Christopher D. Johnson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801477423
- eISBN:
- 9780801464065
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801477423.001.0001
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
The work of German cultural theorist and art historian Aby Warburg (1866–1929) has had a lasting effect on how we think about images. This book focuses on his last project, the encyclopedic Atlas of ...
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The work of German cultural theorist and art historian Aby Warburg (1866–1929) has had a lasting effect on how we think about images. This book focuses on his last project, the encyclopedic Atlas of Images: Mnemosyne. Begun in 1927, and left unfinished at the time of Warburg's death in 1929, the Atlas consisted of sixty-three large wooden panels covered with black cloth. On these panels Warburg carefully arranged some one thousand black-and-white photographs of classical and Renaissance art objects, as well as of astrological and astronomical images ranging from ancient Babylon to Weimar Germany. Here and there, he also included maps, manuscript pages, and contemporary images taken from newspapers. Trying to make visible the many polarities that fueled antiquity's afterlife, Warburg envisioned the Atlas as a vital form of metaphoric thought. While the nondiscursive, frequently digressive character of the Atlas complicates any linear narrative of its themes and contents, the book traces several thematic sequences in the panels. By drawing on Warburg's published and unpublished writings and by attending to Warburg's cardinal idea that “pathos formulas” structure the West's cultural memory, the book maps numerous tensions between word and image in the Atlas. In addition, it considers the literary, philosophical, and intellectual-historical implications of the Atlas. The book demonstrates that the Atlas is not simply the culmination of Warburg's lifelong study of Renaissance culture but the ultimate expression of his now literal, now metaphoric search for syncretic solutions to the urgent problems posed by the history of art and culture.Less
The work of German cultural theorist and art historian Aby Warburg (1866–1929) has had a lasting effect on how we think about images. This book focuses on his last project, the encyclopedic Atlas of Images: Mnemosyne. Begun in 1927, and left unfinished at the time of Warburg's death in 1929, the Atlas consisted of sixty-three large wooden panels covered with black cloth. On these panels Warburg carefully arranged some one thousand black-and-white photographs of classical and Renaissance art objects, as well as of astrological and astronomical images ranging from ancient Babylon to Weimar Germany. Here and there, he also included maps, manuscript pages, and contemporary images taken from newspapers. Trying to make visible the many polarities that fueled antiquity's afterlife, Warburg envisioned the Atlas as a vital form of metaphoric thought. While the nondiscursive, frequently digressive character of the Atlas complicates any linear narrative of its themes and contents, the book traces several thematic sequences in the panels. By drawing on Warburg's published and unpublished writings and by attending to Warburg's cardinal idea that “pathos formulas” structure the West's cultural memory, the book maps numerous tensions between word and image in the Atlas. In addition, it considers the literary, philosophical, and intellectual-historical implications of the Atlas. The book demonstrates that the Atlas is not simply the culmination of Warburg's lifelong study of Renaissance culture but the ultimate expression of his now literal, now metaphoric search for syncretic solutions to the urgent problems posed by the history of art and culture.
Alan Macfarlane
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263020
- eISBN:
- 9780191734199
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263020.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Alfred Gell was widely regarded as one of the most interesting thinkers in the world in the field of the anthropology of art. His life and writings provide an interesting insight into the fashions ...
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Alfred Gell was widely regarded as one of the most interesting thinkers in the world in the field of the anthropology of art. His life and writings provide an interesting insight into the fashions and flows of one part of British thought in the later 20th century. While Gell will be remembered as the author of the classic ethnography on the Umeda and a splendid survey of theories of time, it is the work on art and anthropology, undertaken during the last twelve years of his short life, which will determine his wider reputation. This consists of three books. The first, and only one published during his life was Wrapping in Images: Tattooing in Polynesia (1992). The second in order of writing, though not of publication, was a collection of his essays, mostly given as seminar papers and lectures, published in 1999 as The Art of Anthropology; Essays and Diagrams and edited by Eric Hirsch. The final work was Art and Agency, An Anthropological Theory (1998).Less
Alfred Gell was widely regarded as one of the most interesting thinkers in the world in the field of the anthropology of art. His life and writings provide an interesting insight into the fashions and flows of one part of British thought in the later 20th century. While Gell will be remembered as the author of the classic ethnography on the Umeda and a splendid survey of theories of time, it is the work on art and anthropology, undertaken during the last twelve years of his short life, which will determine his wider reputation. This consists of three books. The first, and only one published during his life was Wrapping in Images: Tattooing in Polynesia (1992). The second in order of writing, though not of publication, was a collection of his essays, mostly given as seminar papers and lectures, published in 1999 as The Art of Anthropology; Essays and Diagrams and edited by Eric Hirsch. The final work was Art and Agency, An Anthropological Theory (1998).
