Professor Esther Johnson MA (RCA), FHEA
Professor of Film and Media Arts
Summary
I am an artist and filmmaker working at the intersection of artist moving image and documentary. I am former recipient of the Philip Leverhulme 香蕉视频 Prize for Performing and Visual Arts, hold an MA from the Royal College of Art, London, and am a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy.
My work has been exhibited internationally in over 40 countries. Recent projects include: DUST & METAL (in-production in Vietnam), Liberation Radio, SHIPS in the SKY, ASUNDER, a ROLE to PLAY, and Alone Together: the Social Life of Benches.
About
Working with moving image, audio, photography and archival material, my documentary portraits foster an engagement with the effects of progress and societal change on communities, and how the universal impacts on the individual. My research draws upon oral testimony, experience and politics to create portraits that focus on marginal worlds to reveal resonant stories that may otherwise remain hidden or ignored. Recurring themes include social narratives, personal histories, memory and testament, cultural and heritage, folklore, regeneration, and exploration of architectural vernaculars and the inhabited environment. Recent research has focused on the repositioning of archival material as a way of addressing the relationship between history, memory and storytelling.
Work is made for exhibition, cinema screening and broadcast through individual projects, commissions and residencies. Screening and exhibition includes Barbican, London; BFI London Film Festival; CPH:DOX, Copenhagen; ICA, London; Hull 2017; International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam; International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Germany; Istanbul Biennial; Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, Germany; Landscape Institute; NASA, California; Sheffield Doc/Fest; SXSW and Tate galleries, London. Film works have been shown on BBC and Channel 4, and audio works have been broadcast on ABC Australia, BBC Radio 4, Resonance FM and RT脡 radio.
Support for my work has included 14鈥18 NOW; Arts Council England; Arts and Humanities 香蕉视频 Council; BBC; British Council UK and Vietnam; Channel 4; Creative Skillset; DCMS; Film London Artists鈥 Film and Video Award; Film and Video Umbrella; Heritage Lottery; James Reckitt Library Trust; Jerwood Arts; National Endowment for the Arts, USA; National Lottery; Radio Arts; Science Museum Group; Screen Yorkshire; Sheffield Children鈥檚 Festival; Sound Bank; Sound and Music; Sunderland Cultural Partnership; The Leverhulme Trust and Yorkshire Arts.
I have curated film and artist moving image programmes for galleries and film festivals and written for several arts publications. Work is held in the special collections of British Artists鈥 Film and Video Study Collection, Central Saint Martins; Science Museum Group; Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center, Buffalo and Yorkshire Film Archive. Distributors include ARGOS centre for art and media, Brussels and vtape, Toronto.
Teaching
College of Social Sciences and Arts
Subject Area
Film and Media
Courses
- Artists' Film and Video
- Documentary Film and Media Production
- Use of Archival Material
In addition to being Principal Lecturer at 香蕉视频, I have delivered workshops in film, photography and audio at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok; Squeaky Wheel and University of Buffalo, New York; and at galleries, museums and higher-education colleges in Hull, Leeds, London, Manchester and Sheffield.
Professional Contexts in Film and Media
Experimental Film and Video
香蕉视频
- Art and Design 香蕉视频 Centre
- Culture and Creativity 香蕉视频 Institute
'Dust & Metal' (B峄 và Kim lo岷) is a feature-length film in production in Vietnam directed by myself and produced by Live Cinema UK, working with Hanoi-based Vietnam Film Institute and TPD: The Centre for Assistance and Development of Movie Talents. The project is funded by the British Council Digital Collaboration Fund, and offers alternative perspectives of Vietnamese cultural heritage through the synergy of crowd-sourced material, archive film, oral history interviews, and newly shot footage. At the heart of this project, are personal narratives of freedom in Vietnam that connect with the country’s ubiquitous mode of transport: the MOTORBIKE. The pandemic has led to creative collaborative co-production methods for film production between the UK, Vietnam and US. With a score composed by San Francisco-based electronic artist Xo Xinh, and sound design by Hanoi-based artist Nhung Nguy峄卬, the project is being devised with the unique aim of premiering as a live ‘cine-concert’.
