Wars of images
A.A. 2021/2022
Obiettivi formativi
The course aims to provide the students with an in-depth knowledge of the main representation and image theories. The proposed historical-critical path will address the fundamental questions and authors of this specific disciplinary field, which belongs to the wider domain of the aesthetic discipline (intended both as a theory of sensibility and as a theory of art), also taking into consideration its interdisciplinary connections with other domains such as: semiotics, art history, history of literature, media history and theory, psychology, anthropology, cognitive neurosciences.
Risultati apprendimento attesi
Knowledge and understanding:
At the end of the course, the students will be able to master and discuss the main representation and image theories developed within the Western cultural tradition, with a particular emphasis on the contemporary debate. Along this path, the students will learn to hold a critical confrontation with the fundamental authors and concepts of this disciplinary domain, understanding its methods and being able to use its specific terminology.
Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
The students will acquire the skills necessary to apply the conceptual framework of the main representation and image theories to situations pertaining to the strategies of representation in the widest sense of the term and to the experience of the image (both artistic and non-artistic), having recourse to an adequate specific lexicon. They will be able to critically discuss the main theoretical models and to orient themselves in the corresponding literature. They will apply the acquired competences to the reading and critical comment of fundamental texts in representation and image theory. They will be encouraged to propose autonomous and original solutions to problems arising from the common discussion.
At the end of the course, the students will be able to master and discuss the main representation and image theories developed within the Western cultural tradition, with a particular emphasis on the contemporary debate. Along this path, the students will learn to hold a critical confrontation with the fundamental authors and concepts of this disciplinary domain, understanding its methods and being able to use its specific terminology.
Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
The students will acquire the skills necessary to apply the conceptual framework of the main representation and image theories to situations pertaining to the strategies of representation in the widest sense of the term and to the experience of the image (both artistic and non-artistic), having recourse to an adequate specific lexicon. They will be able to critically discuss the main theoretical models and to orient themselves in the corresponding literature. They will apply the acquired competences to the reading and critical comment of fundamental texts in representation and image theory. They will be encouraged to propose autonomous and original solutions to problems arising from the common discussion.
Periodo: Primo trimestre
Modalità di valutazione: Esame
Giudizio di valutazione: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Corso singolo
Questo insegnamento non può essere seguito come corso singolo. Puoi trovare gli insegnamenti disponibili consultando il catalogo corsi singoli.
Programma e organizzazione didattica
Edizione unica
Responsabile
Periodo
Primo trimestre
Delivery modes of training activities:
in the presence, usually classroom 24
and online (Teams code: s1mgxod, classes always recorded)
(But always to be updated, based on the evolution of the public health situation)
in the presence, usually classroom 24
and online (Teams code: s1mgxod, classes always recorded)
(But always to be updated, based on the evolution of the public health situation)
Programma
The course is divided into two teaching units. The first unit, entitled "Photography and affect", deals with the role of the photographic image in history in terms of affecting and making believe (images of wars or atrocities, images as political action). The second unit, entitled "Post-photography and operational images", is devoted to the digital turn and tackles the problem of agency of the image itself.
Prerequisiti
No prior knowledge is required.
Metodi didattici
Lectures and discussions, analysis of still and moving images, by means of slides and audiovisual materials. Students' presentations. Open access texts and further materials will be available through the Ariel site.
Materiale di riferimento
Unit A - Photography and affect (Tot: 246 pp.)
A. Robins, Peirce and Photography, in "The Journal of Speculative Philosophy",
Vol. 28, No. 1 (2014), pp. 1-16 (tot. 15) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jspecphil.28.1.0001?seq=1)
S. Sontag, On Photography (1977), Rosetta Books, New York 2005, pp. 1-19, 39-64 (tot: 43)
B. Nichols, Documentary Theory and Practice, in "Screen", Vol. 17, Issue 4, Winter 1976, pp. 34-48 (tot. 14) https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/17.4.34
R. Barthes, Camera Lucida. Reflection on Photography, Hill and Wang, New York, 1981, Part I, pp. 3- 60 (Tot: 57).
G. Didi-Huberman, Images in Spite of All: Four Photographs from Auschwitz, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2012, pp. 3-4, pp. 6-17, 30-40, 51-88 (tot: 47).
