Kerstin Schankweiler is a professor for "Bildwissenschaft im globalen Kontext" (Visual Studies in a Global Context) at the department of Art History at Technical University Dresden, Germany. In 2019, she was a junior professor for contemporary art at the University of Siegen. From 2015-2019 she was a post-doctoral researcher in the Collaborative Research Centre "Affective Societies. Dynamics of social coexistence in mobile worlds" at Free University Berlin. She previously worked as an academic staff member for the Arts of Africa at the Department of Art History at Free University Berlin (2010-2015) and for Modern and Contemporary Art at the Department of Art History at University of Cologne (2008-2010). She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Art History at University of Trier where she was part of the research program "Identity and Difference – Gender Constructions and Interculturality (18th -21st century)". Her research interests are in the areas of Contemporary Art with a regional focus on Africa, Digital Image Cultures, Visual Culture Studies, Art History and Postcolonial Theory, Art History in a Global Context/Transcultural Art History, the History of Art History. Address: Technische Universität Dresden Philosophische Fakultät, Kunstgeschichte August-Bebel-Str. 20 01219 Dresden, Germany
The cultural effects of globalization constitute one of the most important challenges for the dis... more The cultural effects of globalization constitute one of the most important challenges for the discipline of art history today. The aim of this publication is to take a critical look at art historical narratives. Based on transcultural object biographies, the volume brings together analyses of objects and images that circulate in transcultural contact zones: their histories of origin, circulation and perception slice through space and time. The histories of these objects and images thus demonstrate in exemplary fashion how knowledge and understanding can be generated, communicated or also challenged in cultural contact zones. Hence, the publication is designed as a methodological contribution to a transcultural art and cultural history. It is also conceived as an instrument for teaching and contains a critical-discursive glossary of key-terms that combines theory and practice of transcultural art history.
Reading Objects in the Contact Zone, ed. by Eva-Maria Troelenberg, Kerstin Schankweiler & Anna Messner. Heidelberg Studies on Transculturality Vol. 9, 2021
The cultural effects of globalization constitute one of the most important challenges for the dis... more The cultural effects of globalization constitute one of the most important challenges for the discipline of art history today. The aim of this publication is to take a critical look at art historical narratives. Based on transcultural object biographies, the volume brings together analyses of objects and images that circulate in transcultural contact zones: their histories of origin, circulation and perception slice through space and time. The histories of these objects and images thus demonstrate in exemplary fashion how knowledge and understanding can be generated, communicated or also challenged in cultural contact zones. Hence, the publication is designed as a methodological contribution to a transcultural art and cultural history. It is also conceived as an instrument for teaching and contains a critical-discursive glossary of key-terms that combines theory and practice of transcultural art history.
Bildproteste. Widerstand im Netz, Berlin: Wagenbach, 2019
Wie funktioniert das Selfie als Protestwerkzeug? Erzeugen Bildphänomene im Netz eine globale Comm... more Wie funktioniert das Selfie als Protestwerkzeug? Erzeugen Bildphänomene im Netz eine globale Community? An Protestbewegungen in aller Welt zeigt Kerstin Schankweiler, welche Dynamiken schnell verbreitete Bilder in Zeiten der Sozialen Medien entwickeln können. Spätestens seit dem Arabischen Frühling im Jahr 2011 sind die Sozialen Medien als Orte politischen Protests wichtig geworden. Erfolgreiche Protestkampagnen bestehen aus geschickten Verknüpfungen zwischen dem öffentlichen Raum und den Räumen des Internet. Dabei spielen Bilder oft eine zentrale Rolle. Mit ihnen lassen sich Botschaften besonders prägnant und emotional formulieren und Geschehnisse scheinbar hautnah vermitteln. Bilder, die in den Sozialen Medien rasch verbreitet werden, können einer politischen Bewegung ungeahnte Dynamik verleihen. Sie verbinden Menschen für kurze oder längere Zeit zu Affektgemeinschaften. Die Kunstwissenschaftlerin Kerstin Schankweiler analysiert an einer Vielzahl von Beispielen, welche Formen, Praktiken und Politiken von Bildprotesten es gibt und wie die Paradigmen der digitalen Kultur Protestbewegungen verändern.
Image Testimonies. Witnessing in Times of Social Media. Ed. by Kerstin Schankweiler, Verena Straub & Tobias Wendl, 2019
This introduction sets the basis for the contributions in the volume by developing a concept of ‘... more This introduction sets the basis for the contributions in the volume by developing a concept of ‘image testimony’, which has yet to be fully theorized. It traces how visuality and vision, image, and imaging technology have shaped theories of witnessing from early on. Given the accelerated visual economy in the social web today, a new approach to theorizing image testimony has become necessary. In relation to contemporary image practices, the authors highlight the plurality of witnessing as well as the affectivity of image testimonies in order to shape a new approach to testimony theory. By bringing together diverse disciplinary perspectives and the case studies discussed throughout the volume, the introduction provides a comprehensive overview of the core arguments, thus giving way to a multi-faceted understanding of image testimony as an emerging field of study.