Liberation Radio
‘Liberation Radio’ is an interdisciplinary audio-visual installation work by myself, hanoi-based sound artist Nhung Nguyen (aka Sound Awakener), and historian and BBC broadcaster Matthew Sweet. Supported by FAMLAB (Film, Archives and Music Lab) Fund as part of the British Council’s Heritage of Future Past project in Vietnam, the work will premiere at Hanoi’s contemporary art space MANZI from 28 May — 13 June 2021 www.manziart.space.
The work centres on the remarkable untold story of a group of American military deserters who in 1968 went to the North Vietnamese mission in Stockholm with one object in mind – to join the army they had been drafted to fight. Instead, they were recruited for the propaganda war – and using magnetic tape, pop music and political rhetoric in programmes made for Liberation Radio, they aimed to persuade other American servicemen to desert the war. Their recordings were transported from Sweden to Vietnam by diplomatic bag, and broadcast from transmitters on the rooftops of Hanoi, and from revolutionary bases in the countryside. (Sometimes during aerial bombardment.)
The installation combines video material sourced from 52 public domain films and a scripted narrative that conjures the cloak-and-dagger activities of the clandestine network of anti-war activists and state intelligence operatives who managed the movement of deserters from Japan through the Soviet Union to Sweden - these are performed by, among others, the actor David Warner, star of Karel Reisz’s Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs (1971).
‘SHIPS in the SKY’ is a social history arts project that offers a unique 360-degree portrait of a building through time — the former Hull Co-operative society store and the UK’s largest mosaic ‘Three Ships’ (by Alan Boyson) that crowns the building entrance. The building has had many lives from a department store, dance hall, music venue and nightclubs (the Skyline Ballroom, Bailey’s, and Romeo's & Juliet’s), to an indoor market on the ground floor in the 1990s. When the Hull Co-operative closed, a section of the building was later occupied by British Home Stores from 1970 until final closure in 2016. Following closure, the building has been boarded-up ahead of demolition and redevelopment. The project has so far uncovered multiple alternative histories of this iconic Hull landmark — from progressive modernist public art, the co-operative movement and post-war rebuilding, to women in the workplace, friendships forged through work, retail history, and the nightclubs that have used the building. In commemorating the life of the building and those that have poignant memories connected to it, the project also prompts questions of who chooses what heritage is retained in the built environment, and ideas of architecture and public art as ‘place-making’.
Featured Projects
- Link 1.
- Link 2. Liberation Radio
- Link 3.
- Link 4.
- Link 5.
- Link 6. Alone Together: the Social Life of Benches
Relevant Projects
- DUST & METAL (in-production in Vietnam)
- Liberation Radio
- SHIPS in the SKY
- ASUNDER
- a ROLE to PLAY
- Alone Together: the Social Life of Benches
Collaborators and Sponsors
- 14-18 NOW
- Arts Council England
- Arts and Humanities 香蕉视频 Council
- BBC
- British Council UK and Vietnam
- Channel 4
- Creative Skillset
- DCMS
- Film London Artists鈥 Film and Video Award
- Film and Video Umbrella
- Heritage Lottery
- James Reckitt Library Trust
- Jerwood Arts
- National Endowment for the Arts, USA
- National Lottery
- Radio Arts
- Science Museum Group
- Screen Yorkshire
- Sheffield Children鈥檚 Festival
- Sound Bank
- Sound and Music
- Sunderland Cultural Partnership
- The Leverhulme Trust
- Yorkshire Arts
Publications
Journal articles
Johnson, E. (2022). . Viewfinder Magazine: Learning on Screen, 119.
Johnson, E. (2020). . Tribune Magazine.
Johnson, E. (2019). . The Critical Fish, (2), 36-42.
Johnson, E. (2019). . The Critical Fish, (2), 36-42.
Johnson, E. (2019). . Tribune Magazine.
Johnson, E., & Bird, L. (2018). . The modernist, 27.
Johnson, E. (2018). . Viewfinder Magazine: Learning on Screen, (110).
Johnson, E. (2018). . The Conversation.
Johnson, E., & Ballin, D. (2017). . Oral History Society Journal, Spring (2017), 100-110.
Johnson, E. (2004). . Vertigo, 2 (7), 8-9.
Johnson, E. (n.d.). Speaking With: Histories of Vietnam Explored Through Archive Film. Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media.
Conference papers
Johnson, E. (2020). . https://bamm.org.uk/.
Johnson, E. (2020). . In London鈥檚 Screen Archives Conference, London, 12 March 2020 - 20 March 2020.