Robert DeCaroli
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195168389
- eISBN:
- 9780199835133
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195168380.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Images of popular demigods and minor deities are shown to dominate the decoration of early Buddhist sites to the exclusion of almost any other subject matter. In particular, an iconographic study of ...
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Images of popular demigods and minor deities are shown to dominate the decoration of early Buddhist sites to the exclusion of almost any other subject matter. In particular, an iconographic study of the remains of the monastery from Bharhut reveals a process of superimposition wherein the spirit‐deities have been moved to the periphery of the sacred space and the center is reserved for the Buddhist relic alone. When this information is coupled with new evidence demonstrating that these monasteries were largely built over locations (like cemeteries and hills) that were understood as being the abodes of specific minor deities, it becomes clear that the Buddhist community is making a potent statement of religious authority though its architecture. Significantly, this hierarchy expressed in sculpture parallels the claims of authority made in the legendary literature.Less
Images of popular demigods and minor deities are shown to dominate the decoration of early Buddhist sites to the exclusion of almost any other subject matter. In particular, an iconographic study of the remains of the monastery from Bharhut reveals a process of superimposition wherein the spirit‐deities have been moved to the periphery of the sacred space and the center is reserved for the Buddhist relic alone. When this information is coupled with new evidence demonstrating that these monasteries were largely built over locations (like cemeteries and hills) that were understood as being the abodes of specific minor deities, it becomes clear that the Buddhist community is making a potent statement of religious authority though its architecture. Significantly, this hierarchy expressed in sculpture parallels the claims of authority made in the legendary literature.
Jessica Lake
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300214222
- eISBN:
- 9780300225303
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300214222.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
The advent of the photographic and cinematic camera in the mid to late 19th century caused new harms to individuals (particularly women), which existing laws (copyright, defamation, trespass) were ...
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The advent of the photographic and cinematic camera in the mid to late 19th century caused new harms to individuals (particularly women), which existing laws (copyright, defamation, trespass) were inadequate to address. This book demonstrates that women forged a ‘right to privacy’ in the United States by bringing lawsuits claiming control and ownership over filmed images (still and moving) of their faces, bodies and narratives. At a time when they still lacked civil and political rights, women employed ‘a right to privacy’ to prevent themselves being reduced to nameless ‘pretty’ objects; to protest the transformation of their bodies into spectacles of ‘monstrosity’; to limit their exposure on the big screen to the mass ‘gaze’ of audiences; to control the development of their careers in paid work as models, dancers and actresses; and to reclaim their personal life stories from exploitation by film studios. Case documents also reveal the nexus between privacy claims and arguments by the subjects of images for property rights in them (eventuating in the right to publicity). This book interrogates the gender of privacy law and shows how privacy emerged as an ambiguous claim for women – it both reinforced traditional stereotypes of femininity or womanhood and progressed the feminist aspirations of the New Woman for greater self-determination and self-articulation. It shows that visual crimes against women occurring today via the Internet, such as revenge pornography or non-consensual pornography, have an important legal, social and political history.Less
The advent of the photographic and cinematic camera in the mid to late 19th century caused new harms to individuals (particularly women), which existing laws (copyright, defamation, trespass) were inadequate to address. This book demonstrates that women forged a ‘right to privacy’ in the United States by bringing lawsuits claiming control and ownership over filmed images (still and moving) of their faces, bodies and narratives. At a time when they still lacked civil and political rights, women employed ‘a right to privacy’ to prevent themselves being reduced to nameless ‘pretty’ objects; to protest the transformation of their bodies into spectacles of ‘monstrosity’; to limit their exposure on the big screen to the mass ‘gaze’ of audiences; to control the development of their careers in paid work as models, dancers and actresses; and to reclaim their personal life stories from exploitation by film studios. Case documents also reveal the nexus between privacy claims and arguments by the subjects of images for property rights in them (eventuating in the right to publicity). This book interrogates the gender of privacy law and shows how privacy emerged as an ambiguous claim for women – it both reinforced traditional stereotypes of femininity or womanhood and progressed the feminist aspirations of the New Woman for greater self-determination and self-articulation. It shows that visual crimes against women occurring today via the Internet, such as revenge pornography or non-consensual pornography, have an important legal, social and political history.
Anna Dahlgren
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526126641
- eISBN:
- 9781526139016
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526126641.001.0001
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
Travelling images critically examines the migrations and transformations of images as they travel between different image communities. It consists of four case studies covering the period 1870–2010 ...
