Manifesto Archive
Fragments Manifesto V1.4 ( May 2025)
Fragments is not peer-reviewed.
Fragments is a space/home/forum for anything and everything we do towards developing our videographic form and method.
Fragments aims to adapt and evolve in the spirit of the work it features.
Fragments is a way to capture and celebrate the videographic experimentation that might otherwise never see the light of day because:
- What do/can we do with such experiments?
- We would rather not clutter the feed of our video hosting platform with ‘unfinished’ explorations.
- If we upload them as unlisted or hidden links, no one can find them.
- We’re too busy to offer much in the way of context or discussion about these processes.
and most importantly
- It might not even occur to us as we play in the editor that this play, this experiment, might be interesting or valuable to anyone else.
A Fragment is not a video essay or a work in progress. To paraphrase Mark Sample (see below) “The fragment is the end, not the means to the end”.
We are interested in expanding the concept of the videographic, or perhaps more accurately, we are interested in expanding into the concept of the videographic.
This is a place for the fragments of making, where process and method are paramount, where experimentation (true, with no clear thought or care for the end product) is championed, and, perhaps, where new ideas might be found.
Inspiration
Fragments owes a significant debt to a number of practitioners who have advocated for and engaged in experimental work as an integral part of their creative practice research. The following selected writings continue to inspire us in our work and our goals for this journal and are highly recommended reading.
“We use the tools at hand and use them in unplanned ways.”
“Completeness is not the goal and intactness is not the start – we aim for multiplicity and inexhaustibility.”
“Seek process, not outcome!”
“Embrace mistakes, accidents, glitches, and chance!”
“But research and its associated methodologies are not limited to the final product of scholarship: rather, the processes of discovery and experimentation are often the more exciting and insightful parts of scholarly endeavors, and it is in such processes where methodologies are used and developed.”
“OuScholPo names a creative erotics of videographic practice, a pataphysics that is playful and wilfully banal, experimental and performative but non-productive, even wasteful.”
Proctor, J., 2019. Teaching avant-garde practice as videographic research. Screen, 60(3)
“While, perhaps, a scholar’s first impulse in constructing a video essay might involve something like a direct translation from the printed word to the moving image, complete with an explanatory voiceover directing our understanding of the underlying audiovisual passages, the revolutionary potential of a developing form lies in its ability to push boundaries and establish (or refuse to establish) new conventions.”
Sample, M, 2012. Notes Towards a Deformed Humanities
“The deformed work is the end, not the means to the end.“
Fragments Manifesto V1.3 ( May 2025)
Fragments is not peer-reviewed.
Fragments is a space/home/forum for anything and everything we do towards developing our videographic form and method.
Fragments aims to adapt and evolve in the spirit of the work it features.
Fragments is a way to capture and celebrate the videographic experimentation that might otherwise never see the light of day because:
- What do/can we do with such experiments?
- We would rather not clutter the feed of our video hosting platform with ‘unfinished’ explorations.
- If we upload them as unlisted or hidden links, no one can find them.
- We’re too busy to offer much in the way of context or discussion about these processes.
and most importantly
- It might not even occur to us as we play in the editor that this play, this experiment, might be interesting or valuable to anyone else.
A Fragment is not a video essay or a work in progress. To paraphrase Mark Sample (see below) “The fragment is the end, not the means to the end”.
We are interested in expanding the concept of the videographic, or perhaps more accurately, we are interested in expanding into the concept of the videographic.
This is a place for the fragments of making, where process and method are paramount, where experimentation (true, with no clear thought or care for the end product) is championed, and, perhaps, where new ideas might be found.
Inspiration
Fragments owes a significant debt to a number of practitioners who have advocated for and engaged in experimental work as an integral part of their creative practice research. The following selected writings continue to inspire us in our work and our goals for this journal and are highly recommended reading.
“But research and its associated methodologies are not limited to the final product of scholarship: rather, the processes of discovery and experimentation are often the more exciting and insightful parts of scholarly endeavors, and it is in such processes where methodologies are used and developed.”
