Course Code & Title Convenor(s) Dr Caitlin Patrick Institution King s College London Department LISS DTP, Centre for Doctoral Studies Academic Year 2017-18 Term Summer Number of Sessions 3 Length of Session(s) 2 hours Enrolment Link: Day, Date Start : End Room Location Thursday, 26 April 2018 Thursday, 3 May 2018 Thursday, 10 May 2018 11:00-13:00 S2.30 Strand Building, Strand campus, King s https://goo.gl/wk2nf5 (You may be prompted to log into SkillsForge) Course Description: Over the past 50 years, the study of visual culture has moved beyond the fine arts to become truly multidisciplinary, including film/television studies, media and communication, politics, sociology, anthropology, geography, science studies and more. Such widespread interest in studying visual phenomena illustrates the perceived value in understanding the social conditions and effects of visual objects and their imbrication with power relations. This short course is designed to help students who are planning to use visual theory and methods in their research projects. The convenor s background is in working with various types of photography, moving imagery such as film/television and multimedia/online productions, but students planning to study other visual objects and phenomena are welcome and will be catered for where possible. The course will broadly cover the theoretical and research implications of using particular methodologies, including: compositional analysis, content analysis, semiology, psychoanalysis, discourse analysis, audience studies and anthropological approaches. Course Outline: Session 1- A broad overview of the recent history and current state of visual methodologies and theory, followed by a small group activity considering the various levels of image analysis. Although it may be quite 'basic' for many of you, I'd like us to use Gillian Rose's Visual Methodologies book to start. Please read Chs. 1 & 2 (available under the LISS313 tab on the LISS DTP Training Resources webpage) and pay particular attention to the section where she highlights five key aspects of recent visual culture research: concern for how images visualise (or render invisible) social difference, concern with how images are looked at, the embeddedness of images in wider culture (however this might be constructed), concern for how particular audiences of imagery bring their own interpretations to the meaning of images and the idea that images have their own agency, are relational and not reducible to other social phenomena.
Please jot down a few thoughts on the questions below to discuss with the group: In your own project (or, if you're not actively working with visual material for your PhD, just think in terms of your own interests) is there a particular 'site' that you're most interested in researching? (ie. the site of visual image production, the site of the image itself, or the site of the audience) As Rose notes in her analysis of the Doisneau photo, there's clearly overlap between these sites and the modalities used to approach them. Can you see these overlaps occurring in your own research? Do you anticipate that they'll be difficult to navigate/how will they affect your research approach? Take a look at the diagram and table in Ch. 2. Based on your research interests, see which methodologies Rose recommends for you. I've also included Sturken & Cartwright's Practices of Looking opening chapter below as well. Please read this if you're new to visual methods & theory and skim it to get a sense of what's covered if you do already have a background in this area. Session 2- Exploring individual methods of relevance to students; interactive discussion and debate. Bring an example of a visual object/phenomena you plan to work with for some group discussion. Specific readings to be chosen and distribution arranged in Session 1. Session 3- Reading and assessing the methodological approaches of others. A session of evaluation and critique of various academic studies. Readings to be chosen and distribution arranged in Session 2. Eligibility: PhD students using or planning to use visual theory/methodologies. Preparation: Readings and instructions for pre-session preparation will be made available via the LISS DTP Training Resources webpage- https://liss-dtp.ac.uk/training-resources/ If you have not registered to become affiliated with LISS DTP and do not have access to this page, please contact liss-dtp@kcl.ac.uk to gain access. Number of students: 25 Reading recommendations: These readings are suggestions only. Reading during the course will as much as possible be selected based on the interests of participants. General: Rose, Gillian. Visual Methodologies. Rose, Jacqueline. Sexuality in the Field of Vision. Debord, Guy. Society of the Spectacle. Crary, Jonathan. Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century. Crary, Jonathan. Suspensions of Perception. Bryson, Norman, Michael Ann Holly, and Keith P. F. Moxey. Visual Culture: Images and Interpretations. Holly, Michael Ann and Keith P. F. Moxey. Art History, Aesthetics, Visual Studies.
Panofsky, Erwin. Perspective as a Symbolic Form. Jay, Martin ed. "The State of Visual Culture Studies." Special issue of Journal of Visual Culture 4.2 (August 2005). Jay, Martin. Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth Century French Thought. Mirzoeff, Nicholas. An Introduction to Visual Culture. Bal, Mieke. Looking In: The Art of Viewing. Greenberg, Clement. The Collected Essays and Criticism. Krauss, Rosalind. The Originality of the Avant-Gardes and Other Modernist Myths. Krauss, Rosalind. The Optical Unconscious. Schwartz, Vanessa and Jeannene Przblyski, ed. The Nineteenth Century Visual Culture Reader. Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Its Mechanical Reproducibility and Other Writings on Media. Trans. and ed. Michael W. Jennings et al. Bruno, Giuliana. Atlas of Emotion: Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film. Bruno, Giuliana. Public Intimacy: Architecture and the Visual Arts. Datson, Lorraine and Peter Galison. Objectivity. Foster, Hal ed. Vision and Visuality. Friedberg, Anne. The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft. Levin, David Michael. Modernity and the Hegemony of Vision. Wade, Nicholas. A Natural History of Vision. Williams, William J. The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the PostPhotographic Era. Doty, R. L. Imperial Encounters: The Politics of Representation in North-South Relations. Feldman, A. On Cultural Anesthesia: From Desert Storm to Rodney King. American Ethnologist 21, no. 2: 404-18. Fiske, J. Media Matters: Race and Gender in US Politics. Pieterse, J. N. White on Black: Images of Africa and Blacks in Western Popular Culture. Poole, D. Vision, Race and Modernity: A Visual Economy of the Andean Image World. Ryan, J. R. Picturing Empire: Photography and the Visualization of the British Empire. Ryan, J. & J. Schwartz, eds. Picturing Place: Photography and the Geographical Imagination. Said, E. Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World. Photography: Mitchell, W.J.T. Picture Theory.