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Travelling images critically examines the migrations and transformations of images as they travel between different image communities. It consists of four case studies covering the period 1870–2010 and includes photocollages, window displays, fashion imagery and contemporary art projects. Through these four close-ups it seeks to reveal the mechanisms, nature and character of these migration processes, and the agents behind them, as well as the sites where they have taken place. The overall aim of this book is thus to understand the mechanisms of interfacing events in the borderlands of the art world. Two key arguments are developed in the book, reflected by its title Travelling images. First, the notion of travel and focus on movements and transformations signal an emphasis on the similarities between cultural artefacts and living beings. The book considers ‘the social biography’ and ‘ecology’ of images, but also, on a more profound level, the biography and ecology of the notion of art. In doing so, it merges perspectives from art history and image studies with media studies. Consequently, it combines a focus on the individual case, typical for art history and material culture studies with a focus on processes and systems, on continuities and ruptures, and alternate histories inspired by media archaeology and cultural historical media studies. Second, the central concept of image is in this book used to designate both visual conventions, patterns or contents and tangible visual images. Thus it simultaneously consider of content and materiality.Less
Travelling images critically examines the migrations and transformations of images as they travel between different image communities. It consists of four case studies covering the period 1870–2010 and includes photocollages, window displays, fashion imagery and contemporary art projects. Through these four close-ups it seeks to reveal the mechanisms, nature and character of these migration processes, and the agents behind them, as well as the sites where they have taken place. The overall aim of this book is thus to understand the mechanisms of interfacing events in the borderlands of the art world. Two key arguments are developed in the book, reflected by its title Travelling images. First, the notion of travel and focus on movements and transformations signal an emphasis on the similarities between cultural artefacts and living beings. The book considers ‘the social biography’ and ‘ecology’ of images, but also, on a more profound level, the biography and ecology of the notion of art. In doing so, it merges perspectives from art history and image studies with media studies. Consequently, it combines a focus on the individual case, typical for art history and material culture studies with a focus on processes and systems, on continuities and ruptures, and alternate histories inspired by media archaeology and cultural historical media studies. Second, the central concept of image is in this book used to designate both visual conventions, patterns or contents and tangible visual images. Thus it simultaneously consider of content and materiality.
Steve Woolgar
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262525381
- eISBN:
- 9780262319157
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262525381.003.0015
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This chapter comprises brief commentaries by seven authors with long-standing and formative roles in studies of representational practice. Lorraine Daston speaks of intractable conceptual problems ...
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This chapter comprises brief commentaries by seven authors with long-standing and formative roles in studies of representational practice. Lorraine Daston speaks of intractable conceptual problems associated with the very idea of representation and argues that we need to shift from epistemological to ontological treatments of images. Michael Lynch reflects on the ways in which philosophical pictures hold us captive, in earlier times with respect to reference, and more recently with respect to information. Steve Woolgar looks back on various attempts to problematize and displace the notion of representation since the publication of the earlier volume. Lucy Suchman calls for a greater measure of reflexivity in our studies of representation, to understand what exclusions we generate through our own practices of articulating and bounding the phenomena we study. John Law asks us to attend to the “collateral realities” that are being “done” at the periphery of what representation in scientific practice is ostensibly about. Martin Kemp discusses how visual images and graphics are used to evoke “reality,” as though directly on the page or screen. Bruno Latour argues that the supposed “gap” between previously unknown realities and visual images is densely populated by “long cascades of successive traces.” These seven short pieces comment on the nature and prospects of studies of representation in general. In this vein, they reference the “big” themes of representation— for example, epistemology, ontology, visualization, and trust. The commentaries thus provide an interesting complement to the empirical case studies in the book. Whereas the latter deliver a crucial deflationary effect— “science” is brought down to earth, made commonplace and subject to epistemic leveling; the “elevator words” in philosophy of science are unloaded at the ground floor (Hacking 1999, 21ff)— these final commentaries remind us about the traps, troubles, and taken-for-granted assumptions that continue to characterize even the very best empirical studies of representational work. Reference Hacking, Ian. 1999. The Social Construction of What? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Less
This chapter comprises brief commentaries by seven authors with long-standing and formative roles in studies of representational practice. Lorraine Daston speaks of intractable conceptual problems associated with the very idea of representation and argues that we need to shift from epistemological to ontological treatments of images. Michael Lynch reflects on the ways in which philosophical pictures hold us captive, in earlier times with respect to reference, and more recently with respect to information. Steve Woolgar looks back on various attempts to problematize and displace the notion of representation since the publication of the earlier volume. Lucy Suchman calls for a greater measure of reflexivity in our studies of representation, to understand what exclusions we generate through our own practices of articulating and bounding the phenomena we study. John Law asks us to attend to the “collateral realities” that are being “done” at the periphery of what representation in scientific practice is ostensibly about. Martin Kemp discusses how visual images and graphics are used to evoke “reality,” as though directly on the page or screen. Bruno Latour argues that the supposed “gap” between previously unknown realities and visual images is densely populated by “long cascades of successive traces.” These seven short pieces comment on the nature and prospects of studies of representation in general. In this vein, they reference the “big” themes of representation— for example, epistemology, ontology, visualization, and trust. The commentaries thus provide an interesting complement to the empirical case studies in the book. Whereas the latter deliver a crucial deflationary effect— “science” is brought down to earth, made commonplace and subject to epistemic leveling; the “elevator words” in philosophy of science are unloaded at the ground floor (Hacking 1999, 21ff)— these final commentaries remind us about the traps, troubles, and taken-for-granted assumptions that continue to characterize even the very best empirical studies of representational work. Reference Hacking, Ian. 1999. The Social Construction of What? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Victor Svorinich
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781628461947
- eISBN:
- 9781626740891
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628461947.003.0009
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
Using new commentary from the people behind the lens blended with revealing photographs, this chapter examines the visual narrative of Bitches Brew. Although the sessions were never shot, Miles Davis ...
