110th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting

November 13-18, 2012 
San Francisco, California

Schedule of Events

Download the pdf: SVA-related events program

2012 Visual Research Conference

Download the program as a pdf: 2012-visual-research-conference-program

Download the Abstracts as a pdf: visualresearchconference2012abstracts

2012 Film and Media Festival

Download the pdf: 2012 SVA Film and Media Festival Program

Download the pdf: 2012 SVA Film and Media Festival Program

Contact: Craig Campbell or Stephanie Takaragawa
Phone: Craig (512) 226-3972
E-mail: ethnographicterminalia@gmail.com
Website: www.ethnographicterminalia.org
ETHNOGRAPHIC TERMINALIA 2012: SAN FRANCISCO
Exhibition & Opening Reception

Audible observatories are points of sensory convergence.  They are nodes where worlds perceived through the senses intersect and begin the labor of transforming independent events into knowable and meaningful claims. They speak and they are spoken to.

Ethnographic Terminalia is a curatorial collective that hosts an annual exhibition of international artists and researchers working at the intersection of art and anthropology. In November 2012, the Ethnographic Terminalia Curatorial Collective welcomes visitors to the Audible Observatories exhibition. This year’s show is organized in collaboration with Thor Anderson and is scheduled to coincide with the 111th annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association (AAA).

Ethnographic Terminalia brings anthropologists and artists together in the gallery space to investigate the borders and blurrings of contemporary art practice and alternative modes of cultural inquiry and representation.  Ethnographic Terminalia is an exploration of what it means to exhibit anthropology - particularly in some of its less traditional forms - in proximity to and conversation with contemporary art practices.

Now in its fourth year (following Montréal, New Orleans, and Philadelphia), Ethnographic Terminalia represents an international array of creative material, conceptual, and new media engagements where anthropology and art intersect. For Ethnographic Terminalia 2012: Audible Observatories the curators have selected over twenty five artists and cultural researchers including: Steve Feld, John Wynne, Rupert Cox & Angus Carlyle, and Roxanne Varzi.

Ethnographic Terminalia seeks submissions for Audible Observatories, an exhibition to be held in San Francisco in November 2012. Artist-researchers, collaborators, anthropologists and other artistically inclined scholars are encouraged to submit their proposals prior to July 15, 2012.

Audible Observatories makes a playful connection between research-based art and place-bound exhibition in order to animate a curatorial vision that foregrounds audio-centric works within a broader rubric of site-specificity. We conceptualize the audible observatory as either a mobile or a stationary site of perception that is sensible to others just as it is a place from which sensing the world happens. Audible observatories are points of sensory convergence. They are nodes where worlds perceived through the senses intersect and begin the labour of transforming independent events into knowable and meaningful claims. They speak and they are spoken to.

Audible Observatories will be a distributed public event in San Francisco with an amalgam of location specific points and zones of exhibition. We are looking for research-based audio focused works to exhibit. These might include digital media, image, and sound files, websites and other interactive media, video works where audio figures prominently. Sculptural and other works will also be considered. In some cases we may be able to support installation. As in past shows, we will work with our exhibitors (if necessary) to develop installations and short statements about their work which point to larger interpretive frameworks.

This project ties in with and is supported by the meetings of the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Visual Anthropology. A round table discussion featuring Steve Feld, John Wynne, Angus Carlyle, and Rupert Cox has been organized and will be taking place during the course of this event. We also expect to be exhibiting work by these artists.

Ethnographic Terminalia is an initiative designed to celebrate borders without necessarily exalting them. Now in its fourth year of exhibition, it is meant to be a playful engagement with reflexivity and positionality; it seeks to ask what lies beyond and what lies within disciplinary territories. Ethnographic Terminalia is an exploration of what means to exhibit anthropology - particularly in some of its less traditional forms - in proximity to and conversation with contemporary art practices.

Go to the Call for Submissions Form

The terminus is the end, the boundary, and the border.
It is also a beginning, its own place, a site of experience and encounter.

Contact: ethnographicterminalia@gmail.com
http://www.ethnographicterminalia.org

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

John Collier Jr. Award for Still Photography

2008 Winner

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. The project must be nominated by a SVA member and include the consent of the person nominated.  A letter of nomination and the supporting material (including name, book title or exhibit, website or multimedia production, publisher, author’s mailing address, phone and email) should accompany two copies of the creative work and be sent to the Committee Chairperson. 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. Submissions for 2012 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:

May 1^st deadline for receipt of nomination and book submission to SVA

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

August 10th 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.

Download the 2012 SVA Call for Submissions here [PDF]: 2012-sva-cfs

The SVA welcomes paper and poster session proposals for consideration at this year’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco (November 14-18, 2012). The theme for the meeting is “Borders and Crossings,” which provides a rich context for exploring the innovative and exciting work conducted under the broad rubric of visual anthropology. Last year, 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 2012 Annual Meeting, the SVA programming committee consists of:
Jennifer Wolowic (jwolowic@gmail.com) and
Jonathan S. Marion (jsmarion@gmail.com)

Both Jennifer and Jonathan are more than happy to work with you on your paper, poster, or roundtable sessions - please be in touch early, and as often as necessary, with us! We’re happy 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.

