Julian Ross
Assistant Professor
- Name
- Dr. J.A. Ross
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2358
- j.a.ross@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Julian Ross is a University Lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.
Bio
Julian Ross (he/him) is an Assistant Professor at Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society, where he teaches on the courses MA Film & Photographic Studies and BA Film en literatuurwetenschap. He is minor coordinator for Theatre en Film and a founding co-director of the cross-faculty research centre ReCNTR.
He is co-programmer of Doc Fortnight 2023 and 2024 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and co-programmer of the Flaherty Seminar 2024, which will be held at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Thailand. Previously, he was programmer at International Film Festival Rotterdam, Locarno Film Festival, a guest programmer at Singapore International Film Festival, and film program advisor at IDFA. His curatorial work has been presented at Tate Modern, Art Institute of Chicago, Kunsthal Rotterdam, BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Anthology Film Archives, Harvard Film Archives, British Film Institute, Light Industry, Tallinn Photomonth Biennale, e-flux Video & Film and other places. In 2019, he was selected as one of thirty “Future Leaders” in film programming and curating by Screen International. He regularly collaborates with Eye Filmmuseum on film programmes and is a mentor for participants of their Programmes of the Future project.
He was a recipient of the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2015-18) as a Research Fellow at University of Westminster, where he was also a Research Associate on a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship project led by Professor May Adadol Ingawanij. He received his PhD on 1960s-70s Japanese expanded cinema at the University of Leeds. He is co-editor of Japanese Expanded Cinema and Intermedia (Archive Books, 2020) and has published in the edited collections The Moving Form of Film (Oxford University Press, 2023), A Companion to Experimental Cinema (Wiley-Blackwell, 2022), The Japanese Cinema Book (BFI, 2020), the journals Non-fiction, Photography & Culture, and Photoresearcher, magazines Sight and Sound, Extra Extra, and Film Comment, and various festival and exhibition catalogues.
Research interests
- Artists’ moving image
- Experimental film
- Asian cinema
- Documentary
- Intermediality
- Film installation and performance
- Video Art
- Media Archaeology
- World cinema
Research
My ongoing research on Japanese expanded cinema in the 1960-70s began with my PhD dissertation ‘Beyond the Frame: Intermedia and Expanded Cinema in 1960-70s Japan’, supervised by Professor Lúcia Nagib at the University of Leeds. Since, it has led to several projects: a 2016 film and performance series Throwing Shadows for Tate Modern and International Film Festival Rotterdam, co-curated with Go Hirasawa; the 2017 group exhibition Japanese Expanded Cinema Revisited at Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, for which I was curatorial advisor; group exhibition More Than Cinema: Motoharu Jonouchi and Keiichi Tanaami at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, co-curated with Ann Adachi-Tasch and Go Hirasawa in 2020; and the book Japanese Expanded Cinema and Intermedia: Critical Texts of the 1960s (Archive Books, 2020) co-edited with Ann Adachi-Tasch and Go Hirasawa, for which a book launch was organised with MoMA, Eye Filmmuseum and Tallinn Photomonth Biennale. With funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation Grant, Collaborative Cataloging Japan, a non-profit organisation for which I am Core Research Member, initiated collection surveys and preservation projects for works of Japanese expanded cinema. My research on Japanese expanded cinema is a historical study that proposes to not only internationalise the study of expanded cinema but also to consider the local critical discourse of the period as a contribution.
As part of my Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2015-18), I researched how the carousel slide projector has been used by contemporary artists internationally since Kodak terminated its production in 2004. The research project culminated in the 2019 group exhibition Blackout, which was presented at Kunsthal Rotterdam as part of International Film Festival Rotterdam, after which it was presented in Ambika P3 (London) and Greylight Projects (Brussels). The exhibition was covered by Sight & Sound, NECSUS, Hyperallergic, MUBI Notebook, De Groene Amsterdammer, De Filmkrant and Metropolis M. Part of the project forms a book chapter I contributed for The Moving Form of Film (Oxford University Press, 2023). The project questions to what extent the industry determines the lifespan of a technological apparatus and, again, calls for the internationalisation of the study.