H. Farocki, Reality Would Have to Begin, in T. Elsaesser (ed.), Harun Farocki: Working on the Sightlines, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2004, pp. 193-202 (tot: 9) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46mzvn)
A. Sekula, The Body and the Archive, in "October", vol. 39, 1986, pp. 3-64 (tot. 31) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/778312.pdf?seq=1)
T. Gunning, Tracing the Individual Body. Photography, Detectives and Early Cinema, in L. Charney, V. R., Schwartz (eds.), Cinema and the Invention of Modern Life, University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles 1995, pp. 15-45 (tot. 30).
Unit B - Post-photography and operational images (tot: 228 pp.)
H. Steyerl, In defence of the poor image, e-flux journal #10, November 2009 (tot. 10 pp.)
(https://www.e-flux.com/journal/10/61362/in-defense-of-the-poor-image/)
H. Farocki, Phantom images, in "Public", n. 29, 2004, pp. 13-22 (tot: 10) (https://public.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/public/article/view/30354/27882
V. Pantenburg, Working images. Harun Farocki and the operational image, in Image Operations. Visual Media and Political Conflict, ed. by Jens Eder and Charlotte Klonk (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017), pp. 49-62 (tot. 13)
I. Hoelzl, R. Marie, Softimage. Toward a New Theory of the Digital Image, Intellect, Bristol/ Chicago 2015, pp. 61-80 (tot. 20)
B. Latour, What is Iconoclash? Or is there a world beyond the image wars, in B. Latour, P. Weibel (eds.), Iconoclash - Beyond the Image-Wars in Science, Religion and Art, ZKM, Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe/MIT Press, Cambridge (MA), 2002, pp. 14-37 (tot: 23)
V. Dünkel, X-Ray Vision and Shadow Image. On the Specificity of Early Radiographs and Their Interpretations around 1900, in H. Bredekamp, V. Dünkel, The Technical Image. A History of Style in the Scientific Imagery, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 2015, pp. 116-128 (tot: 12)
K. A. Gates, Our Biometric Future. Facial Recognition Technology and the Culture of Surveillance, New York Press, New York 2011, pp. 25-62 (tot: 37)
D. Greene, Drone Vision, in "Surveillance & Society", 13 (2), 2015, pp. 233-49 (16) (https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/drone_vision)
M. Jablonowski, Beyond drone vision: the embodied telepresence of first-person-view drone flight, in "The Senses and Society", 15 (3), 2020, pp. 344-358 (tot: 14).
R. Grusin, Premediation, in "Criticism", vol. 46, no. 1, 2004, pp. 17-39 (tot: 22).
Mark B. N. Hansen, Seeing with the Body: The Digital Image in Postphotography, in "Diacritics", Vol. 31, No. 4 (Winter, 2001), pp. 54-84 (tot: pp. 31)
A. Robins, Peirce and Photography, in "The Journal of Speculative Philosophy",
Vol. 28, No. 1 (2014), pp. 1-16 (tot. 15) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jspecphil.28.1.0001?seq=1)
S. Sontag, On Photography (1977), Rosetta Books, New York 2005, pp. 1-19, 39-64 (tot: 43)
B. Nichols, Documentary Theory and Practice, in "Screen", Vol. 17, Issue 4, Winter 1976, pp. 34-48 (tot. 14) https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/17.4.34
R. Barthes, Camera Lucida. Reflection on Photography, Hill and Wang, New York, 1981, Part I, pp. 3- 60 (Tot: 57).
G. Didi-Huberman, Images in Spite of All: Four Photographs from Auschwitz, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2012, pp. 3-4, pp. 6-17, 30-40, 51-88 (tot: 47).
