Ninth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

This is an exploratory study of visual media (photographs, film, video, and the like) that hold testament to the conceptual frameworks of “family” and “kinship” and how queer people in a relationship are integrated into their partner’s families and build a kinship. Looking at specific cases in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southern China, this research will account for the similarities and disparities between the seemingly unconventional concepts of “queer family” and “queer kinship” and their heterosexual counterparts. Following Lisa Blackman, Sarah Ahmed, Judith Bulter and Ann Cvetkovich, this research uses an affective approach to analysis visual media (alongside their accompanying anecdotes, mementos, histories, and stories) and will conduct in-depth interviews with 10 or more queer people and their long-term partners. This AV-PhD research will contribute to the still-evolving representations of “family” and “kin”, especially their affective dynamics and what conditions serve their purpose. Besides an extensive thesis contributing to the theories of affective queer kinship, inspired by Deleuze’s aesthetic comprehension, this project will also produce 4 short films of queer kinships entangled with their indispensable heterosexual kins. In this presentation, a philosophical framework will be presented, with support from existing audio-visual material and 2 case studies from my own documentary work about heterosexual parents with queer children.