Visual Culture
Members:
Nana Adusei-Poku, Lukas Engelmann, Marietta Kesting, Katrin Köppert, Julia Schön, Todd Sekuler
Time Frame: Januar 2010 - Oktober 2013
Research Questions
The working group “Visual Cultures” examined the creation and representation of gender and race, as well as possibilities for the subversion thereof, in the realm of the visual. The group worked with a number of forms of visual culture (films, photographs, portraits, scientific atlases, wanted posters etc.) from the 18th century until the present day. We discussed not only the “classic” texts of feminist film theory (e.g. de Lauretis 1987), but also deepened questions from visual culture studies (e.g. Williams 2002, Fusco 2005, Rogoff 2000). In addition we opened up perspectives from philosophy for debate, for example, questions of the aesthetics of relations and the independence of the watcher (e.g. Rancière 2009). At the same time the way that “violent” images are handled in academia was critically examined and questioned (we also organized a working meeting with Professor Dr. Linda Hentschel on the topic). Since the working group put special emphasis on group viewing of films, we also examined shared “watching” in our analysis and are planning on curating our own film series.
Film Screening:
"Birth of a Nation" von D. W. Griffith mit einem Kommentar von Prof. Dr. Linda Hentschel (Kunsthochschule Weißensee)
Zeit: 26.05.2010
Lecture Series "Talking Eyes"
"Talking Eyes" references Irit Rogoff's notion of the "curious eye" as distinct from the "eye of connoisseurship". In response to the continued discursive distinction between "high" and "low" art (Rogoff 2002), this series seeks to encourage the use of "curious eyes" by providing a platform to foreground marginalised discourses.
Six evening lectures will enter the visual realm, zooming in on the subject about whom is typically discussed. These figures are beheld via an embodied gaze, introducing questions about pornotopic, forensic, clinical and military detection; surveillance and disease control; and sexuality, crime and war. "Talking eyes" that manifest themselves in the body evoke a desire to unite image and language and open a space to engage more closely with affective dimensions of images and their production. Discussions on the strategies and limitations of representational practices and interventions will be synchronised and positioned next to technological aspects of image production. The "Talking Eyes" lecture series, to be held at various venues throughout Berlin, will hopefully intrude and break up and thereby re-animate old and new debates in visual culture, as well as inspire exciting and relevant research.
Zeit: Sommersemester 2012
Further information:
www.talking-eyes.de
Talking Eyes on Facebook