AAA panel: CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS: A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON VISUAL ETHICS

Chair: Terence Wright, University of Ulster, UK.

This roundtable discussion, organised on behalf of the Society for Visual Anthropology’s (SVA) Ethics Committee, seeks to continue the SVA’s tradition of nurturing debate and critical reflection on the ethics of anthropological imaging.

The theme of this year’s roundtable focuses on visual ethnography in situations of conflict. For the purposes of the discussion ‘conflict’ may be defined loosely - as an intense rivalry between groups or as open warfare. We aim to investigate the responsibility of photographers, filmmakers, ethnographers to present a ‘balanced’ representation of the conflict. Is there an obligation to present points of view from both sides? Or does this depend on the nature of the conflict itself? For example, while one might consider it important to give accounts from both Republican and Loyalist perspectives in the Northern Ireland conflict, it may not be considered so important where repression appears quite obvious, as in the struggle for democracy in Burma/Myanmar. In such instances, is it necessary for the ethnographer to state his/her own position with regard to the conflict? Or remain aloof, aiming for a standpoint of ‘objective’ research and reporting? Or do we rely on the anthropologist to provide the ‘alternative voice’? How do we avoid, or come to terms with, imposing our own ethical or cultural values on such situations? We might also consider some of the conflicts that the anthropologist may encounter. What are the dangers of ‘embedded ethnography’: getting assistance from (or working with) the police, military, NGOs or other interest groups who might be operating to agendas that conflict with those of the ethnographer? Furthermore, do conflicts arise out of the photographic or the filmmaking process itself? The formal qualities of the medium can be used to slant the argument to favour one side over another. What are the dangers of this occurring subconsciously on the part of the ethnographer?

Taken together, the intent of this roundtable is to give practitioners an opportunity to discuss the ethical implications of in-progress or recently-completed visual research, and to draw upon the collective input of roundtable attendees to plan for or rethink our visual responsibilities.

Deadline:

For those interested in participating, please provide a brief description (max. 150 words) of the particular scenario or issue you wish to contribute to this year’s discussion as soon as possible, and by 5 April at the latest. Decisions will be made by 10 April, and contributors will need to register for the conference via the AAA’s web-based system by 15 April. All correspondence should be sent to Terence Wright: t.wright@ulster.ac.uk.

The roundtable will take the form of a series of brief, 10-minute presentations by participants, culminating in an extended period of group discussion and debate.

Please note: As per AAA participation rules, presenting as part of a roundtable counts as a person’s one “major” role, the same as giving a paper or poster.

AAA Panel Organizers:
Jerome Crowder, PhD, Asst. Professor, Institute for the Medical Humanities, U. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas
Erica Fletcher, Graduate Student, Institute for the Medical Humanities, U. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas
Discussant: TBA

DEADLINE for SUBMISSON: March 12, 2013

Representations of illness and human embodiment are experiencing a profound technological change owing to the rapid advancement of new biotechnologies and vanguard treatment techniques that offer the promise of miracle cures, enhanced anatomies, increased longevity, and a general sense of well?being. Such experiences from the patient’s point of view have traditionally been recorded as illness narratives in the form of printed media, as taken from ethnography or autobiography. Yet given the proliferation of the Internet, anyone can post a blog, image, audio or video account of their illness journey and anonymously engage with the world. With the emergence of new media, from websites, online videos, and blogs, to immersive realities, electronic texts, and digital music, illness narratives have become both virtual and transmedial, presenting a curious dual nature that is at once generative and destructive. We argue that while these “transmedial narratives” are generative, in that they may function as a creative means for expressing and sometimes transcending one’s health tribulations, they can also simultaneously be destructive, prohibitive and mimetic, in that they can reify stereotypes of illness or engage look?alike sites, which dilute the discourse.

Read more »

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS for AAA PANEL ON EXPERIMENTAL ETHNOGRAPHIC FILMMAKING AND PHOTOGRAPHY

Anthropologists as Filmmakers and Photographers: Experimental Trends in Visual Anthropology and Visual Ethnography

Organizer/Chairperson: Andrea Heckman

Camera. Lights. Action. Not an academic sound to our ears? Using cameras for ethnographic field notes and analysis is a methodology utilized by visual anthropologists as long ago as Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson when they collected large quantities of visual data on Balinese culture and practices. In 1987, the Society for Visual Anthropology was created to encourage the use of photography, films, video, and multi-media as valuable, legitimate methods for fieldwork, not limited as only illustrations for papers. While some anthropologists have not acknowledged visual media as a viable methodological approach, many other ethnographers have recognized the communicative power of visual representation for collecting data, analysis, and accurate presentation of and by those studied.

