By Shaden Al Darawshe
UNIVERSITY CITY, SHARJAH – Media practice can engage with fields not commonly associated with “traditional” communication studies, American University of Sharjah filmmaker and faculty member Dr. Bentley Brown said during a Feb. 10 session in the Student Center’s Floating Theatre.
Brown, an assistant professor in the Department of Media Communication, emphasized the value of introducing unfamiliar fields of knowledge within media contexts. He emphasized that media studies are inherently interdisciplinary, as one uses the technology of media to explore the world and its infinite topics.
Around 30 people from the AUS community, including students and staff attended the talk, titled “Can Art and Astrophysics Co-Exist,” part of a series of events held by the department to showcase its faculty members’ research.
During the event, Brown presented images from NASA and quoted figures ranging from Kim Kardashian to an astrophysicists, part of his effort to encourage media students to reach out and introduce themselves to a range of fields, astrophysics among them.
Brown also screened his film “Behind the Sun,” a short experimental documentary filmed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to show how media practice can engage with fields that are far away from “traditional” media studies.
The film, which has screened at several international film festivals such as Hot Docs, where it premiered, and most recently at Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai, uses astrophysical metaphors in a reflection on the director’s time in Jeddah from 2015 to 2018.
In one scene, a love interest’s face was covered with an image of the sun, linking his personal story to cosmic imagery.
