Susan Hansen

I am Convenor of the Visual Methods Group and Chair of the Forensic Psychology Research Group at Middlesex University, London. I have a background in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis and a PhD in Social Psychology. Although these are approaches usually confined to the analysis of transcribed video or audio data, in my current work I seek to apply some of the key methodological tenets of these approaches to the analysis of visual data. This allows attention to features not available through traditional forms of visual analyses – and in particular, attention to the everyday methods of sense-making used by members themselves, as opposed to the imposition of our own sociological analytic categories.

I use repeat photography (or “longitudinal photo-documentation”) to study street art and graffiti as visual dialogue. By capturing both recognizably ‘artistic’ street art, and visually ‘offensive’ graffiti tags, I aim to study graffiti and street art’s existence within a field of social interaction – as a form of conversation on urban walls that are constantly changing.

Affiliation(s)

Forensic Psychology Research Group at Middlesex University, London