This panel will present new experimental approaches using film and photography for ethnographic research, analysis, and conclusions including innovations in the formats of the photo essay and documentary film work. The presentations will include global ethnographies improved upon by video clips, digital photography, and social media, and reflexive processual commentary by the researchers. Controversies will be investigated concerning the nature of research questions, interview techniques, cultural intrusion, and the social ethics of creating visual media, and consideration of the final research products, which are then transferred from one culture to inform another. The presentations will be followed by discussion in an interactive format.

If you are interested in participating in this panel for 2013 AAA in Chicago contact Andrea Heckman ASAP and submit a 250-word abstract. Presenters must be AAA members.  Participation will be limited to five presentations.

Andreaheckman333@gmail.com

Urban photography summer school 2013
Goldsmiths, university of london

Designed for photographers, artists and urbanists whose work address notions of urban space and culture, the international Summer School provides a highly intensive two-week practical and theoretical training in key aspects of urban visual practice. The course aims to offer participants a wide range of relevant skills resulting in the production of a photography portfolio drawn from London’s urban environments, combined with a collective final exhibition.

The programme has been developed in collaboration with Urban Encounters (Tate Britain), the Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR), Photofusion and the International Association of Visual Urbanists (iAVU). The course is taught by experienced tutors from Goldsmith’s top-ranked Sociology Department and the international MA in Photography and Urban Cultures. The programme draws on the advanced theoretical, research and practical image-making specialisms of key practitioners in the field.

Summer School tutors include: Paul Halliday (MA in Photography and Urban Cultures Course Leader),Beatriz Véliz Argueta (Coordinator/Goldsmiths), Les Back (Goldsmiths), Caroline Knowles (CUCR Director), Mandy Lee Jandrell (Southampton Solent University/Goldsmiths), Peter Coles (Oxford/ Goldsmiths), Alex Rhys-Taylor (Goldsmiths), Manuel Vazquez (Goldsmiths),  Laura Cuch (Goldsmiths) and Jasmine Cheng (Goldsmiths).

The programme will explore how the practice of urban image making informs the development of a reflexive and critical research perspective and will include assignments and guided fieldtrips focusing on(1) urban landscapes, (2)  street-based photography and (3) material objects.

The Summer School will take place from 19 – 31 August 2013. Application deadline is June 10.

http://www.gold.ac.uk/cucr/summer-school/

The 2013 annual Visual Research Conference of the Society for Visual Anthropology will begin with an informal no-host dinner open to all SVA members on Monday evening November 18th followed by interactive presentations on Tuesday November 19th and Wednesday November 20th at the beginning of the 112th American Anthropology Association meetings in Chicago. These presentations are scheduled for about 45 minutes and are formatted to allow for viewing of visual material, as well as several question and answer periods during each presentation, thus facilitating much lively discussion. Each year this conference provides visual anthropologists a unique opportunity to meet and interact with others who do anthropological and anthropologically related research on visual signification, visual communication, and visual forms of representation. We invite all SVA members, from graduate students to retired professors, to submit proposals and attend the conference.

THE 2013 DEADLINE FOR VISUAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE SUBMISSIONS IS MIDNIGHT MARCH 31, 2013, GUAM TIME.

EYE & MIND

New Master’s Degree Programme in Visual Anthropology
Aarhus University and Moesgaard Museum

Dear all,

We are happy to announce a new Master’s Degree Programme in Visual Anthropology, starting from September 2013 (deadline for applications: 15 March). The programme is the result of a collaboration between the Section of Anthropology at Aarhus University and the cultural historical Museum of Moesgaard. With the Master’s Degree programme in Visual Anthropology, Moesgaard Museum and Aarhus University aim to establish a research environment where students, scholars, artists, film- and exhibition-makers can experiment and develop forms of inquiry and representation that allow a close engagement with cross-cultural experience and imagination. The new museum site of Moesgaard will provide a window through which students, film- and exhibition-makers can enter directly into dialogue with the broad public. Furthermore, the museum will provide a unique public laboratory for experimenting with diverse methodologies and technologies of representation. This will be of value not only to students and researchers, but also to the museum, whose ambition it is to allow visitors to share in the very creation of anthropological knowledge.

In the autumn of 2013 a new museum building will open to students and staff and in 2014 Denmark’s first new-built cultural historical museum will be inaugurated. The building adds 16,000 square meters to the museum and thus sets the stage for a variety of new exhibition opportunities including special editing facilities, lecture halls and exhibition space for students in the programme in visual anthropology.

