240522 SE The Stories Images Tell. Introduction to Visual Anthropology (P4) (2018W)

Anthropologists have long been concerned with matters of visual / audio-visual representations: photographs, ethnographic drawings, and documentary films all tell stories about people and their life-worlds. The image as a mode to express meaning thus opens up the need for contextual and socio-culturally sensitive ways of seeing the world, and demonstrates the ways, in which narratives are culturally constructed, continuously shift and transmit social and political meaning. This seminar provides students with the opportunity to study the politics and aesthetics of cultural representations and discusses anthropological perspectives on the usages of visual culture as ethnographic research tools and representations of societies. Throughout the semester we critically examine how images bring to light questions of authorship, power relations, creativity, aesthetics and the variety of social and cultural perceptions that impact the ways in which stories are told.

Through the use of key concepts in visual anthropology and (audio)visual material, students develop an understanding on how to use different media to analyse, represent and critique ethnographic content and ask how these visual culture products contribute to knowledge production.

The course’s main focus is on ethnographic films and the social analysis of the image, building a trajectory from early approaches to contemporary visual and cultural studies. As a team-delivered course, we draw on our long-term experience in analysing, discussing and curating ethnographic documentaries for the annual Ethnocineca International Documentary Film Festival Vienna.

Structure and Methodology
In the first three interactive sessions students are introduced to core readings and analytical concepts in visual anthropology and a variety of (audio)visual examples, which they will later use for their group presentations and their final essays. The December session provides space for peer group reflection on students’ mid-term conceptual paper in forms of guided group discussions. In January, film-screenings connected to students’ presentations take place. Students are provided with the opportunity to watch and discuss classic and experimental ethnographic and documentary films in order to critically engage with the politics of image making. We discuss collectively different (audio)visual forms of (self)representations and story-telling, and discuss each group’s analyses.

Learning Outcomes
With the seminar students develop a better understanding of the development of ethnographic documentary film and therefore a coherent context for the question of how to study films and visual culture. Students know and apply anthropological concepts and theories in visual anthropology to designated case examples. (Students should also initiate their own search for additional literature relevant to their topic). They learn to critically analyse representations in context, use socio-culturally sensitive concepts of film- and image analysis and learn to discuss contrasting approaches to the genre of ethnographic film.

Additional learning outcomes
Students know central theories, key concepts and literature in visual anthropology
Students acquire the skill of critical debate, discussion, rhetoric and analytical thinking
Students enhance their efficiency in academic writing and group work