With Facebook, Twitter and Co., mobile phone photos and videos are shared millionfold on the Web.... more With Facebook, Twitter and Co., mobile phone photos and videos are shared millionfold on the Web. They are liked or provoke protest, form communities—and advance the circulation of affects. Accompanying the exhibition of the same name, the publication, Affect Me. Social Media Images in Art, introduces nine artists who work with images originating from social media. Their focus lies particularly on those images that are shared in the context of political conflicts. The artists reflect how these pictures move and mobilise, beyond their reporting function, and how they navigate on the brittle boundaries between reality and fiction. The exhibition and this catalogue were produced in close cooperation between KAI 10 | Arthena Foundation, Düsseldorf and the research project Affective Dynamics of Images in the Era of Social Media at Freie Universität Berlin.
Der amerikanische Kunsthistoriker George Kubler (1912-1996) publizierte im Jahr 1962 den theoreti... more Der amerikanische Kunsthistoriker George Kubler (1912-1996) publizierte im Jahr 1962 den theoretischen Essay »The Shape of Time. Remarks on the History of Things«. Darin entwickelte er ein strukturalistisches Modell der Kunstgeschichtsschreibung, das die kulturellen, zeitlichen und objektbezogenen Einschränkungen und Hierarchisierungen der bisherigen Forschung in Frage stellte. Die methodischen Probleme, mit denen sich Kubler konfrontiert sah, besitzen auch heute noch Relevanz und erhalten zudem eine neue Aktualität durch die gegenwärtig stattfindenden Erweiterungen der Kunstgeschichte um kulturwissenschaftliche, medienwissenschaftliche und postkoloniale Fragestellungen. Die Aufsätze des Bandes stellen Kubler als Wissenschaftler vor, untersuchen zentrale Begriffe und Konzepte aus seinem Essay, verorten seine Ideen in der Wissenschaftsgeschichte und zeigen Verbindungen zu aktuellen Theorien und Diskussionen auf. Enthalten ist außerdem ein künstlerischer Beitrag von Zhenia Couso Martell.
In einer bis dahin nie dagewesenen Distanzlosigkeit
und scheinbaren Evidenz konfrontieren uns
m... more In einer bis dahin nie dagewesenen Distanzlosigkeit
und scheinbaren Evidenz konfrontieren uns
medial vermittelte Bilder der Gewalt täglich mit
Krieg, Folter sowie Selbstmordattentaten. Doch
nicht nur die aktuelle, sondern auch die historische
Omnipräsenz und Valenz von Gewaltdarstellungen
fordert die Kunstgeschichte und ihre
Methodik dazu heraus, sich mit dem ikonischen
Charakter dieser Bilder und ihrem spezifischen
geschichtlichen Kontext intensiv auseinanderzusetzen.
Der vorliegende Band geht deshalb der
Frage nach, inwiefern Konzepte einer Ästhetik
der Gewalt sowohl epochen- als auch gattungsübergreifend
zum Ausdruck kommen oder inwieweit
Brüche und Diskontinuitäten innerhalb der
Genealogie bildimpliziter Gewalt feststellbar und
analysierbar sind. Er legt den Schwerpunkt auf
Gewalt als visuelle Konstruktion, die in den versammelten
Beiträgen an Kunstwerken vom späten
Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart in ihren Grundstrukturen
und ihrer Wirkungsmacht im Sinne
einer Gewalt der Ästhetik untersucht wird.
21: Inquiries into Art, History, and the Visual, 2023
How has digital communication changed expectations and perceptions of proximity and di... more How has digital communication changed expectations and perceptions of proximity and distance? This article traces the media history of a communication mode that relies on intimacy and testifying. By discussing the intrinsic relationship between platform-based information and communication technologies and the attention economy, the development of a communication mode of so-called “presumed intimacy” is elaborated. Drawing on concepts from celebrity studies and advertising, the transformation of spatio-temporal and social distance into felt proximity can be described in more detail. In doing so, the article also stresses the role of images in the fabrication of intimacy and takes selfies and selfie videos of celebrities in the context of protest movements as an example. The connection of protest culture, celebrification and testimonial images demonstrates in a particular way how attention economies in digital communication are structured.