In 2018-19, I was Research Associate for Professor May Adadol Ingawanij’s British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship research project Animistic Apparatus. As part of this project, we co-organised the following: a research workshop in Udon Thani, Thailand, with 40 artists, curators and researchers; screenings at Alliance Française Bangkok, Aperture: Asia & Pacific Film Festival (London), Rijksacademie (Amsterdam), Nordland Kunst- og Filmfagskole (Kabelvåg, Norway), Other Futures (Amsterdam), Zone2Source (Amsterdam), Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions at Tokyo Photographic Art Museum; and a group exhibitions as part of NTT ICC (Tokyo) and Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival (UK). The project has received coverage from Sight & Sound, Art Monthly and NANG, and we are contributing a co-written article in an upcoming issue of the journal World Records.
I’m co-editor of the World Cinema Series (Bloomsbury) with Lúcia Nagib since 2016 and I’m on the advisory board for the book series Experimental Film and Artists’ Moving Image (Palgrave MacMillan), the editorial board of MUBI’s Notebook magazine, and the programem board for Extra Extra. Previously, I have been on the selection committees of Asia Cultural Centre Cinema Fund (2020), Hubert Bals Fund (2017-2021) and Eye Experimental distribution of Eye International (2017) and have served on several juries at film festivals, including at CPH:DOX, IndieLisboa, Netherlands Film Festival, Open City Documentary Festival, among others.
For more details on my written work and research presentations, please see: www.rossjulian.com
Teaching (2023-24)
Cinema: Avant-garde (BA), Third Cinema (BA), and Documentary: Audiovisual Evidence (BA). Co-teaching Curating Film and Video (MA), Contemporary Theories of Film (MA), Animation, Comics, Graphic Novel (BA), TV Series (BA), World Cinema A (BA).
I joined Leiden University in September 2019.
Assistant Professor
- Faculty of Humanities
- Centre for the Arts in Society
- Literatuurwetenschap
- Ross J. (2024), Mismatch. In: Towada Art Center (Ed.), Yu Araki - LONELY PLANETS. Tokyo: Film Art Sha. 112-123.
- Ross J.A. (2023), IDFA 2022: Locating the Real, Film Comment : .
- Ingawaij M.A. Ross J.A. (2023), Animistic Apparatus: A Gathering, World Records 7: 113-123.
- Vetter D., Palmer P. & Ross J.A. (2023), Translated: revolution, more or less: an interview with Masao Adachi, Woche der Kritik 2023: .
- Ross J.A. (2023), Review of: Neves J. & Sarkar B., Asian Video Cultures. BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies 14(1): 110-112.
- Hasanbegović F. Ross J.A. Zachariades C. 7 December 2023, IDFA 2023 Recap : Corresponding Cinemas’ Refusal to Comply. Docs in orbit 72 [podcast].
- Ross J.A. 21 November 2023, Julian Ross on new nonfiction at IDFA. The last thing I saw 213 [podcast].
- Ross J.A. (2023), Ryusuke Hamaguchi on how cars stroke the city, Extra Extra (21): 60-80.
- Ross J.A. (2023), Intermediality and the carousel slide projector. In: Nagib L. & Solomon S. (Eds.), The moving form of film: Oxford University Press. 65-80.
- Ross J.A. (2023), 51: mouth to mouth, Sight & Sound 33(3): 41.
- Su H. & Ross J.A. 26 January 2023, 1646 Podcast #11 | Su Hui-Yu in conversation with Julian Ross. 1646 Podcast. 1646 Experimental Art Space [podcast].
- Lu P., Ross J.A. & Wang B. (2023), Faraway, so close!: A journey through Germany, Notebook (3): 78-87.
- Strathaus S.S., Ziemons U. & Ross J.A. 8 February 2023, Time tunnel: Takahiko Iimura at Kino Arsenal, 18. April 1973. Arsenal: Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V. [podcast].
- Rapold N. Ross J.A. 24 November 2022, Ep.148: IDFA #2 with Julian Ross: Manifesto, Documentary on Stage, and more. The Last Thing I Saw [podcast].
- Ross J. (4 July 2022), Land Marks: Fantomas. [web article].