Johnson, E. (2017). . In The Sound Of Memory Symposium: Sound-track / Sound-scape 2017, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 22 April 2017 - 24 April 2017.
Book chapters
Johnson, E. (2020). . In WORK. Animate Projects:
Johnson, E. (2018). . In Coles, R., Costa, S., & Watson, S. (Eds.) Pathways to well-being in design. Examples from the arts, humanities and the built environment. (pp. 203-222). Abingdon: Routledge:
Johnson, E., & Ballin, D. (2017). . In Allsop, D., Stephenson, C., & Wray, D. (Eds.) Justice Denied : Friends, Foes and the Miners. (pp. 64-76). Merlin Press:
Johnson, E. (2016). . In Coles, R., Costa, S., & Watson, S. (Eds.) Well-being 2016 : Co-creating Pathways to Well-being. (pp. 206-209). Birmingham: Birmingham City University:
Johnson, E. (2016). . In Neate, H., & Craggs, R. (Eds.) Modern Futures. (pp. 26-35). Devon: Uniformbooks:
Johnson, E. (2010). . In Cut and splice: Transmission 2010. (pp. 28-35). London: Sound and Music:
Johnson, E. (2010). . In Cascella, D., & Farinati, L. (Eds.) Cut and splice: Transmission 2010. (pp. 28-35). London: Sound and Music:
Ballin, D., & Johnson, E. (n.d.). . In Allsop, D., Stephenson, C., & Wray, D. (Eds.) The Miners鈥 Strike: the people, the controversies and the consequences. London: Merlin Press:
Books
Johnson, E. (2023). . The Modernist Society.
Johnson, E. (2021). . The Modernist Society.
Theses / Dissertations
Hassan, A.E. (2023). . (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Johnson, E.
Internet Publications
Johnson, E. (2019). . [Online].
Artefacts
Johnson, E. (2020). . [Newspaper].
Johnson, E. (2020). . [Newspaper].
Johnson, E. (2020). . [Newspaper].
Johnson, E., & Ballin, D. (2016). .
Exhibitions
Johnson, E. (2011). . Turner Contemporary, Margate.
Johnson, E. (2011). . [Film, Photography, Radio Ephemera, Drawing, Postcards]. South Square Gallery, Bradford.
Webb, N. (2009). . [CD/DVD]. Vane Gallery Newcastle.
Johnson, E. (2010). . [Photographic Banner]. Sheffield.
Johnson, E. (2013). . [Video; Audio; 3D artefacts]. National Media Museum, York.
Johnson, E., & Ballin, D. (n.d.). . [Exhibition 路 Including Audio Work, collection of photographs, archive items]. People's History Museum, Manchester.
Johnson, E., & Ballin, D. (n.d.). . [Exhibition 路 Including Audio Work, collection of photographs, archive items]. People's History Museum, Manchester.
Ballin, D., & Johnson, E. (2015). . [Show/Exhibition]. People's History Museum, Manchester.
Johnson, E., & Lilleb忙k Christensen, S. (2015). . [Exhibition at Udstillingsstedet Sydhavn Station, Copenhagen]. Copenhagen.
Johnson, E., & Ballin, D. (2016). . [Exhibition and Opening Event]. National Coal Mining Museum for England.
Johnson, E. (2019). . [Film]. Quad, Derby.
Johnson, E. (2021). . [Artist Moving Image film and audio installation]. Ng玫 H脿ng B煤n, Ba 膼矛nh, H脿 N峄檌, Vietnam.
Johnson, E. (2021). . [Artist Moving Image film and audio installation]. Ng玫 H脿ng B煤n, Ba 膼矛nh, H脿 N峄檌, Vietnam.
Johnson, E. (2022). DUST & METAL// a film by Esther Johnson // 2022 // 82鈥. [Film with live score]. World Premiere at Sheffield DocFest 2022.
Johnson, E. (2022). DUST & METAL// a film by Esther Johnson // 2022 // 82鈥. [Film with live score]. World Premiere at Sheffield DocFest 2022.
Johnson, E. (2022). . [Film with live score]. Sheffield, UK. https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/c3riimpact/esther-johnsons-dust-metal-archive-documentary-call-out-for-audio-and-video-footage-of-motorbike-culture-across-vietnam/#:~:text='Dust%20%26%20Metal'%20(B%E1%BB%A5i,TPD%3A%20The%20Centre%20for%20Assistance
Media
Johnson, E. (2020). . [Artist Moving Image / Film].