Selfie-Proteste. Affektzeugenschaften und Bildökonomien in den Social Media, in: Nähe auf Distanz. Eigendynamik und mobilisierende Kraft politischer Bilder im Internet, hg. v. Isabelle Busch, Uwe Fleckner und Judith Waldmann, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020, S. 175-190., 2020
Around the globe, citizens have in recent years been documenting police brutality with their mobi... more Around the globe, citizens have in recent years been documenting police brutality with their mobile phone cameras and circulating the videos on social media. Using a case example from Morocco, I read media witnessing of police violence as a practice and a politics of affecting. Mouhcine Fikri, a fisherman from Al Hoceïma, was crushed to death in a garbage truck in October 2016 after a dispute with the police. Several people close to the truck witnessed his violent death. A mobile phone video of the incident went viral and sparked widespread protest in the country. I focus on the intensity of sound and the aesthetic quality of the mostly blurry, shaky images of this video, arguing that we mainly witness the videographer (and other eyewitnesses) being affected, and not what happened to Fikri. This is also true for many other videos of police violence. The way in which these videos operate is based on a relational process of affecting and being-affected. Likewise, witnessing as a practice that requires co-witnessing is principally relational. Witnessing and affecting correlate in these image testimonies, or rather, affect is at the core of witnessing.
The increasing dominance of images in contemporary mass communication makes the visual a relevant... more The increasing dominance of images in contemporary mass communication makes the visual a relevant field of investigation for understanding the role of affects and emotions that resonate within any given society. This chapter addresses the theoretical and methodological foundation of the analysis of images with regard to affects from an art-historical point of view. Art historians can rely partly on their expertise in image analysis and image description, but must also look for ways to address images as ‘storage’ of affect. Aby Warburg and his concept of Pathosformel addresses this ‘storage’ of affective intensity in terms of materialization or formalization of affect. The example of Warburg’s own, often idiosyncratic, research will also be the starting-off point of our discussion on how much of an art historian’s ‘method’ can be made explicit at all, and to what extent it remains a habituated ability to be affected by images in a prolific way.
Die Künstlerin Irene Chabr und die Kunsthistorikerin Kerstin Schankweiler arbeiten beide zu rezen... more Die Künstlerin Irene Chabr und die Kunsthistorikerin Kerstin Schankweiler arbeiten beide zu rezenten Bildphänomenen in sozialen Netzwerken, die im Kontext von Protestbewegungen und Online-Aktivismus stehen. In Ihrem Gespräch #MachtDieHandykameraDirAngst? beleuchten sie Bildpraktiken im Rahmen sogenannter „Selfie-Proteste“. Ausgehend von ausgewählten Beispielen aus ihren Bildkorpora diskutieren sie, auf welche Weisen das Selfie zum Agent in politischen Protesten wird. Sie zeigen, wie User_innen ihre Körper und ihre Handschrift vor der Kamera inszenieren, wie sie dabei in Form eines Reenactments Bildrepertoires aufgreifen und so zu einer einheitlichen Bildsprache vermeintlich globaler Protest-Communities beitragen.
The cultural effects of globalization constitute one of the most important challenges for the dis... more The cultural effects of globalization constitute one of the most important challenges for the discipline of art history today. The aim of this publication is to take a critical look at art historical narratives. Based on transcultural object biographies, the volume brings together analyses of objects and images that circulate in transcultural contact zones: their histories of origin, circulation and perception slice through space and time. The histories of these objects and images thus demonstrate in exemplary fashion how knowledge and understanding can be generated, communicated or also challenged in cultural contact zones. Hence, the publication is designed as a methodological contribution to a transcultural art and cultural history. It is also conceived as an instrument for teaching and contains a critical-discursive glossary of key-terms that combines theory and practice of transcultural art history.
Reading Objects in the Contact Zone, ed. by Eva-Maria Troelenberg, Kerstin Schankweiler & Anna Messner. Heidelberg Studies on Transculturality Vol. 9, 2021
The cultural effects of globalization constitute one of the most important challenges for the dis... more The cultural effects of globalization constitute one of the most important challenges for the discipline of art history today. The aim of this publication is to take a critical look at art historical narratives. Based on transcultural object biographies, the volume brings together analyses of objects and images that circulate in transcultural contact zones: their histories of origin, circulation and perception slice through space and time. The histories of these objects and images thus demonstrate in exemplary fashion how knowledge and understanding can be generated, communicated or also challenged in cultural contact zones. Hence, the publication is designed as a methodological contribution to a transcultural art and cultural history. It is also conceived as an instrument for teaching and contains a critical-discursive glossary of key-terms that combines theory and practice of transcultural art history.
