Visual Anthropology Experiments

Monday, January 30, 2012

Found in Old Mesilla

Photograph contributed by Vanessa Kenner - Old Mesilla, New Mexico August 2011

Posted by gaea at 9:51 AM

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About this blog

Welcome to our visual anthropology experiment. This blog is home to digital images collected and shared by students enrolled in An Exploration of Contemporary World Issues Through Film (spring of 2012).

It may be that the images will speak to each other, or more accurately, that we speak to each other image for image. The photographs have some basic contextual information, but the meaning we draw from them is left up to each of us.

We are guided by the subfield of visual anthropology to focus on visual culture – its creation, form, and function, and the aphorism that everything is interesting.

From The Society for Visual Anthropology website:

"The Society encourages the use of media, including still photography, film, video and non-camera generated images, in the recording of ethnographic, archaeological and other anthropological genres. Members examine how aspects of culture can be pictorially/visually interpreted and expressed, and how images can be understood as artifacts of culture. Historical photographs, in particular, are seen as a source of ethnographic data, expanding our horizons beyond the reach of memory culture. The society also supports the study of indigenous media and their grounding in personal, social, cultural and ideological contexts, and how anthropological productions can be exhibited and used more effectively in classrooms, museums and television.”

Humans create material culture: we leave it behind. Now we make “image artifacts,” and more than ever. We often have several means of capturing and storing something that outlives “the reach of memory culture.” Our phones, computers, and other devices come equipped with cameras. We use these cameras, our blog and our class to explore “how images can be understood as artifacts of culture.”

This blog is facilitated by the course instructor. Students submit their “visual artifacts” by email and they are posted with limited context (date, place, etc.) by the facilitator.

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