- Ross J.A. (2022), Rebellion of the Body: Hijikata Tatsumi, Performance Documentation and Japanese Experimental Film. In: Windhausen F. (Ed.), A Companion to Experimental Cinema. New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell. 307-324.
- Ross J.A. (2022), Screen Time: Takahiko Iimura (1937-2022), Film Comment : .
- Bloom E., Emmerzael H., Mechanicus K. & Ross J.A. 19 September 2021, What is expanded Japanese cinema (with Julian Ross). Celebrating Cinema. LAB 111 [podcast].
- Leeuw I. de & Ross J.A. (2021), Polyvocality as Resistance.
- Ross J.A. (16 September 2020), Killer Joe’s: 1960s Japanese Expanded Cinema in Discotheques. Brooklyn, NY, USA: Pioneer Works (Broadcast). [web article].
- Ross J.A. & Voelcker B. (2020), There is no conclusion to this assembly: a conversation about Koki Tanaka, Non-Fiction (2): 12-17.
- Ross J.A. & Rizaldi R. (10 November 2020), 'Riar Rizaldi "Kasiterit"': Vdrome. [web article].
- Ross J.A. (2020), 'From Tomorrow on, I Will'. Frames of Representation.
- Fleischmann P., Fränzen B., Meden J., Menegon M., Milovanovic M., Jansen W., Pelzer W., Ross J.A. & Young N. (29 May 2020), 'Notes on Film' (Vienna Shorts). [web article].
- Ross J.A. (2020), Funeral Parade of Roses, Sight & Sound (Summer): 30-31.
- Ross J.A (2020), Situating intermedia and expanded cinema in 1960s Japan. In: Adachi-Tasch A., Hirasawa G. & Ross J.A. (Eds.), Japanese Expanded Cinema and Intermedia: Critical Texts of the 1960s. Berlin, Germany: Archive Books. 11-32.
- Ross J.A. (2020), Experimental film: forms, spaces and networks: a history of Japanese experimental film. In: Fujiki H. & Phillips A. (Eds.), The Japanese Cinema Book: The British Film Institute. 192-202.
- Go Hirasawa, Ross J.A. & Adachi-Tasch Ann (Eds.) (2020), Japanese Expanded Cinema and Intermedia: Critical Texts of the 1960s. Berlin, Germany: Archive Books.
- Cavoulacos S., Dinçel N., Ferm M., Lampert A., López A.E., Porterfield M., Ross J.A. & Szlam M. (2019), Seven Ways to Re-View a Film History, MoMA Magazine : .
- Ross J.A. (2019), America, America, America: Japanese artists in the United States in the Sixties and Seventies. In: Jhaveri S. (Ed.), America: Films from Elsewhere: The Shoestring Publisher. 424-439.
- Ross J.A. (2019), Landscape, video and the Anthropocene: Interview with Lukas Marxt. In: Slanar C. (Ed.), Lukas Marxt: From Light to Cold. Vienna: VfmK Verlag für moderne Kunst. 99-112.
- Ross J.A. (2018), Japanese Artists' Film in 1968-69. In: Reichardt J. (Ed.), Fluorescent Chrysanthemum Remembered. Gdansk: Laznia Center for Contemporary Art. 58-60.
- Ross J.A. & Stojković Jelena (2018), Performance in Print: Channeling Tōmatsu Shōmei’s NO.541, Photography & Culture 11(2): 181-196.
- Dornieden A., Monroy J.D.G. & Ross J.A. (2018), (Reopening) the Open Frame. In: Greenfield L., Philips D.S., Schroedinger K., Speidel B. & Widmann P. (Eds.), Film in the Present Tense: Why can't we stop talking about analogue film?. Berlin: Archive Books. 111-112.
- Chulphongsathorn G., Clang J., Dinçel N., Hilmandi D., Hope S., Jhaveri S., Khanna S., Liu S., Makhmalbaf M., Muller N., Nasiri H., Ortiz D., Ross J.A., Sawa H., Shitamichi M., Tafakory M. & Zakeri B. (Eds.) (2018), In & Out. Nang. Bristol: Intellect.