Bildproteste. Widerstand im Netz, Berlin: Wagenbach, 2019
Wie funktioniert das Selfie als Protestwerkzeug? Erzeugen Bildphänomene im Netz eine globale Comm... more Wie funktioniert das Selfie als Protestwerkzeug? Erzeugen Bildphänomene im Netz eine globale Community? An Protestbewegungen in aller Welt zeigt Kerstin Schankweiler, welche Dynamiken schnell verbreitete Bilder in Zeiten der Sozialen Medien entwickeln können. Spätestens seit dem Arabischen Frühling im Jahr 2011 sind die Sozialen Medien als Orte politischen Protests wichtig geworden. Erfolgreiche Protestkampagnen bestehen aus geschickten Verknüpfungen zwischen dem öffentlichen Raum und den Räumen des Internet. Dabei spielen Bilder oft eine zentrale Rolle. Mit ihnen lassen sich Botschaften besonders prägnant und emotional formulieren und Geschehnisse scheinbar hautnah vermitteln. Bilder, die in den Sozialen Medien rasch verbreitet werden, können einer politischen Bewegung ungeahnte Dynamik verleihen. Sie verbinden Menschen für kurze oder längere Zeit zu Affektgemeinschaften. Die Kunstwissenschaftlerin Kerstin Schankweiler analysiert an einer Vielzahl von Beispielen, welche Formen, Praktiken und Politiken von Bildprotesten es gibt und wie die Paradigmen der digitalen Kultur Protestbewegungen verändern.
Image Testimonies. Witnessing in Times of Social Media. Ed. by Kerstin Schankweiler, Verena Straub & Tobias Wendl, 2019
This introduction sets the basis for the contributions in the volume by developing a concept of ‘... more This introduction sets the basis for the contributions in the volume by developing a concept of ‘image testimony’, which has yet to be fully theorized. It traces how visuality and vision, image, and imaging technology have shaped theories of witnessing from early on. Given the accelerated visual economy in the social web today, a new approach to theorizing image testimony has become necessary. In relation to contemporary image practices, the authors highlight the plurality of witnessing as well as the affectivity of image testimonies in order to shape a new approach to testimony theory. By bringing together diverse disciplinary perspectives and the case studies discussed throughout the volume, the introduction provides a comprehensive overview of the core arguments, thus giving way to a multi-faceted understanding of image testimony as an emerging field of study.
With Facebook, Twitter and Co., mobile phone photos and videos are shared millionfold on the Web.... more With Facebook, Twitter and Co., mobile phone photos and videos are shared millionfold on the Web. They are liked or provoke protest, form communities—and advance the circulation of affects. Accompanying the exhibition of the same name, the publication, Affect Me. Social Media Images in Art, introduces nine artists who work with images originating from social media. Their focus lies particularly on those images that are shared in the context of political conflicts. The artists reflect how these pictures move and mobilise, beyond their reporting function, and how they navigate on the brittle boundaries between reality and fiction. The exhibition and this catalogue were produced in close cooperation between KAI 10 | Arthena Foundation, Düsseldorf and the research project Affective Dynamics of Images in the Era of Social Media at Freie Universität Berlin.
Der amerikanische Kunsthistoriker George Kubler (1912-1996) publizierte im Jahr 1962 den theoreti... more Der amerikanische Kunsthistoriker George Kubler (1912-1996) publizierte im Jahr 1962 den theoretischen Essay »The Shape of Time. Remarks on the History of Things«. Darin entwickelte er ein strukturalistisches Modell der Kunstgeschichtsschreibung, das die kulturellen, zeitlichen und objektbezogenen Einschränkungen und Hierarchisierungen der bisherigen Forschung in Frage stellte. Die methodischen Probleme, mit denen sich Kubler konfrontiert sah, besitzen auch heute noch Relevanz und erhalten zudem eine neue Aktualität durch die gegenwärtig stattfindenden Erweiterungen der Kunstgeschichte um kulturwissenschaftliche, medienwissenschaftliche und postkoloniale Fragestellungen. Die Aufsätze des Bandes stellen Kubler als Wissenschaftler vor, untersuchen zentrale Begriffe und Konzepte aus seinem Essay, verorten seine Ideen in der Wissenschaftsgeschichte und zeigen Verbindungen zu aktuellen Theorien und Diskussionen auf. Enthalten ist außerdem ein künstlerischer Beitrag von Zhenia Couso Martell.
In einer bis dahin nie dagewesenen Distanzlosigkeit
und scheinbaren Evidenz konfrontieren uns
m... more In einer bis dahin nie dagewesenen Distanzlosigkeit
und scheinbaren Evidenz konfrontieren uns
medial vermittelte Bilder der Gewalt täglich mit
Krieg, Folter sowie Selbstmordattentaten. Doch
nicht nur die aktuelle, sondern auch die historische
Omnipräsenz und Valenz von Gewaltdarstellungen
fordert die Kunstgeschichte und ihre
Methodik dazu heraus, sich mit dem ikonischen
Charakter dieser Bilder und ihrem spezifischen
geschichtlichen Kontext intensiv auseinanderzusetzen.
Der vorliegende Band geht deshalb der
Frage nach, inwiefern Konzepte einer Ästhetik
der Gewalt sowohl epochen- als auch gattungsübergreifend
zum Ausdruck kommen oder inwieweit
Brüche und Diskontinuitäten innerhalb der
Genealogie bildimpliziter Gewalt feststellbar und
analysierbar sind. Er legt den Schwerpunkt auf
Gewalt als visuelle Konstruktion, die in den versammelten
Beiträgen an Kunstwerken vom späten
Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart in ihren Grundstrukturen
und ihrer Wirkungsmacht im Sinne
einer Gewalt der Ästhetik untersucht wird.
