The myriad complexities difference entails can hardly be overestimated: it is a lived, practiced, embodied, and observed phenomenon that deserves a careful methodological and analytical approach. Visual methodologies offer a wide range of possibilities when it comes addressing diverse aspects and meanings of difference. What passes for different – and why? How do we locate difference? How do we visualize it? How do we make sense of difference spatially and temporally in urban and migration contexts? What are visual markers of difference? How is difference produced through visualizations? How can we critically engage with visual production of difference?

Our two-day workshop brings together international researchers, activists, and artists tackling the notion of in/visibility and difference with visual and visualization methods. The aim of the workshop is to share research conducted with visual methodologies and to collectively develop new ideas and strategies on how visual methods can enhance our understanding of contemporary social worlds.

In the three thematic sessions we will discuss recent developments in the field of visual methodologies, innovative visualization and participatory research tools, and co-operation possibilities between academia and art. In her keynote address, Professor Caroline Knowles of Goldsmiths College, will share her expertise on visual methodologies in social sciences.

The sessions and the keynote are open to the public. Please register here. The trouble shooting labs, in which early career researchers and graduate students selected through a call for papers will discuss their projects, are open to workshop participants only. The entire workshop will be held in English.

Those who cannot be present at the workshop but are interested in the discussions can follow us on twitter at #VMW2015.