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Using new commentary from the people behind the lens blended with revealing photographs, this chapter examines the visual narrative of Bitches Brew. Although the sessions were never shot, Miles Davis was photographed just about everywhere else at the time, whether it was on stage, at home, at the gym, or driving around New York in his Ferrari. Despite his shy and difficult demeanor, Davis had a warm and sincere relationship with the camera and the people behind it. These photographers were not only able to document this period in Davis’s life, but were also able to unveil a whole other side of him.Less
Using new commentary from the people behind the lens blended with revealing photographs, this chapter examines the visual narrative of Bitches Brew. Although the sessions were never shot, Miles Davis was photographed just about everywhere else at the time, whether it was on stage, at home, at the gym, or driving around New York in his Ferrari. Despite his shy and difficult demeanor, Davis had a warm and sincere relationship with the camera and the people behind it. These photographers were not only able to document this period in Davis’s life, but were also able to unveil a whole other side of him.
Michael Atkins
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781526100733
- eISBN:
- 9781526132376
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526100733.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
Combining narratives of success and community with imagery and maps characterises and regulates Manchester’s Gay Village as a distinct, bordered, hedonistic and particularly tolerant place. This ...
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Combining narratives of success and community with imagery and maps characterises and regulates Manchester’s Gay Village as a distinct, bordered, hedonistic and particularly tolerant place. This chapter describes the use of collaboratively produced graphic stories, created using combinations of drawings, text, photographs and found images. These 'ethno-graphics' describe lived experiences of men seeking sex in public and engaging in exchanges of intimacy, money, goods and services that challenge the master narratives of that are openly recognised and spoken about in the village.Less
Combining narratives of success and community with imagery and maps characterises and regulates Manchester’s Gay Village as a distinct, bordered, hedonistic and particularly tolerant place. This chapter describes the use of collaboratively produced graphic stories, created using combinations of drawings, text, photographs and found images. These 'ethno-graphics' describe lived experiences of men seeking sex in public and engaging in exchanges of intimacy, money, goods and services that challenge the master narratives of that are openly recognised and spoken about in the village.
Elisa Pieri
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781526100733
- eISBN:
- 9781526132376
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526100733.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
This chapter focuses on Manchester city centre to argue that exploring the futures that different stakeholders envisage for the city centre reveals tensions that are otherwise glossed over. ...
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This chapter focuses on Manchester city centre to argue that exploring the futures that different stakeholders envisage for the city centre reveals tensions that are otherwise glossed over. Critically engaging with urban futures as they are mobilised by institutional stakeholders, and eliciting those that other actors envisage, highlights whose interests are currently being prioritised and whose are traded off. Engaging in an analysis of these urban futures reveals not only important tensions connected to future developments and imagined uses of the city centre, but also opens up to scrutiny the present experiences and uses of the city centre, and the competing interests that a range of actors currently have.Less
This chapter focuses on Manchester city centre to argue that exploring the futures that different stakeholders envisage for the city centre reveals tensions that are otherwise glossed over. Critically engaging with urban futures as they are mobilised by institutional stakeholders, and eliciting those that other actors envisage, highlights whose interests are currently being prioritised and whose are traded off. Engaging in an analysis of these urban futures reveals not only important tensions connected to future developments and imagined uses of the city centre, but also opens up to scrutiny the present experiences and uses of the city centre, and the competing interests that a range of actors currently have.