21: Inquiries into Art, History, and the Visual, 2023
How has digital communication changed expectations and perceptions of proximity and di... more How has digital communication changed expectations and perceptions of proximity and distance? This article traces the media history of a communication mode that relies on intimacy and testifying. By discussing the intrinsic relationship between platform-based information and communication technologies and the attention economy, the development of a communication mode of so-called “presumed intimacy” is elaborated. Drawing on concepts from celebrity studies and advertising, the transformation of spatio-temporal and social distance into felt proximity can be described in more detail. In doing so, the article also stresses the role of images in the fabrication of intimacy and takes selfies and selfie videos of celebrities in the context of protest movements as an example. The connection of protest culture, celebrification and testimonial images demonstrates in a particular way how attention economies in digital communication are structured.
Selfie-Proteste. Affektzeugenschaften und Bildökonomien in den Social Media, in: Nähe auf Distanz. Eigendynamik und mobilisierende Kraft politischer Bilder im Internet, hg. v. Isabelle Busch, Uwe Fleckner und Judith Waldmann, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020, S. 175-190., 2020
Around the globe, citizens have in recent years been documenting police brutality with their mobi... more Around the globe, citizens have in recent years been documenting police brutality with their mobile phone cameras and circulating the videos on social media. Using a case example from Morocco, I read media witnessing of police violence as a practice and a politics of affecting. Mouhcine Fikri, a fisherman from Al Hoceïma, was crushed to death in a garbage truck in October 2016 after a dispute with the police. Several people close to the truck witnessed his violent death. A mobile phone video of the incident went viral and sparked widespread protest in the country. I focus on the intensity of sound and the aesthetic quality of the mostly blurry, shaky images of this video, arguing that we mainly witness the videographer (and other eyewitnesses) being affected, and not what happened to Fikri. This is also true for many other videos of police violence. The way in which these videos operate is based on a relational process of affecting and being-affected. Likewise, witnessing as a practice that requires co-witnessing is principally relational. Witnessing and affecting correlate in these image testimonies, or rather, affect is at the core of witnessing.
The increasing dominance of images in contemporary mass communication makes the visual a relevant... more The increasing dominance of images in contemporary mass communication makes the visual a relevant field of investigation for understanding the role of affects and emotions that resonate within any given society. This chapter addresses the theoretical and methodological foundation of the analysis of images with regard to affects from an art-historical point of view. Art historians can rely partly on their expertise in image analysis and image description, but must also look for ways to address images as ‘storage’ of affect. Aby Warburg and his concept of Pathosformel addresses this ‘storage’ of affective intensity in terms of materialization or formalization of affect. The example of Warburg’s own, often idiosyncratic, research will also be the starting-off point of our discussion on how much of an art historian’s ‘method’ can be made explicit at all, and to what extent it remains a habituated ability to be affected by images in a prolific way.
Die Künstlerin Irene Chabr und die Kunsthistorikerin Kerstin Schankweiler arbeiten beide zu rezen... more Die Künstlerin Irene Chabr und die Kunsthistorikerin Kerstin Schankweiler arbeiten beide zu rezenten Bildphänomenen in sozialen Netzwerken, die im Kontext von Protestbewegungen und Online-Aktivismus stehen. In Ihrem Gespräch #MachtDieHandykameraDirAngst? beleuchten sie Bildpraktiken im Rahmen sogenannter „Selfie-Proteste“. Ausgehend von ausgewählten Beispielen aus ihren Bildkorpora diskutieren sie, auf welche Weisen das Selfie zum Agent in politischen Protesten wird. Sie zeigen, wie User_innen ihre Körper und ihre Handschrift vor der Kamera inszenieren, wie sie dabei in Form eines Reenactments Bildrepertoires aufgreifen und so zu einer einheitlichen Bildsprache vermeintlich globaler Protest-Communities beitragen.
The concept of affective economy emphasizes that a political community negotiates its terms of ag... more The concept of affective economy emphasizes that a political community negotiates its terms of agreement and its conventions through mediatized processes of affecting and being affected, regarded as forms of exchange and circulation. The term has attracted interest in affect studies over recent years, especially following the writings of Sara Ahmed. This chapter proposes a reconceptualization towards media theory and aesthetics, building on Marx’ distinction between exchange-value and use-value. Taking the example of Philip Scheffner’s film Havarie, we investigate how audiovisual images and other works of art intervene into the political economies of affective societies.
Affective witnessing provides a new paradigm for understanding all witnessing as inherently relat... more Affective witnessing provides a new paradigm for understanding all witnessing as inherently relational, as well as describing a particular mode of witnessing in which affect itself is what is witnessed. New forms and practices of media witnessing have brought this specific mode to new prominence, with consequences for how witnessing works and the formation of witnessing communities. This entry considers three related bodies of image testimonies: photographs from Abu Ghraib, footage from an Australian juvenile detention center and selfie protest images that respond conditions for prisoners in post-revolutionary Egypt.
