“It is awfully hard to photograph a human right: what in the world would it look like? In fact, rights don’t look like anything at all. What, then, does a person with human rights look like? Well, like a person: that’s it.” (Linfield, The Cruel Radiance, 2010, p. 37)

In 2010, Susie Linfield, aptly asked how one can picture a human right, and a person with human rights. Thirteen years later, these questions could not be more topical. Every day, each of us observes multiple human rights violations on the news, social media, and other platforms. Yet, the question remains: What is that we are looking at and what are the ethics of these representations? Could we envisage a visual language in which human rights could be represented without having to first be violated?

Join us this Saturday 16th of December at the Winter York Zine Fest to explore these timely questions through a hands-on/making workshop, and to also mark the 75th anniversary of the Human Rights Day (10 December). This creative workshop will involve zine-making and blackout poetry. Participants will be provided with relevant sources, material, and guidance to develop their own creations on the theme, and will engage in group discussion.

This event will be facilitated by Dr Kyveli Lignou-Tsamantani (art historian) and is organised by the Visual Ethics Network, a Research Strand of the Centre for Modern Studies, University of York.

The event will take place as part of the Winter York Zine Festival.

When: Saturday 16 December, 1-3pm

Where: The Crescent, York (YO24 1AW)

Free admission | All welcome! [no need to pre-book, just arrive at 1pm]