Jessica Lake
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300214222
- eISBN:
- 9780300225303
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300214222.003.0006
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This chapter charts the evolution of a right to privacy to a “right of publicity” in US law and argues that if a right to privacy is recognized as a doctrine primarily used by women to control their ...
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This chapter charts the evolution of a right to privacy to a “right of publicity” in US law and argues that if a right to privacy is recognized as a doctrine primarily used by women to control their images, the development of a right of publicity was a logical extension that accorded with women’s increasing participation in the paid work force. In the 1930s, women found new career opportunities in the emerging visual arts industries as dancers, models and actors and a right to privacy was employed by professional women to protect and profit from what Liz Conor has termed their “techniques of appearing”. It is in this context that a right to privacy’s racial dimensions are best examined, particularly the case of Myers v African American Publishing Co involving a claim by a young “tribal” dancer from Harlem who successfully sued over the publication of professional photographs that had been doctored to emphasise her nudity. A right to privacy was also invoked by men to protect their professions of performance (as golfers, bullfighters, boxers and ball players) and despite numerous early cases brought by professional women, it was in this masculine context that “a right of publicity” was first articulated.Less
This chapter charts the evolution of a right to privacy to a “right of publicity” in US law and argues that if a right to privacy is recognized as a doctrine primarily used by women to control their images, the development of a right of publicity was a logical extension that accorded with women’s increasing participation in the paid work force. In the 1930s, women found new career opportunities in the emerging visual arts industries as dancers, models and actors and a right to privacy was employed by professional women to protect and profit from what Liz Conor has termed their “techniques of appearing”. It is in this context that a right to privacy’s racial dimensions are best examined, particularly the case of Myers v African American Publishing Co involving a claim by a young “tribal” dancer from Harlem who successfully sued over the publication of professional photographs that had been doctored to emphasise her nudity. A right to privacy was also invoked by men to protect their professions of performance (as golfers, bullfighters, boxers and ball players) and despite numerous early cases brought by professional women, it was in this masculine context that “a right of publicity” was first articulated.
Anna Dahlgren
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526126641
- eISBN:
- 9781526139016
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526126641.003.0001
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
The introduction expands on the rationale, aim and layout of the book. It also the develops the core concepts of the book, such as image, art world, borderlands, and image ecology. The notion ‘art ...
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The introduction expands on the rationale, aim and layout of the book. It also the develops the core concepts of the book, such as image, art world, borderlands, and image ecology. The notion ‘art world’ emphasizes that the distinctions between art and non-art are constructed by diverse agents and institutions. Moreover the term ‘borderlands’ is used to defy the idea that there is a definite demarcation or border between what is ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ of the art world. The term image ecology serves as a metaphor for a desire to understand the interrelationships of things such as the nature of change, adaption and community and as a way to locate how and why images operate in certain ‘environments’ or systems of meaning. Finally the introduction posits the book in the long tradition of image studies and also in recent development within media studies, particularly studies on mediatization and media archaeology.Less
The introduction expands on the rationale, aim and layout of the book. It also the develops the core concepts of the book, such as image, art world, borderlands, and image ecology. The notion ‘art world’ emphasizes that the distinctions between art and non-art are constructed by diverse agents and institutions. Moreover the term ‘borderlands’ is used to defy the idea that there is a definite demarcation or border between what is ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ of the art world. The term image ecology serves as a metaphor for a desire to understand the interrelationships of things such as the nature of change, adaption and community and as a way to locate how and why images operate in certain ‘environments’ or systems of meaning. Finally the introduction posits the book in the long tradition of image studies and also in recent development within media studies, particularly studies on mediatization and media archaeology.
Janet Wolff
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719085055
- eISBN:
- 9781526109958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719085055.003.0019
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Janet Wolff’s concluding chapter for Beyond text? identifies the academic trends behind the aesthetic attitudes towards the celebration of the image and image making in the humanities as: the turn to ...