The authors argue that the work of art historian Aby Warburg (1866-1929) – especially his idea of... more The authors argue that the work of art historian Aby Warburg (1866-1929) – especially his idea of pathos formula – entails fragments of a theory of affectivity, its formalization, dissemination as well as its historicity. Pathos formulas “freeze” moments of high affective intensity and create “dynamograms” that work as intensifiers by arranging the affective dynamics in any given medium (though Warburg focused mainly on visual media). As a formalization, a pathos formula enables affectivity to be stored, to be transmitted through time and space, to be reiterated and even reenacted. Pathos formula is a key concept to address the relation between affectivity and form in a historical perspective.
AFFECTIVE WITNESSING
Stream S4 of the conference
CAPACIOUS: AFFECT INQUIRY / MAKING SPACE
August... more AFFECTIVE WITNESSING Stream S4 of the conference CAPACIOUS: AFFECT INQUIRY / MAKING SPACE August 08-11, 2018 Millersville University’s Ware Center, Lancaster PA http://capaciousjournal.com/conference/ Stream Organizers: Dr Michael Richardson (School of the Arts & Media, UNSW) and Dr Kerstin Schankweiler (SFB Affective Societies, Freie Universität Berlin) Deadline for proposals: March 15, 2018
This conference has capacious aims! In and across the diverse practices and studies of affect, ho... more This conference has capacious aims! In and across the diverse practices and studies of affect, how might we continue to 'find room' or 'make space' and under what circumstances might such a framing for affect study be problematic? This conference will be open to all (students, faculty, non-academics, and others) while emphasizing the crucial role of graduate students and early career researchers in shaping the scholarship in affect study.
Recent political conflicts signal an increased proliferation of image testimonies shared widely v... more Recent political conflicts signal an increased proliferation of image testimonies shared widely via Social Media. Although witnessing with and through images is not a phenomenon of the internet era, image practices and politics in Social Media have significantly intensified the affective dynamics of image testimonies that are circulated in " real time " on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and the like. New technology has enabled individuals to record, upload, and share images directly via mobile devices, which makes nearly everyone a potential witness. We seem to live in an " era of becoming a witness " (Givoni 2011) in which images play central roles. The causes and motivations for producing image testimonies are wide-ranging. Political activists use their mobile phone camera as a means of resistance, people directly affected by an event as well as bystanders might produce images spontaneously without clear intentions, out of voyeurism, to document their own involvement, or in order to raise awareness, etc. In the context of Web 2.0 communication image testimonies encompass a whole range of genres, such as images of street protests, police violence, or human rights violations and extend to selfie protests and even video testimonies of suicide bombers. What exactly is being testified by these various forms of witnessing can only be studied from multiple perspectives and necessitates complicating the " truth-claims " that are made. Whereas testimonies such as images of human rights violations demand credibility as legal proofs, other forms of witnessing justify their " veracity " with a decidedly subjective perspective of being personally affected. Which different concepts of witnessing are at stake in image testimonies? Further questions concern the role of the body of the witness in relation to image witnessing and its connection to the concept of martyrdom, the role of aesthetics in claims of authenticity, or the status of image testimonies in their relation between giving and creating evidence. Besides their claim to " show the truth " or their aim to confront with political problems, the special efficacy of these viral image genres of testimony seems to lie in their ability to affect, to move, or to mobilize. Witnessing, especially when unfolding in Social Media, needs to be defined as a collective and relational practice with the effect of forming communities, and provoking further image testimonies. Thus, the producers of images, the images, and the recipients find themselves in a dynamic relationship of affecting and being affected. Against this backdrop the symposium seeks to contribute to the ongoing debate on the topic of testimony and witnessing. Whereas testimony and witnessing have been largely theorized within the framework of epistemological, philosophical, ethical, and media-theoretical perspectives we want to focus on the specific role of images and the context of Social Media.
Symposium: "Image Testimonies. Witnessing in Times of Social Media", 13.-15. July 2017, Berlin
R... more Symposium: "Image Testimonies. Witnessing in Times of Social Media", 13.-15. July 2017, Berlin
Recent political conflicts signal an increased proliferation of image testimonies shared widely via Social Media. Although witnessing with and through images is not a phenomenon of the internet era, image practices and politics in Social Media as much as new technology have enabled individuals to record, upload, and share images directly via mobile devices, which makes nearly everyone a potential witness. In relation to their ability to give and to create evidence, the special efficacy of image testimonies seems to lie in their ability to affect, to move, or to mobilize. Witnessing, especially when unfolding in Social Media, needs to be defined as a collective and relational practice with the effect of forming communities, and provoking further image testimonies. What exactly is being testified by these various forms of witnessing can only be studied from multiple perspectives and necessitates complicating the “truth-claims” that are made. Against this backdrop the symposium seeks to contribute to the ongoing debate on the topic of testimony and witnessing. Which different concepts of witnessing are at stake in image testimonies? What is the role of the spectator? How can we think of the relation between mediated forms of witnessing and the body? A guiding theme of the symposium is these images’ affective dynamics in order to shape a new approach on testimony theory.