Mitchell, William T. What do Pictures Want? The Lives and Loves of Images. Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida. Sontag, Susan. On Photography. Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others. Bolton, Richard ed. The Contest of Meaning: Critical Histories of Photography. Didi-Huberman, Georges. Confronting Images: Questioning the Ends of a Certain History of Art. Burgin, V., ed. 1982. Thinking Photography. Macmillan. Burnett, R. 1995. Cultures of Vision: Images, Media and the Imaginary. Indiana University Press. Cassell, D. 1997. The Photographer and the Law. BFP Books. Chouliaraki, L. 2006. The Spectatorship of Suffering. Sage Publications. Cohen, S. 2001. States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering. Polity Press. *for more photography/visual media reading suggestions, see bibliography page here: http://www.photoconflict.com/resources/bibliography/ Film: Doane, Mary Ann. The Emergence of Cinematic Time: Modernity, Contingency, The Archive. Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema I: Movement-Image. Grieveson, Lee and Haidee Watson, ed. Inventing Film Studies. Nelmes, Jill ed. Introduction to Film Studies. Polan, Dana. Scenes of Instruction: The Beginnings of the U.S. Study of Film. Callahan, Vicki. Reclaiming the Archive: Feminism and Film History. Cohan, Steven and Ina Rae Hark. Screening the Male: Masculinities in the Hollywood Cinema. Dyer, Richard. Now You See It: Studies on Lesbian and Gay Film. Dyer, Richard. White: Essays on Race and Culture. Erens, Patricia ed. Issues in Feminist Film Criticism. Gaines, Jane. "White Privilege and Looking Relations: Race and Gender in Feminist Film Theory." Screen 29.4 (1988): 12-27. Jones, Amelia ed. The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. Lant, Antonia ed. Red Velvet Seat: Women's Writings on the First Fifty Years of Cinema. Mayne, Judith. Cinema and Spectatorship. Mulvey, Laura. Visual and Other Pleasures. Mulvey, Laura. Death 24x a Second.
Silverman, Kaja. Male Subjectivity at the Margins. Williams, Linda. Playing the Race Card: Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to O.J. Simpson. Willis, Sharon. High Contrast: Race and Gender in Contemporary Hollywood Films. Cartwright, Lisa. "Film and the Digital in Visual Studies: Film Studies in the Era of Convergence." Journal of Visual Culture 1.1 (2002): 7-23. Elsaesser, Thomas and Kay Hoffmann, ed. Cinema Futures: Cain, Abel or Cable? The Screen Arts in the Digital Age. Rodowick, D.N. The Virtual Life of Film. Rosen, Philip. "Old and New: Image, Indexicality, and Historicity in the Digital Utopia." In "Change Mummified": Cinema, Historicity, Theory. Shaw, Jeffrey and Peter Weibel. Future Cinema: The Cinematic Imaginary after Film. Television: Enzensberger, Hans Magnus. The Consciousness Industry. Fiske, John and John Hartley. Reading Television. Hall, Stuart. Early Writings On Television. Joselit, David. Feedback: Television Against Democracy. McCarthy, Anna. Ambient Television: Visual Culture and Public Space. Neuman, Russell ed. The Social Impact of Television: A Research Agenda for the 1980s. Shamberg, Michael. Guerilla Television. Spigel, Lynn. Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America. Spigel, Lynn and Jan Olsson, ed. Television after TV: Essays on a Medium in Transition. Williams, Raymond and Ederyn Williams. Television: Technology and Cultural Form. New Media: Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. Hui Kyong Chun, Wendy and Thomas Keenan, ed. New Media, Old Media: A History and Theory Reader. Druckrey, Timothy ed. Electronic Culture: Technology and Visual Representation. Gitelman, Lisa. Always Already New: Media, History, and the Data of Culture. Gitelman, Lisa and Geoffrey B. Pingree. New Media, 1740-1915. Art: Gombrich, E.H. Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation.
Belting, Hans. Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image Before the Era of Art. Alain-Bois, Yve. Painting as Model. Steinberg, Leo. Other Criteria: Confrontations with Twentieth Century Art. Charney, Leo and Vanessa Schwarz, ed. Cinema and The Invention of Modern Life. Gunning, Tom. "Modernity and Cinema: A Culture of Shocks and Flows." In: Cinema and Modernity. Ed. Murray Pomerance. Jones, Caroline A. and Bill Arning. Sensorium: Embodied Experience, Technology, and Contemporary Art. Kittler, Friedrich. Gramophone, Film, Typewriter. Trans. Geoffrey Winthrop-Young and Michael Wutz. Levin, Thomas Y., Ursula Frohne, and Peter Weibel, ed. CTRL[SPACE]: Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother. Winston, Brian. Media, Technology, and Society: A History From the Telegraph to the Internet. Zielinski, Siegfried. Deep Time of the Media: Toward an Archaeology of Hearing and Seeing by Technical Means. Trans. Gloria Custance. Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. McChesney, Robert. The Political Economy of Media: Enduring Issues, Emerging Dilemmas. Mosco, Vincent. The Digital Sublime: Myth, Power, and Cyberspace. Mosco, Vincent. Representation: Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices. Harvey, David. The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change. Hebdige, Dick. Subculture: The Meaning of Style. Jameson, Frederic. Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.