Because the SVA sponsors a number of events during the Annual Meeting, here is a breakdown of upcoming deadlines and the appropriate contacts for each. (more…)

Visual Anthropology Review Cover, Vol.27.2

Table of Contents

ARTICLES

Tattoo Removal: Three Snapshots
by Susan A. Phillips

Round Trip: Filming a Return Home
by Angela Torresan

Ravens and Film: Stories of Continuity and Mediation
by Eugenia Kisin

A Child’s Right to Participation: Photovoice as Methodology for Documenting the Experiences of Children Living in Kenyan Orphanages
by Ginger A. Johnson

“I’ll Show You My Wounds”: Engaging Suffering through Film
by Alberto Guevara and Elysée Nouvet

FILM REVIEWS

Many Mexicos, Vistas de la frontera. Arizona State Museum. November 19, 2010–November 17, 2012.
Michael M. Brescia (lead curator).
reviewed by: Lucero Radonic

Eating Alaska. Directed by Ellen Frankenstein, 2008, 57 minutes, color. Distributed by New Day Films, P.O. Box 1084, Harriman, NY 10926, http://www.newday.com
reviewed by: Madeline Chera

Umiaq Skin Boat. Directed by Jobie Weetaluktuk, 2008, 31 minutes, B&W and color. Distributed by Documentary Educational Resources, 101 Morse Street, Watertown, MA 02472, http://www.der.org
reviewed by: Nelson Graburn

BOOK REVIEWS

Hong Kong: Migrant Lives, Landscapes, and Journeys. Caroline Knowles and Douglas Harper. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2009.
reviewed by: Sharon R. Roseman

Global Indigenous Media: Culture, Poetics, and Politics. Edited by Pamela Wilson and Michelle Stewart. ••: Duke University Press, 2008.
reviewed by: Pavel Shlossberg

Making the Scene: A History of Stage Design and Technology in Europe and the United States. Oscar G. Brockett, Margaret Mitchell, and Linda Hardberger. San Antonio: Tobin Theatre Arts Fund, U of Texas P, 2010.
reviewed by: Irene Middleton

Viewpoints: Visual Anthropologist at Work. Edited by Mary Strong and Laena Wilder. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009.
reviewed by: Jason E. Miller

We encourage those who are attending the AAA annual meeting in Montreal to check out the sessions, roundtables, workshops, films, exhibitions, and meetings that are sponsored by SVA.

There’s a lot to be discussed, debated, and discovered about visual anthropology and visual research, and hopefully these sessions and events during the AAA meeting will provide opportunities for us to share thoughts and consider new perspectives.

All SVA sponsored, and invited, panels are listed here.

Everyone, and anyone, interested in visual anthropology and the SVA is welcome to attend our Business Meeting on Friday, November 18 at 1215, which will be immediately followed by a roundtable discussion on visual ethics.

We are also running two workshops on photography and fieldwork, which you can read about and register for here.

Finally, we have put together a general guide to SVA events during the AAA meeting, which can be picked up during the week at the convention center.

The Society for Visual Anthropology presents the Film & Media Festival in Montréal for 2011.  You can download our preliminary program below.

The Society for Visual Anthropology Film, Video, and Interactive Media Festival encourages the submission of short works (under 15 minutes), full-length ethnographic films, audio/photo essays, and interactive media.  Awards will be given to the best works in a number of categories, including student films and short films.

We begin accepting films starting January 15th, 2011 with a final  submission deadline of April 15, 2011. Early bird and student discounts available. For more information on the categories, or to submit a film, login to our film submission website at WithoutABox.com

Society for Visual Anthropology
2011 AAA Annual Meeting Call for Submissions
Dowload PDF here: 2011-sva-cfs

Details for Invited Sessions, Sponsored Sessions, Media Submissions, and the Visual Research Conference are below:
The SVA welcomes paper and poster session proposals for consideration at this year’s Annual Meeting in Montreal (November 16-20, 2011).  The theme for the meeting is “Traces, Tidemarks, and Legacies,” which provides a rich context for exploring the innovative and exciting work conducted under the broad rubric of visual anthropology.  Last year, SVA sponsored sessions explored such diverse topics as urban visualities, participatory media research, Australian aboriginal media production, the ethnography of television, and the anthropology of religion in Haiti.

For the 2011 Annual Meeting, the SVA programming committee consists of:

Jenny Chio (Jenny.Chio@uts.edu.au) and
Jonathan S. Marion (jsmarion@gmail.com)

Both Jonthan and Jenny are more than happy to work with you on your paper, poster, or roundtable sessions - please be in touch early, and as often as necessary, with us! We’re happy 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.
Because the SVA sponsors a number of events during the Annual Meeting, here is a breakdown of upcoming deadlines and the appropriate contacts for each. (more…)