From April 24 – 25, 2023, a two-day interview workshop with Prof. Nicole Vögele took place with students of the HfBK Dresden as part of the EU4ART_differences LABs.
“The two-day interview workshop with Prof. Nicole Vögele was divided into two parts. First, we watched various film interviews and got to know different interview formats. In the discussion that followed, we exchanged ideas about what caught our attention, touched us or impressed us. We asked ourselves how we could gain access to potential interviewees. We then split into groups and interviewed each other.
The workshop was my first point of contact with interviewing. By looking at interviews from different decades and of different quality together, I was able to find out what kind of interviewer I could be.
From the first day, I was gripped by the potential of the interview. The audience has access to secondary mediators of information such as body language, conversational dynamics, and location. For the first time, I felt empowered and encouraged that I could also integrate multimedia into my artistic work.
I found the courage to be clear, direct and loud with my voice during the workshop. I am now motivated to record the conversations I have with work colleagues. The subsequent atmosphere in the group was characterized by honest discussions. The focus was always on the issue of crossing boundaries. I realized where my personal boundaries would be and how I could ethically dissolve the boundaries of others. On the second day, after watching another interview, we got down to business and broke into groups. Each individual participant was candid and direct, resulting in interviews with different dynamics in their purest and most immediate form.
I am impressed by Prof. Vögele’s openness, which encouraged us a lot. We conduct interviews every day in one form or another, linguistic or not. Putting myself as an interviewer and interviewee in front of a camera and a microphone in front of colleagues helped me overcome my inhibition of “being watched.” The fact that we conducted this experiment with a professional like Prof. Vögele broke down prejudices and motivated me to explore interview formats for myself. Her experience in journalism deeply impressed me and showed that everyone has their own approach to art or art school.”
– Ana Pireva
