|
Visual Anthropology: Film as a tool for research
Offered by Celine BURNAND on Thursday mornings from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm and evenings from 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm |
|
Visual anthropology is a rather young discipline that offers creative methods that
can cross the borders and limitations of traditional anthropology in order to
question representations and to rethink our and other’s roles, values, norms,
rituals, mythologies, and media practices in the age of digital modernities.
This class will provide examples of visual and media anthropological researches
in order to discuss the different strategies of visual anthropologists and
filmmakers and the issues raised by their choices. The course will lay down
fundamental tools and ideas through screenings of films and discussions and will
give practical insights through a research exercise. Students will choose a topic
of enquiry they would like to explore through the spectrum of visual
anthropology over the span of the class.
Why apply for this course?
- If you would like to discover the field of visual anthropology in a playful
way
- If you interested in bridging practice and theory through an exercise on
the field
- If you are keen on exploring new ways of seeing the world and
envisioning research
- If you are open to discuss and challenge your views about culture, media,
representation of the Self and of the others
Syllabus
1. Welcoming and introduction: What is visual anthropology?
Presentation of each participant and his/her interest in the course
What is your background? What are your expectations of the course? Do
you have an idea of the topic you would like to research within the
course?
What is anthropology?
Screening
‘An Introduction to the discipline of anthropology’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5aglbgTEig
‘Dead Anthropologists Play Golf in Heaven’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv8cYPiWNDc
What is visual anthropology?
Screening of ‘Nanuk of the north’, a film by Robert Flaherty about the
struggles of an Inuk man and his family in the Canadian Artic in 1922
Screening of ‘Connected’, a film by Carmen Bellaschk on the use of
smartphone for migrants navigating in the Mediterranean Sea in 2016
Discussion
Reading: Singh, Bhrigupati, and Jane I. Guyer. "Introduction: A joyful
history of anthropology." HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory6, no. 2
(2016): 197-211.
2. How to start an ethnographical research?
What is ethnography?
What do we talk about when we talk about fieldwork?
What is a research question?
Reading
Clifford James. Anthropology and/as Travel , Etnofoor, Jaarg. 9, Nr. 2, 5-15,
1996 Marcus, George E., 1995. Ethnography in/of the World System: The
Emergence of Multi-sited Ethnography. In Annual Review of
Anthropology, Vol. 24. pp. 95-117, Annual Reviews
Marcus, George E. Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of
Multi-sited Ethnography.In The Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 24. pp.
95-117, Annual Reviews, 1995.
Ingold, Tim. The Temporality of the Landscape. In World Archaeology. Vol
25. No 2. Conceptions of Time and Ancient Society. (Oct.) pp. 152 – 174.
Taylor & Francis, Ltd, 1993
3. How to find appropriate tools for your research?
Participant observation
Field notes, diary, visual notes
Interviews: structures, semi-structured, informal
Photography and film
Soundscape
Collaborative actions
Reading:
Darren Newbury, Diaries and Fieldnotes,  Research Issues in Art Design
and Media, 2001
Macdougall MacDougall, David (1998) Transcultural Cinema. Princeton
University Press
Additional readings to be announced
4. Theory: Overview of different methodologies
Grounded theory and epistemology
Interpretive Anthropology
Narrative anthropology
Phenomenological anthropology
Additional readings to be announced
5. The camera as a research tool
Screening ‘Childhood Rivalry in Bali and New Guinea - Mead and Bateson’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NqQ6KL-aUY
and Jean Rouch ‘Les Maîtres Fous’ (The Mad Masters), 1955
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8FR85eR-ec&t=2s
Reading
Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson on the Use of the Camera in
Anthropology, Studies in Visual Communication, Volume 4, Issue 2 Winter
1977
Discussion on the role of the camera and the filmmaker based on Mead
and Bateson’s argument and Rouch’s film.
6. Modes of representation I
Screenings of films extracts (to be announced) to discuss Nichols
categories
Discussion
Reading:
Nichols, Bill (2001), Introduction to Documentary. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press.
Additional readings to be announced
7. What visual strategy for what project?
Discussion of individual projects in the class
Feedback, proposition, analyzing potential visual strategies
8. Modes of representation II
Screenings of films extracts (to be announced) to discuss Nichols
categories
Discussion
Additional readings to be announced
9. Visual anthropology and art
An overview of crossover research-based practices
Readings to be announced
Proposals / discussion / feedback about the upcoming display of the
projects for the screening /exhibition
10. Presentation of the student’s projects
Screening / exhibition
الترجمة جاية في السكة
Céline Burnand is a Swiss artist and researcher living between Cairo and Berlin. She studied visual arts with a specialization in painting and drawing at the Haute Ecole d’Art et de Design (HEAD) in Geneva, and later graduated in art history, literature and history of cinema. After a few years of working and travelling in Switzerland and abroad (San Francisco, Paris, Madrid), she became interested in the potentiality of film to explore the world and social realities beyond the cluster of her studio. She graduated from the Master of Visual and Media anthropology in Berlin in 2017 with her film ‘Looking for a Rifa’i’ that focused on snake handlers in Egypt.
سيلين برنارد فنانة وباحثة سويسرية تعيش بين برلين والقاهرة. درست الفنون البصرية في المدرسة العليا للفنون والتصميم (هيد) في جينيف وتخصصت في الرسم، ثم تخرجت مؤهلة في تاريخ الفن واﻷدب والسينما. بعد سنوات من العمل والسفر في سويسرا والخارج (سان فرانسيسكو وباريس ومدريد)، أصبحت مهتمة في قدرة وسيط الفيلم في استكشاف العالم والواقع اﻹجتماعي أبعد من حيز الاستوديو الخاص بها. حصلت على درجة الماجستير في اﻷنثروبولوجيا البصرية والميديا من برلين في 2017 بفيلمها "البحث عن رفاعي" الذي يركز على مروضي الثعابين في مصر.