Read more »

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

2013 John Collier Jr. Award for Still Photography

The John Collier Jr. Award for Still Photography is awarded periodically to an author or photographer whose publication, exhibit, website, or other multimedia production exemplifies the use of still photographs (both historical and contemporary) for research and communication of anthropological knowledge.  The submission must have a strong visual research perspective along with being good documentary photography and be within five years of the original publication date. The project must be nominated by a current SVA member and include the consent of the person nominated. A letter of nomination from the SVA member and the supporting material (including name, book title or exhibit, website or multimedia production, publisher, author’s mailing address, phone and email) should accompany three copies of the creative work and be sent to the Committee Chairperson, which must be received by the deadline below. The same work may be submitted a maximum of two times. The SVA board appointed committee of three then reviews the submitted works to decide on its merits.  Winners are announced during the SVA/AAA meetings and presented with a John Collier Jr. or Mary Collier print, courtesy of the Collier Family Collection, and a certificate of recognition.

Submissions for 2013 should be mailed to: The Collier Committee c/o Andrea Heckman, Chairperson, P. O. Box 714, Taos Ski Valley, NM 87525.

Deadlines for Submission and Award Notification:

March 15 Deadline for receipt of nomination materials and submission to SVA.

July 31 Committee decision will be submitted to SVA President and Secretary

August 10 Award information submitted to AAA program committee

The Collier Award is sponsored by the SVA Board of Directors in honor of the life and work of John Collier Jr. (1913-1992). Although suffering hearing loss and cognitive impairments early in life John Collier’s visual genius was enhanced by his early association with the well-known painter, Maynard Dixon and his wife Dorothea Lange. Other important influences were the artist Nicolai Fechin, the photographer Paul Strand, and the elders and compatriots in the American Indian communities of his youth. He worked as photographer for Roy E. Stryker in the FSA (Farm Security Administration) and the OWI (Office of War Information) during the early 1940s, with later professional photographic work in the Canadian Arctic, South American, and the United States.

His first formal visual anthropological work (1946) was in Otavalo, Ecuador with the Ecuadorian anthropologist Aníbal Buitrón. This was followed with work in Nova Scotia and the American Southwest with Alexander Leighton, and a major visual ethnography (1954-55) of Vicos, Peru, with Mary E.T. Collier. Subsequent work in New Mexico, Alaska, Arizona, and California included close attention to issues of cross cultural education and schooling. In 1967, he authored the acclaimed book, Visual Anthropology: Photography as a Research Method (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, second edition with Malcolm Collier (University of New Mexico Press, 1986). Collier was a founding member of both the Society for Visual Anthropology (SVA) and the Council on Anthropology and Education (CAE) and a long time supporter of SVA.

Past winners

2003 The Ones Who Are Wanted: the Politics of Representation in a Photographic Exhibition by Corinne Kratz.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.

2003 Changing Works: Visions of a Lost Agriculture by Douglas Harper. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.

2006 Woven Stories: Andean Textiles and Rituals by Andrea Heckman. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2003.

2008 A Danish Photographer of Idaho Images: Benedicte Wrensted by Joanna Cohan Scherer.  Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006.

2012 Moving Images: John Layard, fieldwork and photography on Malakula since 1914 by Haidy Geismar and Anita Herle (2010: University of Hawaii Press).

2012 HONORABLE MENTION: Arapaho Journeys: Photographs and Stories from The Wind River Reservation by Sara Wiles (2011: University of Oklahoma Press)

The SVA welcomes paper and poster session proposals for consideration at this year’s Annual Meeting in Chicago (November 20-24, 2013). The theme for the meeting is “Future Publics, Current Engagements,” which provides a richcontext for exploring the innovative and exciting work conducted under the broad rubric of visual anthropology. Lastyear, SVA sponsored sessions explored such diverse topics as public art, visual ethics, photography of the unsettling, sensing culture, visualizing history, aesthetic production, digital storytelling and visualizing the technological disjoint in communities.

For the 2013 Annual Meeting, the SVA programming committee consists of:

Jennifer Wolowic (jwolowic@gmail.com)

Fiona P. McDonald (fionamcdonald5@yahoo.ca)

Both Jennifer and Fiona are more than happy to work with you on your paper, poster, or roundtable sessions. We’rehappy to assist session organizers with the structuring of their proposals. The SVA encourages innovative formats, including poster sessions, extended screening of visual materials, and fostering more dynamic discussion periods.

Here is a breakdown of upcoming deadlines and the appropriate contacts for each.

