Teaching the Vertical Turn in Visual Sociology.

Though many scholars in geography, architecture, urban studies and latterly, sociology have observed a ‘vertical’ and ‘atmospheric turn’ in their critical and pedagogic practices, the vertical, sensory, and affective qualities of aerial vision have been mostly absent from photographic discourse and pedagogy. In order to address this within a wider framework of visual-vertical scholarship, this paper will firstly sketch out the verticalization of each disciplinary turn, recognising their value and impact upon the more recent visual-vertical turn in sociology. Thereafter, the author will explore how visual-vertical thinking can help to better understand our own complex social and cultural relationship to the spaces, objects, and atmospheres above us with an emphasis on educational settings.

By focusing on the normalisation of drones since 2010 in non-military environments, the author will address the shortcomings, barriers and workarounds for teaching aerial visioning to activate new ways of seeing societies, places, communities, and environments through co-produced and participatory models of DIY aerial balloon photography. Using the example of a one-day workshop with a multi-year group of UK Higher Education (HE) photography students, the paper will conclude by making a case to consider the incorporation of co-created, participatory DIY aerial photography within photographic pedagogy, arguing that the skills acquired through creative, practical, and playful vertical vision has the capacity to open up the spatial and sensorial field of enquiry necessary for a fuller interdisciplinary mode of teaching.