The Social Infant – an artistic observation of infant sociality

Can group life develop in infancy? What does it look and sound like? Can artistic research produce a new understanding of infancy through a sensory, observational image?

The Social Infant will address such questions, re-evaluating film’s observational mode to produce a new image of early childhood.This three year research project is based on a longitudinal film study of a group of six infants. The research method will draw on and complicate methods from an international field of infant research.

But where existing work prioritises the mother-child relation, I will create a child peer group to illuminate a less researched subject: infant group relations.

The study will occur ones every three weeks, over one year, from 6 months of age to 1-year, in a safe infant research environment at the UEL BabyDevLab, London.I will conduct research in a distinctly filmic observational manner.

Rather than use writing to assess and interpret data, as often happens with video infant research, I will use film to construct a sensory experience of infant sociality where meanings remain open. Moreover, the film’s subjects – infants – will comprise the audience. The outcome will be a work in two formats: a single channel narrative film; and a multi-screen installation.

The installation will be tested and adapted to generate interest in infants and adults, producing a space where both can share an experience of infant sociability mediated by moving image.