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Janet Wolff’s concluding chapter for Beyond text? identifies the academic trends behind the aesthetic attitudes towards the celebration of the image and image making in the humanities as: the turn to ‘affect’; the (re)turn to phenomenology (and post-phenomenology); actor-network theory in sociology and science studies; theories of the post-human; theories of materiality; emphasis on the agency of objects; the insistence on ‘presence’ as an unmediated encounter’. Wolff goes on to make the case for a certain caution in relation to tendencies to abandon too hastily the solidities of cultural and sociological theory. The theoretical turns that Wolff describes, suggests that while there may be opportunities for opening up and engaging with the senses in anthropological enquiry there are dangers to be had in the diminishment or loss of a critical attitude and social perspective.Less
Janet Wolff’s concluding chapter for Beyond text? identifies the academic trends behind the aesthetic attitudes towards the celebration of the image and image making in the humanities as: the turn to ‘affect’; the (re)turn to phenomenology (and post-phenomenology); actor-network theory in sociology and science studies; theories of the post-human; theories of materiality; emphasis on the agency of objects; the insistence on ‘presence’ as an unmediated encounter’. Wolff goes on to make the case for a certain caution in relation to tendencies to abandon too hastily the solidities of cultural and sociological theory. The theoretical turns that Wolff describes, suggests that while there may be opportunities for opening up and engaging with the senses in anthropological enquiry there are dangers to be had in the diminishment or loss of a critical attitude and social perspective.
Dick Houtman and Birgit Meyer (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823239450
- eISBN:
- 9780823239498
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823239450.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This volume addresses the relation between religion and things. That relation has long been conceived in antagonistic terms, privileging spirit above matter, belief above ritual and objects, meaning ...
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This volume addresses the relation between religion and things. That relation has long been conceived in antagonistic terms, privileging spirit above matter, belief above ritual and objects, meaning above form, and “inward” contemplation above “outward” action. After all, wasn't the opposition between spirituality and materiality the defining characteristic of religion, understood as geared to a transcendental beyond that was immaterial by definition? Grounded in the rise of religion as a modern category, with Protestantism as its main exponent, this conceptualization devalues religious things as lacking serious empirical, let alone theoretical, interest. Taking materiality seriously, this volume understands religion as necessarily es some kind of incarnation, through which the beyond to which it refers becomes accessible. Conjoining rather than separating spirit and matter, incarnation (whether understood as “the world becoming flesh” or in a broader sense) places at center stage the question of how the realm of the transcendental, spiritual, or invisible is rendered tangible in the world. How do things matter in religious discourse and practice? How are we to account for the value or devaluation, the appraisal or contestation, of things within particular religious perspectives? How are we to rematerialize our scholarly approaches to religion? These are the key questions addressed by this multidisciplinary volume. Focusing on different kinds of things that matter for religion, including images, incarnations, sacred artifacts, bodily fluids, public space, and digital technology, it offers a wide-ranging set of multidisciplinary studies that combine detailed analysis and critical reflection.Less
This volume addresses the relation between religion and things. That relation has long been conceived in antagonistic terms, privileging spirit above matter, belief above ritual and objects, meaning above form, and “inward” contemplation above “outward” action. After all, wasn't the opposition between spirituality and materiality the defining characteristic of religion, understood as geared to a transcendental beyond that was immaterial by definition? Grounded in the rise of religion as a modern category, with Protestantism as its main exponent, this conceptualization devalues religious things as lacking serious empirical, let alone theoretical, interest. Taking materiality seriously, this volume understands religion as necessarily es some kind of incarnation, through which the beyond to which it refers becomes accessible. Conjoining rather than separating spirit and matter, incarnation (whether understood as “the world becoming flesh” or in a broader sense) places at center stage the question of how the realm of the transcendental, spiritual, or invisible is rendered tangible in the world. How do things matter in religious discourse and practice? How are we to account for the value or devaluation, the appraisal or contestation, of things within particular religious perspectives? How are we to rematerialize our scholarly approaches to religion? These are the key questions addressed by this multidisciplinary volume. Focusing on different kinds of things that matter for religion, including images, incarnations, sacred artifacts, bodily fluids, public space, and digital technology, it offers a wide-ranging set of multidisciplinary studies that combine detailed analysis and critical reflection.
Jens Eder and Charlotte Klonk (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781526107213
- eISBN:
- 9781526120984
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526107213.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
In the introduction the editors outline the concept of image operations, illustrate its relevance and consider the empirical, theoretical, and ethical questions that arise from it. They also discuss ...
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In the introduction the editors outline the concept of image operations, illustrate its relevance and consider the empirical, theoretical, and ethical questions that arise from it. They also discuss the basic relations between images, media, agency, and conflict. As the subject lies at the intersection of several disciplines, they survey the literature, point towards the blind spots in existing research, and conclude with a summary of each contribution.Less
In the introduction the editors outline the concept of image operations, illustrate its relevance and consider the empirical, theoretical, and ethical questions that arise from it. They also discuss the basic relations between images, media, agency, and conflict. As the subject lies at the intersection of several disciplines, they survey the literature, point towards the blind spots in existing research, and conclude with a summary of each contribution.
