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F1313 Visual Representation and the Cultural Other, Frank Heidemann

Heidemann Frank

Knowledge about cultures and societies beyond the boundaries of Europe was and is created by texts and images. The impact of images tends to be underestimated and,in contrast to the study of texts, photography and films were neglected for a long time. Both media were invented in the 19th century when European colonial expansion reached its peak. Mechanically produced images helped legitimise the colonial project and created collective imaginations with an astonishingly long life. In the social sciences, especially in anthropology, photographs were used to document and analyse races and cultures around the world. With the development of moving pictures a debate on the "nature" of mechanically produced images came up: How do photographs and films relate to reality? Do they represent empirical realities or are they first of all products of imagination? This question continues to be discussed until today. Pictures offer various kinds of manipulation but are nevertheless considered to be proof of a specific external reality. The discussion of visual representation of the cultural other adds the dimension of power. What kind of power relations existed when the pictures were taken? Who owns, manipulates and distributes the images? These questions are discussed in a historical perspective, looking for continuities and changes in the more general approach towards images. Exhibits in museums, modern print media, TVcoverage and the representation of other cultures in documentaries are included in the corpus to be discussed.
The seminar includes the following themes: theories of vision, representation and power, visual technologies and evolutionary thought in the 19th century. Colonial representation of the cultural other.The anthropological study of the colonized.The ontology of images in a transcultural perspective.Photography and film in the social sciences.Visual versus textual representations.Ethics of filmmaking.Vision and art.The visible and the invisible.Digital manipulation of images, hypermedia and imagescapes.
Seminar organization: every week each student will read one text per week from a reader to prepare for the next session. Each student has to fulfill three tasks once in the semester: (1) write the minutes of a single session, (2) read an additional text on a specific theme and make a 10-minute presentation in the classroom, (3) write a 12–15-page paper on a chosen topic. In the second half of the seminar the students will visit public places in Venice in small groups (2–4 people) to search for visual representations of the cultural other, make photographs of the objects and present their interpretations in the seminar.