H. Farocki, Reality Would Have to Begin, in T. Elsaesser (ed.), Harun Farocki: Working on the Sightlines, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2004, pp. 193-202 (tot: 9) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46mzvn)
A. Sekula, The Body and the Archive, in "October", vol. 39, 1986, pp. 3-64 (tot. 31) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/778312.pdf?seq=1)
T. Gunning, Tracing the Individual Body. Photography, Detectives and Early Cinema, in L. Charney, V. R., Schwartz (eds.), Cinema and the Invention of Modern Life, University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles 1995, pp. 15-45 (tot. 30).
Unit B - Post-photography and operational images (tot: 228 pp.)
H. Steyerl, In defence of the poor image, e-flux journal #10, November 2009 (tot. 10 pp.)
(https://www.e-flux.com/journal/10/61362/in-defense-of-the-poor-image/)
H. Farocki, Phantom images, in "Public", n. 29, 2004, pp. 13-22 (tot: 10) (https://public.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/public/article/view/30354/27882
V. Pantenburg, Working images. Harun Farocki and the operational image, in Image Operations. Visual Media and Political Conflict, ed. by Jens Eder and Charlotte Klonk (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017), pp. 49-62 (tot. 13)
I. Hoelzl, R. Marie, Softimage. Toward a New Theory of the Digital Image, Intellect, Bristol/ Chicago 2015, pp. 61-80 (tot. 20)
B. Latour, What is Iconoclash? Or is there a world beyond the image wars, in B. Latour, P. Weibel (eds.), Iconoclash - Beyond the Image-Wars in Science, Religion and Art, ZKM, Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe/MIT Press, Cambridge (MA), 2002, pp. 14-37 (tot: 23)
V. Dünkel, X-Ray Vision and Shadow Image. On the Specificity of Early Radiographs and Their Interpretations around 1900, in H. Bredekamp, V. Dünkel, The Technical Image. A History of Style in the Scientific Imagery, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 2015, pp. 116-128 (tot: 12)
K. A. Gates, Our Biometric Future. Facial Recognition Technology and the Culture of Surveillance, New York Press, New York 2011, pp. 25-62 (tot: 37)
D. Greene, Drone Vision, in "Surveillance & Society", 13 (2), 2015, pp. 233-49 (16) (https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/drone_vision)
M. Jablonowski, Beyond drone vision: the embodied telepresence of first-person-view drone flight, in "The Senses and Society", 15 (3), 2020, pp. 344-358 (tot: 14).
R. Grusin, Premediation, in "Criticism", vol. 46, no. 1, 2004, pp. 17-39 (tot: 22).
Mark B. N. Hansen, Seeing with the Body: The Digital Image in Postphotography, in "Diacritics", Vol. 31, No. 4 (Winter, 2001), pp. 54-84 (tot: pp. 31)
Modalità di verifica dell’apprendimento e criteri di valutazione
The final examination consists of a written test concerning the course topics and testing knowledge and skills acquired by students, with particular focus on concepts and examples. The test will consist in three open questions: 1) a case study analysis (one from those presented during classes; 2) discussion of a topic related to the first teaching unit; 3) discussion of a topic related to the second teaching unit.
The grading system (based on a 0-30 scale, 18 being the lowest passing mark) will correspond to:
- knowledge level of authors and topics;
- ability to apply concepts to case studies;
- making judgments;
- ability to use the proper terminology
The grading system (based on a 0-30 scale, 18 being the lowest passing mark) will correspond to:
- knowledge level of authors and topics;
- ability to apply concepts to case studies;
- making judgments;
- ability to use the proper terminology
Docente/i
Ricevimento:
Dal 28.4.25 al 12.5.25 compresi il ricevimento si terrà sempre al lunedì ma solo online dalle 13.30 alle 16.30 su appuntamento richiesto via mail o via Teams (causa trasferta di ricerca negli USA)
Dipartimento di filosofia, secondo piano, e/o Teams