Imaging Culture

Imaging Culture: Representation and Visual
Anthropology.
As the discipline originally chartered to classify
'races of man,' images and their interpretation
have long been important components of
anthropology. From early anthropometrics and
photographic recordings of rituals and daily
practices, to ethnographic film and multimedia
works, anthropologists have integrated visuals in
a range of forms and uses that closely parallel
technological developments in imaging. This
extensive integration, however, has been
accompanied by a sometimes conflicting set of
positions regarding visuals and their relationship
to methodology, representation, and
interpretation. This course explores issues of
debate that visuals stimulate in ethnographic
projects as well as the methods used to produce
them. It takes a survey approach to
anthropological visuals, with an emphasis on works
that have shifted the perspective of how images
and their production impact relationships among
subjects, between subjects and ethnographers,
between ethnographers and their work, and between
these works and their audiences. In addition to
films and readings, students will conduct
fieldwork with a group of their choosing.
Students will complete a series of visual
exercises that will enable them to engage with the
issues of representation considered in the course.