Johnson, E. (2020). . Animate Projects
Johnson, E. (2017). . [HD video installation with 4.0 surround sound].
Johnson, E., Stanley, B., & Wiggs, P. (2017). . [HD Video].
Johnson, E. (2016). . [Poetic Documentary Feature Film with Music]. Blanche Pictures / 14-18NOW / Sunderland Cultural Partnership:
Johnson, E., & Ballin, D. (2015). . [Audio Documentary 26 mins]. n/a:
Johnson, E. (2015). A share of a pensioner's Christmas 'Bonus' [Photographic series]. [Photography]. http://blanchepictures.com/echoes-of-protest/
Johnson, E. (2015). . [Video].
Johnson, E. (2014). . [Radio Documentary]. Radio Arts:
Johnson, E. (2010). . [Film]. Blanche Pictures:
Johnson, E. (2008). . [High-Definition Video].
Johnson, E. (2007). . [High-Definition Video]. Film London and BBC:
Johnson, E. (2007). . [HD Video].
Johnson, E. (2006). . [16mm Film].
Johnson, E. (2004). . [Video].
Johnson, E. (n.d.). . [Video]. Sheffield Contemporary Art Forum:
Johnson, E. (n.d.). . [Digital Video; Audio; maps].
Musical compositions
Johnson, E. (2009). Repetune. [CD].
Presentations
Johnson, E. (2021). . Presented at: XXI IOHA International Oral History Association Conference, Online, 2021
Johnson, E. (2021). . Presented at: Liberation radio : beyond Vietnam, Online
Johnson, E. (2021). . Presented at: Liberation radio : beyond Vietnam, Online
Johnson, E. (2021). . Presented at: Make Film History: Unlocking the Creative Potential of Film Archives, Online, 2021
Johnson, E. (2019). Ships in the Sky. Presented at: Ships in the Sky, Hull History Centre, 2019
Johnson, E. (2019). Ships in the Sky Launch. Presented at: Ships in the Sky Launch, Hull Central Library, 2019
Johnson, E. (2019). Ships in the Sky Launch. Presented at: Ships in the Sky Launch, Hull Central Library, 2019
Johnson, E. (2019). Ships in the Sky Launch. Presented at: Ships in the Sky Launch, Hull Central Library, 2019
Johnson, E. (2018). Ships in the Sky Leeds Modernist Society Launch. Presented at: Ships in the Sky, Hull Central Library, 2018
Johnson, E. (2018). . Presented at: IOHA 2018 Memory & Narration : XX International Oral History Association Conference, University of Jyv盲skyl盲, Finland, 2018
Ballin, D., & Johnson, E. (2018). . Presented at: IOHA 2018 Memory and Narration, Jyvaskyla, Finland, 2018
Johnson, E. (2018). . Presented at: MeCCSA 2018, London South Bank University, 2018
Johnson, E., & Rogaly, B. (2017). . Presented at: Practices of belonging, practices of place Conversations in film & research 2017, Goldsmiths University of London, 2017
Johnson, E. (2016). . Presented at: Well-being 2016, Co-creating Pathways to Well-being, Birmingham City University, 2016
Johnson, E. (2012). . Presented at: Rebels, Rioters, Revolutionaries : Third Annual Interdisciplinary Conference, Canterbury Christ Church University, 2012
Other publications
Johnson, E. (2012). . S1 Artspace, Sheffield: Sheffield Fringe:
Johnson, E. (2011). . Margate, UK: Turner Contemporary:
Johnson, E., & Williams, D. (2009). . Sheffield Institute of Arts Gallery: 香蕉视频:
Johnson, E. (2009). . Sheffield: Site Gallery:
Johnson, E. (2008). . Sheffield: Site Gallery:
Other activities
- Member of the Oral History Society
- Member of Focal International (Federation of Commercial Audiovisual Libraries)
Postgraduate supervision
Director of Studies for:
- Azza El-Hassan 'The Void Project: Palestinian Modern Visual Narrative in the Absence of a Visual Archive.'
- Cathy Soreny 'Exploring representations of communication disabilities through co-created films and sound art.'
- Patrick Wichert 'Vestiges of Affect: A Photographic Re-calling of a Forced Migrant Community's Landscapes.'