beyond the Living Deltas Hub. We look forward to staying in touch with them, to sharing our work with their networks, and to exploring future collaborations. We were privileged to discuss ideas and projects with those who joined us online from different parts of the world; and in person from Bangladesh, Ireland, and Germany; from the South of England, Wales, and Scotland; and from neighbouring Newcastle! 

 The organisers and participants are grateful to Andy Large for attending both days of the conference. Andy participated actively in formal and informal discussions and shared a short film featuring a rather eventful recent research trip to Bangladesh. His enthusiasm and active involvement in the conference signalled the Hub’s commitment to the developing a thoughtful and effective media strategy.

 Libby Wood, Living Deltas Hub Manager, supported and encouraged us from Newcastle throughout the at times challenging process of conference organizing. Julie Dobson (Manager) and Kelly Brown (Administrator), of the IHRR (Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience), provided logistical and technical support; and the staff at the Teaching and Learning Centre assisted us with practical and technical requests, even beyond their closing hours! 

 The range of institutional affiliations and networks, ongoing collaborations, and possibilities for future exchanges demonstrates the importance of steping up to the challenge of thinking collectively about conceptualizing, formatting, and disseminating our work as a Hub through a variety of media and platforms. Here is a list of the institutions and networks that were represented at the Delta Futures conference:

 Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, India; University of Cologne, Germany; Curtin University, Australia; Durham University; University of Glasgow; Khulna University, Bangladesh; Lancaster University; University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB); University of Limerick, Ireland; University of Memphis, USA; Newcastle University; University of Nottingham; Northumbria University; O.P. Jindal Global University, India; University of Sussex; Vietnam National University of Agriculture.

The Dhaka International Mobile Film Festival; International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), Bangladesh; Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM) at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET); Climate Change and Disaster Unit, SAJIDA Foundation, Bangladesh.

 Indian Institute of Public Health, Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

 Consulting and Organization Transformation Co., Ltd., Vietnam; National Institute for Science and Technology, Policy and Strategy Studies (NISTPASS), Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Vietnam; VNU-Central Institute for Natural Resources and Environmental Studies (VNU-CRES), Vietnam National University (VNU).

 The DELTA project and the Global South Studies Center, University of Cologne.

 Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex; Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University; Newcastle University Centre for Research Excellence in Landscape; Newcastle University’s Oral History Unit and Collective.

 Social Science Research Council (SSRC)-funded ‘Environmental Refugees’ project, US.

  The Delta Futures conference marked a turning point for many of us across the Hub who for many months, the long months of the COVID pandemic, were unable to meet in person, travel, and share our work on visual culture, film, and media in a structured manner. It was wonderful to listen to so many brilliant presentations and to discuss a variety of audiovisual media practices and ideas!

 We wish to thank our sponsors, the Newcastle University-based Living Deltas Hub; and the IHRR and the School of Modern Languages and Cultures (MLAC) at Durham University. For their kind and generous support, we thank professors Andy Large (Living Deltas PI), Julian Williams (IHRR Executive Director), and David Cowling (Head of MLAC). As I said during the closing remarks (this is Adrián writing), the conference simply would not have taken place without the hard work and dedication of Angelos Theocharis, PDRA in Film, Visual Culture and Media.

 Finally, to everyone who participated in the Delta Futures conference, thank you for contributing to an event that surpassed even our most optimistic expectations. We look forward to more conversations, to sharing new experiences, and to reporting on the important work we are all doing!