Visual Culture
(Run by Rebecca Empson & Chris Pinney)
WHERE AND WHEN: The group will commence meetings in January 2013
FIRST
MEETING: TBC but probably Weds 9th January 2013
MOODLE DETAILS: http://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11153
We will meet regularly to consider a range of questions relating to the anthropological study of visuality, The first session will look at three readings which will help us place ‘anthropological’ approaches within a broader framework – the famous ‘visual culture questionnaire’ circulated by the journal October, the Art Historian Hans Belting’s anthropological manifesto for a new approach to the image, and the German media theorist Friedrich Kittler’s recently translated Optical Media which refuses the anthropological implications of ‘visual culture’ suggesting that attempting to understand media through their use is like ‘trying to learn higher mathematics by hearsay’.(!) Subsequent sessions will be structured around the interests of the participants in the group but might include approaches to semiotics, ‘natural’ and ‘conventional’ images, theories of photography and film, and the politics of representation.
We also hope to establish which current exhibitions we might usefully visit and factor into our discussions. So please come prepared to talk about any exhibitions you have visited or would like to visit.
