2005 Handbooks

This unit explores the role of visual productions and artefacts in cross-cultural interpretation and analysis. What role does visual culture (art, photography, video, film, television) play in shaping cultural voices, views and identities? Are there cultural 'ways of seeing' and what might they look like? Are the technologies for recording and transmitting visual culture themselves historically, aesthetically, culturally specific? Why has representing other cultures visually been such an important part of the anthropological project, and what effects do visual representations have on our conceptualizations of other cultures? Does ethnographic film accurately portray other cultures? How are indigenous and other cultural groups using visual technologies to represent their interests and identities contemporarily? These and other questions will be explored through two-hour weekly film screenings, in addition to the lecture and tutorial program. This course develops themes explored in ANTH276 Affect and Meaning and will be of special interest to students of media, cultural studies and creative arts.