Conception and Organization: Kerstin Schankweiler, Verena Straub, Tobias Wendl Free University Berlin CRC 1171 Affective Societies Project B01 “Affective Dynamics of Images in the Era of Social Media”
What concepts of "the contemporary" are there around the world? What are their historical context... more What concepts of "the contemporary" are there around the world? What are their historical contexts? What cultural, aesthetic and artistic theories and practices did they generate? The concept of "the contemporary" in art and culture has its own history; paradoxically, contemporaneity in itself is historical. It is also determined by the many cultural and regional contexts in which ideas of the present and contemporaneity are negotiated. Hence, there are varying histories of the contemporary, each informed by specific socio-political conditions and geo-political power structures. Historical turning points such as the end of the Second World War in 1945 or the end of the Cold War in 1989 prompted certain narratives of contemporaneity and shaped specific historiographical modes through which people in different places reflect on meanings and patterns of the past in relation to the present and tell stories in different ways. The conference combines socio-political, historical and other theoretical perspectives, seeking appropriate categories for these different historiographical genealogies. It is conceived as a kick-off event for the international and cross-disciplinary "Research Network for Critical Transcultural Perspectives on Artistic and Visual Practices" (preliminary title) – a critical, interdisciplinary and international research association of post-doctoral researchers, who study phenomena and processes of cultural exchange.
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Spätestens seit dem Arabischen Frühling im Jahr 2011 sind die Sozialen Medien als Orte politischen Protests wichtig geworden. Erfolgreiche Protestkampagnen bestehen aus geschickten Verknüpfungen zwischen dem öffentlichen Raum und den Räumen des Internet. Dabei spielen Bilder oft eine zentrale Rolle. Mit ihnen lassen sich Botschaften besonders prägnant und emotional formulieren und Geschehnisse scheinbar hautnah vermitteln. Bilder, die in den Sozialen Medien rasch verbreitet werden, können einer politischen Bewegung ungeahnte Dynamik verleihen. Sie verbinden Menschen für kurze oder längere Zeit zu Affektgemeinschaften.
Die Kunstwissenschaftlerin Kerstin Schankweiler analysiert an einer Vielzahl von Beispielen, welche Formen, Praktiken und Politiken von Bildprotesten es gibt und wie die Paradigmen der digitalen Kultur Protestbewegungen verändern.
Media Images in Art, introduces nine artists who work with images originating from social media. Their focus lies particularly on those images that are shared in the context of political conflicts. The artists reflect how these pictures move and mobilise, beyond their reporting function, and how they navigate on the brittle boundaries between reality and fiction.
The exhibition and this catalogue were produced in close cooperation between KAI 10 | Arthena Foundation, Düsseldorf and the research project Affective Dynamics of Images in the Era of Social Media at Freie Universität Berlin.
und scheinbaren Evidenz konfrontieren uns
medial vermittelte Bilder der Gewalt täglich mit
Krieg, Folter sowie Selbstmordattentaten. Doch
nicht nur die aktuelle, sondern auch die historische
Omnipräsenz und Valenz von Gewaltdarstellungen
fordert die Kunstgeschichte und ihre
Methodik dazu heraus, sich mit dem ikonischen
Charakter dieser Bilder und ihrem spezifischen
geschichtlichen Kontext intensiv auseinanderzusetzen.
Der vorliegende Band geht deshalb der
Frage nach, inwiefern Konzepte einer Ästhetik
der Gewalt sowohl epochen- als auch gattungsübergreifend
zum Ausdruck kommen oder inwieweit
Brüche und Diskontinuitäten innerhalb der
Genealogie bildimpliziter Gewalt feststellbar und
analysierbar sind. Er legt den Schwerpunkt auf
Gewalt als visuelle Konstruktion, die in den versammelten
Beiträgen an Kunstwerken vom späten
Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart in ihren Grundstrukturen
und ihrer Wirkungsmacht im Sinne
einer Gewalt der Ästhetik untersucht wird.
Spätestens seit dem Arabischen Frühling im Jahr 2011 sind die Sozialen Medien als Orte politischen Protests wichtig geworden. Erfolgreiche Protestkampagnen bestehen aus geschickten Verknüpfungen zwischen dem öffentlichen Raum und den Räumen des Internet. Dabei spielen Bilder oft eine zentrale Rolle. Mit ihnen lassen sich Botschaften besonders prägnant und emotional formulieren und Geschehnisse scheinbar hautnah vermitteln. Bilder, die in den Sozialen Medien rasch verbreitet werden, können einer politischen Bewegung ungeahnte Dynamik verleihen. Sie verbinden Menschen für kurze oder längere Zeit zu Affektgemeinschaften.
