C8659 - Visual Anthropology (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

The course offers the tools to understand the implications related to the communication of anthropological themes and problems through audiovisual media. At the end of the course students: know the fundamentals of visual anthropology in its different historical and cultural developments; understand the intersection between visual anthropology and other representative genres in the field of cinema and contemporary visual art; know how to use the visual anthropological approach in different geographical contexts.

Course contents

Where do images come from? What do they want? What do they do? How are they produced and where do they circulate? Who are their authors, activators, annotators and owners? What do images need to flourish and be valorized? What kind of images count as militant? Is their act of bearing witness and providing evidence enough to make them relevant? What can we learn by listening to images? Or by touching them? What kind of political space is the space of the archive? Is it national, local or international(ist)? Can images activate the future rather than just ‘taxidermically’ (Rony) capture the past? Can cinema not only be reflexive of the condition of life under capitalism but also attempt to change them?
Bringing together anthropology, visual art and film studies, this course will consider the value of images, with specific regard to relational modes of addressing and telling embodied in forms of intersectionalism, black visuality (Campt, 2019) and post-capitalist imaginaries (Mollona, 2021). Moreover, going beyond the epistemology and aesthetics of realism, often associated with the voyeuristic western, male gaze and the problematic notion of visual evidence, we will discuss opaque, relational and sensuous forms of witnessing, dwelling and ‘taking position through images’ (Didi-Huberman, 2018).
We will discuss how it feels to create images in context of civil conflict and political counter-insurgence – the personal risks, legal consequences, ethical pressures but also the strategic possibilities associated with producing militant images. We will ask whether the documentary mode is more socially engaged or ethic than fictional representations or whether these two registers can work together. We will ask how the militant tradition of third cinema can be reactivated in the current context of post-truth, hyper-mediation and techno-acceleration. We will investigate cinematic representation of labour as a way to reflect on the labour of filmmaking and on the economies of production and distribution associated with contemporary visual images. We will touch upon the poetic of melodrama, associated with subaltern voices; Fourth and Indigenous cinema, the political possibilities of online archives, the idea of filmmaking as a political craft, and the material and immaterial resources that are needed to bring the militant imagination from the peripheries to the centre.
The central frame of the course is the constructive dialogue between sociological categories – namely the notions of ‘humanism’, ‘race’, ‘class’, ‘sexuality’, ‘indigeneity’, ‘work’; ‘agency’ and ‘subjectivity’ – and the radical, postcolonial and post-capitalist imagination, visual but not only.

LECTURES

1 - Towards an Anthropology of Images
2 - Revolutionary Art: Between Propaganda and Magical Realism
3 - Cine-Trance: Mimesis, Magic, and the Aura
4 - India Observed
5 - Cinema and Labor
6 - Anthropology as Cultural Mediation
7 - Alternative Visions from the Colonies
8 - Diaspora, Memory, and Subjectivity
9 - Sensory Anthropology
10 - Review

Readings/Bibliography

A. Azoulay. 2019. Potential History. Unlearning Imperialism. London: Verso.

Balsom, E. and H. Peleg. 2022. Feminist Worldmaking and the Moving Image. Berlin: HKW.

Belting, H. 2011. An Anthropology of Images: Picture, Medium, Body. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Bruno, G. 2022. Atmospheres of Projection: Environmentality in Art and Screen Media. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Campt, T. 2021. A Black Gaze. Artists Changing How we See.Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: The MIT Press.

Della Ratta, D. 2018. Shooting a Revolution: Visual Media and Warfare in Syria. Pluto Press.

Demos, T. J. 2003. The Migrant Image. The Art and Politics of Documentary during the global Crisis. Duke University Press.

Didi-Huberman, G. 2008. Images in Spite of All.

Grimshaw, A. 2001. The Ethnographer’s Eye. Cambridge UP.

Marano, T. 2011. Camera etnografica. Storie e teorie di antropologia visuale. Milano: Franco Angeli.

Marks, L. 1999. The Skin of the Film. Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses.Duke University Press.

Mirzoeff, N. 2011. The Right to Look: A Counterhistory of Visuality. Duke University Press.

Mollona, M. 2021. ART/COMMONS. Anthropology Beyond Capitalism. London: Zed Books.

Mc Dougall, D. 2021. Transcultural Cinema. Princeton UP.

Nagib, L. 2013. World Cinema and the Ethics of Realism. Manchester UP.

Pasolini. P. P. 1961. L’Odore dell’India. Guanda.

Rouch, J. 2003. Cine’ Ethnography. University of Minnesota Press.

Russell, C. 1999. Experimental Ethnography: The Work of Film in the Age of Video. Durham: Duke University Press.

Van Lancker, L. Cinematic Ethnography: Experiencing Cultures Through Some Audiovisual Practices. Machester UP.

Sensory Ethnography Lab. Harvard University. [http://https://sel.fas.harvard.edu/people/lucien-castaing-taylor]

Teaching methods

Direct instruction, seminars featuring individual and group presentations, and masterclasses with experts in the field.

Assessment methods

The syllabus is the same for both attending and non-attending students.

Students are advised to regularly check the "Announcements" section on the teacher's webpage for information regarding the syllabus and the exam.

The use of AI tools during the exam is prohibited in any form, including chatbots, text generators, advanced translators, content synthesizers, and tools integrated into devices. Any use of AI is considered a violation of the principles of honesty and integrity outlined in the Policy and may result in the instructor annulling the exam; the instructor retains final responsibility for this decision.

Assessment takes the form of a two-hour written exam. The test consists of an open-ended question based on the course readings. There is no word limit for answers.

Students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) or temporary/permanent disabilities are advised to contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/it) well in advance. That office will propose any necessary accommodations to the students; these proposals must be submitted to the instructor for approval at least 15 days prior to the exam, so that the instructor can assess their suitability in light of the course's learning objectives.

Teaching tools

Power-point and video projections. 

Office hours

See the website of Massimiliano Nicola Mollona