Paper/Poster/Roundtable Sessions – submit through the AAA website

SVA Section Invited Session Proposals – due March 15, 2013 online

All Invited Session Proposals (paper or poster sessions) must include a session abstract of up to 500 words and information for all participants (including individual abstracts and any technical needs for your session). Submission will be through the AAA website. We highly encourage anyone planning to submit an invited session proposal to contact us ASAP, ideally by March 1. Decisions will be announced in early April.

SVA Sponsored Session Proposals – due April 15, 2013 online

All sponsored session proposals must be submitted online by April 15, 2013. This includes all paper and poster sessions,roundtable proposals, and individual paper/poster submissions. Submissions must include a 500-word abstract, as well as individual abstracts for each participant (as necessary). Participants must abide by the AAA rules regarding roles, registration, and fees.

Installations – due April 15, 2013 online through the AAA programming committee

Installations (a remix and rebirth of “InnoVents” and “Salons” introduced to the AAA Annual Meetings program in recent years) invite anthropological knowledge off the beaten path of the written conference paper. Presenters may propose performances, recitals, conversations, author-meets-critic roundtables, salon reading workshops, oral history recording sessions and other alternative, creative forms of intellectual expression for consideration. Selected Installations will be curated for off-site exhibition and tied to the official AAA conference program. Installations are meant to disrupt who and what we tend to see at the Annual Meetings, helping attendees encounter new people and to do different kinds of things at the intersections of anthropological arts, sciences, and cultural expression.

If you have an idea for an Installation you would like to offer that might be on interest to the SVA, please contactJennifer and Fiona ASAP to discuss the possibilities!

SVA Film, Video, and Interactive Media Festival Submissions –April 15, 2013

Contact: Harjant Gill (hgill@towson.edu)

Karen Nakamura (Karen.Nakamura@yale.edu)

Jenny Chio (Jenny.Chio@emory.edu)

The SVA Film, Video, and Interactive Media Festival encourage the submission of short works (under 15 minutes), full-length ethnographic films, and interactive media. Awards will be given to the best works in a number of categories,including student films and short films. The submission deadline is April 15, 2013, with early-bird discounts for submissions sent before March 1, 2013. Festival Submissions open February 1, 2013. Please check the SVA website for complete details (including information on where to send your previews).

Submit films via Withoutabox.com (WAB):

https://www.withoutabox.com/03film/03t_fin/03t_fin_fest_01over.php?festival_id=10082&festview=1

SVA Visual Research Conference Submissions -March 2013 (due date TBA)

Contacts: Tom Blakely (tdblakely@aol.com and copy to tdb5@psu.edu)

Andrea Heckman (andreaheckman@earthlink.net)

Jerome Crowder (jecrowde@utmb.edu)

The SVA Visual Research Conference provides a collegial environment for the presentation of works-in-progress, as well as research findings. Sessions are allotted approximately forty-five minutes for several scheduled presentations and discussions, thus facilitating real engagement between the audience and the researcher(s). The Visual Research Conference will take place November 17- 19, 2013.

Check the SVA website for updates regarding the SVA Film, Video, and Interactive Media FestivalSubmissions and SVA Visual Research Conference Submissions

CFP: Visuality in Multi-Modal Semiotic Ecologies: Theory and Method at the Intersection of Linguistic and Visual Anthropology

Few (if any) linguistic anthropologists would argue with the idea that linguistic practice draws on diverse material and embodied resources. Nevertheless, close attention to the role of visual semiosis in communicative ecologies is not as common a part of our analyses as might be expected. Indeed, as Lempert points out in a forthcoming review, outside a few notable exceptions (e.g., Enfield 2009; Goodwin 2003; Goodwin and Tulbert 2011) explicit and sustained attention to multimodal integration remains a frontier for our field. The reason for this “benign” neglect may be less to do with our theoretical orientations than with methodological challenges (described and grappled with by, for example, Tedlock 1983 and Farnell 1995) of satisfactorily representing multi-modal semiosis in print (though, as Ochs (1979) reminds us, theory and methodology are in a bi-directional relationship).  However, for visual anthropologists, from Bateson and Mead’s (1942) seminal photographic work in Bali to Strassler’s (2010) recent award winning text, the multimodality of semiosis is generally framed as presenting methodological and representational opportunities rather than problems. This panel seeks to bring together perspectives from linguistic and visual anthropology to ask what methodological issues are involved in addressing visual modalities as part of multi-modal semiotic processes. What kinds of tools are necessary to account for the multiple ways in which visual forms interact with other linguistic modalities?  What does a linguistic-ethnographic approach add to visual analyses?