“OuScholPo names a creative erotics of videographic practice, a pataphysics that is playful and wilfully banal, experimental and performative but non-productive, even wasteful.”
Proctor, J., 2019. Teaching avant-garde practice as videographic research. Screen, 60(3)
“While, perhaps, a scholar’s first impulse in constructing a video essay might involve something like a direct translation from the printed word to the moving image, complete with an explanatory voiceover directing our understanding of the underlying audiovisual passages, the revolutionary potential of a developing form lies in its ability to push boundaries and establish (or refuse to establish) new conventions.”
Sample, M, 2012. Notes Towards a Deformed Humanities
“The deformed work is the end, not the means to the end.“
Fragments Manifesto V1.2 ( May 2025)
Fragments is not peer-reviewed.
Fragments is a space/home/forum for anything and everything we do which is towards a new work (or potential new work), but not the new work itself.
Fragments aims to adapt and evolve in the spirit of the work it features.
Fragments is a way to capture and celebrate the videographic experimentation that might otherwise never see the light of day because:
- What do/can we do with such experiments?
- We would rather not clutter the feed of our video hosting platform with ‘unfinished’ explorations.
- If we upload them as unlisted or hidden links, no one can find them.
- We’re too busy to offer much in the way of context or discussion about these processes.
and most importantly
- It might not even occur to us as we play in the editor that this play, this experiment, might be interesting or valuable to anyone else.
Fragments are videographic (not video essays). We are interested in expanding the concept of the videographic, or perhaps more accurately, we are interested in expanding into the concept of the videographic.
This is a place for the fragments of making, where process and method are paramount, where experimentation (true, with no clear thought or care for end product) is championed, and, perhaps, where new ideas might be found.
Inspiration
Fragments owes a significant debt to a number of practitioners who have advocated for and engaged in experimental work as an integral part of their creative practice research. The following selected writings continue to inspire us in our work and our goals for this journal and are highly recommended reading.
“But research and its associated methodologies are not limited to the final product of scholarship: rather, the processes of discovery and experimentation are often the more exciting and insightful parts of scholarly endeavors, and it is in such processes where methodologies are used and developed.”
“OuScholPo names a creative erotics of videographic practice, a pataphysics that is playful and wilfully banal, experimental and performative but non-productive, even wasteful.”
Proctor, J., 2019. Teaching avant-garde practice as videographic research. Screen, 60(3)
“While, perhaps, a scholar’s first impulse in constructing a video essay might involve something like a direct translation from the printed word to the moving image, complete with an explanatory voiceover directing our understanding of the underlying audiovisual passages, the revolutionary potential of a developing form lies in its ability to push boundaries and establish (or refuse to establish) new conventions.”
Sample, M, 2012. Notes Towards a Deformed Humanities
“The deformed work is the end, not the means to the end.“
Fragments Manifesto V1.1 ( April 2025)
Fragments is not peer-reviewed.
Fragments is a space/home/forum for anything and everything we do which is towards a new work (or potential new work), but not the new work itself.
Fragments aims to adapt and evolve in the spirit of the work it features.
Fragments is a way to capture and celebrate the videographic experimentation that might otherwise never see the light of day because:
- What do/can we do with such experiments?
- We would rather not clutter the feed of our video hosting platform with ‘unfinished’ explorations.
- If we upload them as unlisted or hidden links, no one can find them.
- We’re too busy to offer much in the way of context or discussion about these processes.
and most importantly
- It might not even occur to us as we play in the editor that this play, this experiment, might be interesting or valuable to anyone else.
Fragments are videographic (not video essays). We are interested in expanding the concept of the videographic, or perhaps more accurately, we are interested in expanding into the concept of the videographic.
This is a place for the fragments of making, where process and method are paramount, where experimentation (true, with no clear thought or care for end product) is championed, and, perhaps, where new ideas might be found.