D. N. Rodowick
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226513058
- eISBN:
- 9780226513225
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226513225.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
The film and video works of Harun Farocki exemplify a critical media practice that pose the questions: What is an Image?, or better, What is a human image? Much of Farocki’s mature work examines in ...
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The film and video works of Harun Farocki exemplify a critical media practice that pose the questions: What is an Image?, or better, What is a human image? Much of Farocki’s mature work examines in fascinating ways the proliferation of nonhuman perspectives and spaces in the contemporary image environment, and in each case, Farocki asks viewers to reconsider how images provoke both an intelligence and ethics of seeing. Examples are drawn from three of Farocki’s best known works, Inextinguishable Fire, Images of the World and the Inscription of War, and the four-part video installation, Serious Games. The account then turns to the late writing of T. W. Adorno to argue that a deep engagement with the variety of Farocki’s work retroactively gives force and clarity to the style of emancipated cinema that Adorno was trying to imagine in essays like “Transparencies on Film.” The claim here is that Farocki’s work was an ongoing and open-ended experimentation of what a critical writing in images could look like under different media conditions, both historically and formally, especially in relation to his strategies of dissociative and recombinatory montage.Less
The film and video works of Harun Farocki exemplify a critical media practice that pose the questions: What is an Image?, or better, What is a human image? Much of Farocki’s mature work examines in fascinating ways the proliferation of nonhuman perspectives and spaces in the contemporary image environment, and in each case, Farocki asks viewers to reconsider how images provoke both an intelligence and ethics of seeing. Examples are drawn from three of Farocki’s best known works, Inextinguishable Fire, Images of the World and the Inscription of War, and the four-part video installation, Serious Games. The account then turns to the late writing of T. W. Adorno to argue that a deep engagement with the variety of Farocki’s work retroactively gives force and clarity to the style of emancipated cinema that Adorno was trying to imagine in essays like “Transparencies on Film.” The claim here is that Farocki’s work was an ongoing and open-ended experimentation of what a critical writing in images could look like under different media conditions, both historically and formally, especially in relation to his strategies of dissociative and recombinatory montage.
Irene Stengs
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823239450
- eISBN:
- 9780823239498
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823239450.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter addresses the role of mass-produced portraits of the Siamese King Chulalongkorn (Rama V, r. 1868–1910) in a personality cult that emerged in the 1990s among the urban Thai middle class ...
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This chapter addresses the role of mass-produced portraits of the Siamese King Chulalongkorn (Rama V, r. 1868–1910) in a personality cult that emerged in the 1990s among the urban Thai middle class in response to hopes and anxieties about Thai identity in a globalizing world. The portraits are understood as having sought out their owners themselves, even though they are typically obtained as gifts or bought from door-to-door venders, and as capable of exerting agency and providing support and security.Less
This chapter addresses the role of mass-produced portraits of the Siamese King Chulalongkorn (Rama V, r. 1868–1910) in a personality cult that emerged in the 1990s among the urban Thai middle class in response to hopes and anxieties about Thai identity in a globalizing world. The portraits are understood as having sought out their owners themselves, even though they are typically obtained as gifts or bought from door-to-door venders, and as capable of exerting agency and providing support and security.
Christa Blümlinger
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474407120
- eISBN:
- 9781474434874
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474407120.003.0010
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Avant-gardes have been interested, ever since the 1920s, in the leftovers – that which is usually kept out of representation because it is considered too blurry, lacking in focus, ‘faulty’. Starting ...
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Avant-gardes have been interested, ever since the 1920s, in the leftovers – that which is usually kept out of representation because it is considered too blurry, lacking in focus, ‘faulty’. Starting from an analysis of Peter Tscherkassky’s Coming Attractions (2010), this essay assesses the value of that which is, in the cinema, deemed too blurry, while also pointing to the import that certain aesthetic theories (from Jean-François Lyotard to Tom Gunning) have granted it. How and why does Tscherkassky, in his use of found footage, seek to reveal the formless as well the photographic code (the black and the white)? In doing so, he draws near to what John Cage called ‘silencing’: not silence, but the withdrawal of some of the sounds attributed to the musical eventLess
Avant-gardes have been interested, ever since the 1920s, in the leftovers – that which is usually kept out of representation because it is considered too blurry, lacking in focus, ‘faulty’. Starting from an analysis of Peter Tscherkassky’s Coming Attractions (2010), this essay assesses the value of that which is, in the cinema, deemed too blurry, while also pointing to the import that certain aesthetic theories (from Jean-François Lyotard to Tom Gunning) have granted it. How and why does Tscherkassky, in his use of found footage, seek to reveal the formless as well the photographic code (the black and the white)? In doing so, he draws near to what John Cage called ‘silencing’: not silence, but the withdrawal of some of the sounds attributed to the musical event
Sherry F. Colb and Michael C. Dorf
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231175142
- eISBN:
- 9780231540957
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231175142.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Anti-abortion protesters sometimes use graphic images of mangled fetuses and animal rights activists sometimes use graphic images of tortured animals to impress upon the general public the violence ...