Description of specific papers.

Together we argue that (emergent from selected papers)

Panelists are encouraged to incorporate visual components into their presentations in ways consistent with the methodological and theoretical claims of their papers.

Please submit abstracts by March 1 to erhoffma@oberlin.edu

The SVA welcomes paper and poster session proposals for consideration at this year’s Annual Meeting in Chicago(November 20-24, 2013). The theme for the meeting is “Future Publics, Current Engagements,” which provides a richcontext for exploring the innovative and exciting work conducted under the broad rubric of visual anthropology. Lastyear, SVA sponsored sessions explored such diverse topics as public art, visual ethics, photography of the unsettling, sensing culture, visualizing history, aesthetic production, digital storytelling and visualizing the technological disjoint in communities.

For the 2013 Annual Meeting, the SVA programming committee consists of:

Jennifer Wolowic (jwolowic@gmail.com)

Fiona P. McDonald (fionamcdonald5@yahoo.ca)

Both Jennifer and Fiona are more than happy to work with you on your paper, poster, or roundtable sessions. We’rehappy to assist session organizers with the structuring of their proposals. The SVA encourages innovative formats, including poster sessions, extended screening of visual materials, and fostering more dynamic discussion periods.

Here is a breakdown of upcoming deadlines and the appropriate contacts for each.

Paper/Poster/Roundtable Sessions – submit through the AAA website

SVA Section Invited Session Proposals – due March 15, 2013 online

All Invited Session Proposals (paper or poster sessions) must include a session abstract of up to 500 words and information for all participants (including individual abstracts and any technical needs for your session). Submission will be through the AAA website. We highly encourage anyone planning to submit an invited session proposal to contact us ASAP, ideally by March 1. Decisions will be announced in early April.

SVA Sponsored Session Proposals – due April 15, 2013 online

All sponsored session proposals must be submitted online by April 15, 2013. This includes all paper and poster sessions,roundtable proposals, and individual paper/poster submissions. Submissions must include a 500-word abstract, as well as individual abstracts for each participant (as necessary). Participants must abide by the AAA rules regarding roles, registration, and fees.

Installations – due April 15, 2013 online through the AAA programming committee

Installations (a remix and rebirth of “InnoVents” and “Salons” introduced to the AAA Annual Meetings program in recent years) invite anthropological knowledge off the beaten path of the written conference paper. Presenters may propose performances, recitals, conversations, author-meets-critic roundtables, salon reading workshops, oral history recording sessions and other alternative, creative forms of intellectual expression for consideration. Selected Installations will be curated for off-site exhibition and tied to the official AAA conference program. Installations are meant to disrupt who and what we tend to see at the Annual Meetings, helping attendees encounter new people and to do different kinds of things at the intersections of anthropological arts, sciences, and cultural expression.

If you have an idea for an Installation you would like to offer that might be on interest to the SVA, please contactJennifer and Fiona ASAP to discuss the possibilities!

SVA Film, Video, and Interactive Media Festival Submissions –April 15, 2013

Contact: Harjant Gill (hgill@towson.edu)

Karen Nakamura (Karen.Nakamura@yale.edu)

Jenny Chio (Jenny.Chio@emory.edu)

The SVA Film, Video, and Interactive Media Festival encourage the submission of short works (under 15 minutes), full-length ethnographic films, and interactive media. Awards will be given to the best works in a number of categories,including student films and short films. The submission deadline is April 15, 2013, with early-bird discounts for submissions sent before March 1, 2013. Festival Submissions open February 1, 2013. Please check the SVA website for complete details (including information on where to send your previews).

Submit films via Withoutabox.com (WAB):

https://www.withoutabox.com/03film/03t_fin/03t_fin_fest_01over.php?festival_id=10082

SVA Visual Research Conference Submissions -March 2013 (due date TBA)

Contacts: Tom Blakely (tdblakely@aol.com and copy to tdb5@psu.edu)

Andrea Heckman (andreaheckman@earthlink.net)

Jerome Crowder (jecrowde@utmb.edu)

The SVA Visual Research Conference provides a collegial environment for the presentation of works-in-progress, as well as research findings. Sessions are allotted approximately forty-five minutes for several scheduled presentations and discussions, thus facilitating real engagement between the audience and the researcher(s). The Visual Research Conference will take place November 17- 19, 2013.

Check the SVA website for updates regarding the SVA Film, Video, and Interactive Media FestivalSubmissions and SVA Visual Research Conference Submissions