Die Kunstwissenschaftlerin Kerstin Schankweiler analysiert an einer Vielzahl von Beispielen, welche Formen, Praktiken und Politiken von Bildprotesten es gibt und wie die Paradigmen der digitalen Kultur Protestbewegungen verändern.
Media Images in Art, introduces nine artists who work with images originating from social media. Their focus lies particularly on those images that are shared in the context of political conflicts. The artists reflect how these pictures move and mobilise, beyond their reporting function, and how they navigate on the brittle boundaries between reality and fiction.
The exhibition and this catalogue were produced in close cooperation between KAI 10 | Arthena Foundation, Düsseldorf and the research project Affective Dynamics of Images in the Era of Social Media at Freie Universität Berlin.
und scheinbaren Evidenz konfrontieren uns
medial vermittelte Bilder der Gewalt täglich mit
Krieg, Folter sowie Selbstmordattentaten. Doch
nicht nur die aktuelle, sondern auch die historische
Omnipräsenz und Valenz von Gewaltdarstellungen
fordert die Kunstgeschichte und ihre
Methodik dazu heraus, sich mit dem ikonischen
Charakter dieser Bilder und ihrem spezifischen
geschichtlichen Kontext intensiv auseinanderzusetzen.
Der vorliegende Band geht deshalb der
Frage nach, inwiefern Konzepte einer Ästhetik
der Gewalt sowohl epochen- als auch gattungsübergreifend
zum Ausdruck kommen oder inwieweit
Brüche und Diskontinuitäten innerhalb der
Genealogie bildimpliziter Gewalt feststellbar und
analysierbar sind. Er legt den Schwerpunkt auf
Gewalt als visuelle Konstruktion, die in den versammelten
Beiträgen an Kunstwerken vom späten
Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart in ihren Grundstrukturen
und ihrer Wirkungsmacht im Sinne
einer Gewalt der Ästhetik untersucht wird.
Stream S4 of the conference
CAPACIOUS: AFFECT INQUIRY / MAKING SPACE
August 08-11, 2018
Millersville University’s Ware Center, Lancaster PA
http://capaciousjournal.com/conference/
Stream Organizers: Dr Michael Richardson (School of the Arts & Media, UNSW) and Dr Kerstin Schankweiler (SFB Affective Societies, Freie Universität Berlin)
Deadline for proposals: March 15, 2018
Recent political conflicts signal an increased proliferation of image testimonies shared widely via Social Media. Although witnessing with and through images is not a phenomenon of the internet era, image practices and politics in Social Media as much as new technology have enabled individuals to record, upload, and share images directly via mobile devices, which makes nearly everyone a potential witness. In relation to their ability to give and to create evidence, the special efficacy of image testimonies seems to lie in their ability to affect, to move, or to mobilize. Witnessing, especially when unfolding in Social Media, needs to be defined as a collective and relational practice with the effect of forming communities, and provoking further image testimonies. What exactly is being testified by these various forms of witnessing can only be studied from multiple perspectives and necessitates complicating the “truth-claims” that are made.
Against this backdrop the symposium seeks to contribute to the ongoing debate on the topic of testimony and witnessing. Which different concepts of witnessing are at stake in image testimonies? What is the role of the spectator? How can we think of the relation between mediated forms of witnessing and the body? A guiding theme of the symposium is these images’ affective dynamics in order to shape a new approach on testimony theory.
Conception and Organization:
Kerstin Schankweiler, Verena Straub, Tobias Wendl
Free University Berlin
CRC 1171 Affective Societies
Project B01 “Affective Dynamics of Images in the Era of Social Media”
For more information please visit: http://www.sfb-affective-societies.de/teilprojekte/B/B01/Symposium/index.html
The concept of "the contemporary" in art and culture has its own history; paradoxically, contemporaneity in itself is historical. It is also determined by the many cultural and regional contexts in which ideas of the present and contemporaneity are negotiated. Hence, there are varying histories of the contemporary, each informed by specific socio-political conditions and geo-political power structures. Historical turning points such as the end of the Second World War in 1945 or the end of the Cold War in 1989 prompted certain narratives of contemporaneity and shaped specific historiographical modes through which people in different places reflect on meanings and patterns of the past in relation to the present and tell stories in different ways.
The conference combines socio-political, historical and other theoretical perspectives, seeking appropriate categories for these different historiographical genealogies.
It is conceived as a kick-off event for the international and cross-disciplinary "Research Network for Critical Transcultural Perspectives on Artistic and Visual Practices" (preliminary title) – a critical, interdisciplinary and international research association of post-doctoral researchers, who study phenomena and processes of cultural exchange.