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Anti-abortion protesters sometimes use graphic images of mangled fetuses and animal rights activists sometimes use graphic images of tortured animals to impress upon the general public the violence that lurks behind their choices. This tactic should be used sparingly, however, both because it may traumatize the viewers and because it could be counterproductive by desensitizing them to the violence.Less
Anti-abortion protesters sometimes use graphic images of mangled fetuses and animal rights activists sometimes use graphic images of tortured animals to impress upon the general public the violence that lurks behind their choices. This tactic should be used sparingly, however, both because it may traumatize the viewers and because it could be counterproductive by desensitizing them to the violence.
John Kulvicki
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262035248
- eISBN:
- 9780262335850
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262035248.003.0010
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
In “Representational Genera,” Haugeland built an account of representational kinds around the structures of their contents. Icons, which include pictures, images, graphs, and diagrams, differ from ...
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In “Representational Genera,” Haugeland built an account of representational kinds around the structures of their contents. Icons, which include pictures, images, graphs, and diagrams, differ from logical representations like linguistic expressions because iconic contents are essentially patterns of dependent and independent variables. Such structures are absent in language. Recording is a witless, replayable process that Haugeland deployed to calm worries about his content-wise account of representational genera. This paper elevates recording from the supporting role Haugeland gave it to star of the show.
The main claim defended here is that some kinds of representation—pictures, images, graphs, diagrams—are modeled by recording processes, while others, like languages, are not. Extensionally, this distinction is close to Haugeland’s, but it is intensionally subtler, more plausible, and, as I hope to show, more useful. This approach abandons Haugeland’s goal of distinguishing representational kinds exclusively in terms of their contents, but there are many advantages to doing so.Less
In “Representational Genera,” Haugeland built an account of representational kinds around the structures of their contents. Icons, which include pictures, images, graphs, and diagrams, differ from logical representations like linguistic expressions because iconic contents are essentially patterns of dependent and independent variables. Such structures are absent in language. Recording is a witless, replayable process that Haugeland deployed to calm worries about his content-wise account of representational genera. This paper elevates recording from the supporting role Haugeland gave it to star of the show.
The main claim defended here is that some kinds of representation—pictures, images, graphs, diagrams—are modeled by recording processes, while others, like languages, are not. Extensionally, this distinction is close to Haugeland’s, but it is intensionally subtler, more plausible, and, as I hope to show, more useful. This approach abandons Haugeland’s goal of distinguishing representational kinds exclusively in terms of their contents, but there are many advantages to doing so.
Birgit Meyer
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823239450
- eISBN:
- 9780823239498
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823239450.003.0018
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter addresses Pentecostal ambivalence toward and contestation of Jesus pictures in southern Ghana. These are massively present in public space, entailing a “pentecostalization” of Ghana's ...
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This chapter addresses Pentecostal ambivalence toward and contestation of Jesus pictures in southern Ghana. These are massively present in public space, entailing a “pentecostalization” of Ghana's public sphere. Misgivings about these pictures can be traced back to the anti-iconic semiotic ideology of nineteenth-century Protestant missionaries, who drew strict boundaries between subject and object, spirit and matter, attacking indigenous religion as “heathendom,” “idolatry,” and “Devil worship.” The pictures are considered harmless “symbols” for the pious, which publicly display their Christian identity, yet they are seen as liable to slip into “icons” that may be hijacked by the Devil-a radical reversal through which what is meant to display visually the outreach of Christianity may actually be subverted.Less
This chapter addresses Pentecostal ambivalence toward and contestation of Jesus pictures in southern Ghana. These are massively present in public space, entailing a “pentecostalization” of Ghana's public sphere. Misgivings about these pictures can be traced back to the anti-iconic semiotic ideology of nineteenth-century Protestant missionaries, who drew strict boundaries between subject and object, spirit and matter, attacking indigenous religion as “heathendom,” “idolatry,” and “Devil worship.” The pictures are considered harmless “symbols” for the pious, which publicly display their Christian identity, yet they are seen as liable to slip into “icons” that may be hijacked by the Devil-a radical reversal through which what is meant to display visually the outreach of Christianity may actually be subverted.