- Hirasawa G. (2017), Politics, the Street, and the Expansion into Everyday Life [政治、街頭、あるいは日常への拡張] (translation: Ross J.A.). In: Endo M., Kurokawa N. & Tasaka H. (Eds.), Japanese Expanded Cinema RevisitedMiyuki Endo, Noriyuki Kurokawa and Mayuki Endo. Tokyo: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. 138-148.
- Ross J.A. (2017), Explorers of Boundaries: 1960-70s Expanded Cinema in Japan. In: Endo M., Kurokawa N. & Tasaka H. (Eds.), Japanese Expanded Cinema Revisited. Tokyo: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. 149-164.
- Kawamura E. (2016), Etsuko Kawamura: Just Another Season [川村悦子−ありふれた季節] (translation: Ross J.A.). Nishinomiya: Otani Memorial Art Museum, Nishinomiya City.
- Ross J.A. (2016), パフォーマンスとしてのエクスパンデッド・シネマ. In: Nishimura T. & Kaneko Y. (Eds.), アメリカン・アヴァンギャルド・ムーヴィ. Tokyo: Shinwa-sha. 161-182.
- Ross J.A. (2016), Curating Problems for Expanded Cinema. In: Noble F., Ferreboeuf R. & Plunkett T. (Eds.), Preserveation, Radicalism and the Avant-Garde Canon. London: Palgrave McMillan. 35-49.
- Ross J.A. (2015), Geologic Time, the Anthropocene and Earthquake Sensitivities: Interview with Kodwo Eshun. In: Belina M. (Ed.), The Geologic Imagination. Amsterdam: Sonic Acts. 53-63.
- Oshima N. (2015), Two short essays on Angelopoulos' early films [Two Short Essays on Angelopoulos’ Early Films] (translation: Ross J.A.). In: Koutsourakis A. & Steven M. (Eds.), The Cinema of Theo Angelopoulos. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 39-44.
- Ross J.A. (2015), In The Realm of the Senses. In: Haenni S., Barrow S. & White J. (Eds.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Films. London and New York: Routledge. 21-24.
- Ross J.A. (2015), "An infant with four breasts?" Slide Projections in Postwar Japanese Art, PhotoResearcher (24): 32-37.
- Ross J.A. (2015), Yoko Ono, Sight & Sound (July): 54-55.
- Ross J.A. (2015), Ethics of the Landscape Shot: A.K.A Serial Killer and James Benning's portrait of criminals. In: Jorge N.B. & Luca T. de (Eds.), Slow Cinema. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 261-272.
- Iimura T., Ishizaki K., Obayashi N., Sato J. & Richie D. (2014), Film Independents Manifesto [フィルム・アンデパンダン宣言] (translation: Ross J.A.). In: MacKenzie S. (Ed.), Film Manifestos and Global Cinema Cultures: A Critical Anthology. Berkeley: University of California Press. 70-72.
- Ross J.A. (2014), 映画における直接行動. In: Takeda S. (Ed.), 赤瀬川原平. Tokyo: Kawade Shobo Shinsha. 225-233.
- Ross J.A. (2014), 『もうヨーロッパには何も期待したくていいんだ』日本の非商業映画・実験映画ヨーロッパ公開史, 言語文化 (31): 44-65.
- Toscano A. & Hirasawa G. (2013), Walls of Flesh: The Films of Koji Wakamatsu (1965–1972) [Walls of Flesh: The Films of Koji Wakamatsu (1965–1972)] (translation: Ross J.A.), Film Quarterly 66(4): 41-49.
- Ross J.A. (2013), Projection as Performance: The Degrees of Intermediality in Japan's Expanded Cinema of the 1960s and 1970s. In: Jerslev A. & Nagib L. (Eds.), Impure Cinema: Intermedial and Intercultural Approaches to Film. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. 249-267.
- Ross J.A. (2012), Site and Specificity in Japanese Expanded Cinema: Intermedia and is Development in the late-60s, Décadrages 21-22: 81-95.
- Wakamatsu K. (2012), Masao Adachi, kamaitachi [足立正生、 鎌鼬] (translation: Ross J.A.). In: Hirasawa G. (Ed.), Masao Adachi. Mexico: Universidad nacional Autonoma de Mexico. 205-206.
- Ross J.A. (2012), Guest Editor's Intro, Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema 3: 3-4.