240018 VO Visual Anthropology (3.2.6) (2021S)

This lecture series offers an introduction to Visual Anthropology. Visual Anthropology is a subfield of anthropology that does not only study visual culture but also integrates practices of visual media production (especially filmmaking) within anthropological research and reporting. Despite its consolidation as a subdiscipline with its own institutions and discussion forums, Visual Anthropology has always remained a highly dynamic field, and its practitioners have formulated varied and sometimes opposing interpretations of what visual anthropology is or should be. The recent renaming of the subdiscipline as ‘Multimodal Anthropology’ is an example of this. Students will learn about these different ideas and practices by studying relevant literature, films, and multimedia projects that will be discussed in the lectures. Students will arrive at an in-depth understanding of the field in order to eventually formulate interpretations of their own.

The following topics will be discussed:
• Visual Anthropology and Multimodal Anthropology
• Camera-based ethnography
• Montage and theory construction
• Shared anthropology, reflexivity, and (non)representation
• Distribution and reception

Learning goals:
At the end of the course, students
• have substantiated knowledge about key ideas and practices in the field of visual anthropology, and are familiar with key debates in the field;
• understand how visual anthropology approaches have responded to changing technological and social-political conditions as well as shifting theoretical frameworks in the broader discipline of anthropology;
• can explain, based on comparative viewings of anthropological films, how different films reflect different theoretical and methodological approaches;
• feel challenged to start formulating their own view on the role of (audio)visual media practices in anthropological research, and to envision implementing such practices in the future.

Digital learning:
Each week, students study a film or other visual work alongside literature. In the accompanying video lectures, the lecturer highlights key ideas and backgrounds to deepen students' understanding of the literature and media works.
Lectures are recorded on video and posted on Moodle. Discussions and interactive parts of the sessions will not be recorded.