DOCSLIB.ORG

Art History in the World of Digital Humanities. Aspects of a Difficult Relationship

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Art History in the World of Digital Humanities. Aspects of a Difficult Relationship Renaissance 4/2017 - 1 4eorg Schelbert Art History in the 9orl! of Digital Humanities' As ects of a Difficult Relationshi 0ig. 1: No digital art history in the digital humanities? &The *-spheres model of the Digital Humanities #y <atrick 8ahle 2015)' Is Digital Art History failing at the Digital Hu- currently more or less a 4erman han!#ook manities? on !igital art history.[3] 5n the one han!" I agree com letely )ith +ames ,uno6s state- If one looks at com en!ia for the Digital Hu- ments, #ut )hat he is talking a#out is not in manities, it is striking that art history an! re- fact “the internet1" #ut rather the “Digital late! su#$ects, even archaeology, are still Humanities”, or )hatever you might call his- rather marginal to ics &cfr' fig' 1('[1] At Digit- torical an! visual culture stu!ies using !igit- al Humanities meetings, more an! more al metho!s. 7oreover" )e shoul! take a contri#utions are #eing ma!e that inclu!e close look at the situation to un!erstan! )orking )ith ictures, *D reconstructions or )hat this relationshi really !oes look like' ma s, #ut it is noticea#le that art historians 0irst" ,uno reca itulates the chal- are rarely responsi#le for this. +ames ,uno lenges of !igital initiatives in a fe) recise u#lishe! a fre-uently -uote! article in )or!s: /2ee ing u )ith the ace of 2012 )ith the title. “Ho) Art History is 0ail- change in the !igital )orl! is challenging" ing in the Internet1'[2] Hu#ertus 2ohle even an! harnessing its otential can #e frustrat- makes it into a kin! of motto for his 201* ing' 3ut the #iggest mistake many of us in #ook “Digitale 3il!)issenschaft1" )hich is the arts an! humanities aca!emy can make 4eorg 8chel#ert Art History in the 9orl! of Digital Humanities kunstte>te'!e 4/2017 - 2 is thinking of that otential only in terms of the case. Although she states that an aston- ho) )e can use the ne) technology to ishing num#er of inventories of museums" more -uickly an! #roa!ly !isseminate in- li#raries, galleries, an! collections have formation' ;he romise of the !igital age is #een !igitiFe!" she claims that this kin! of far greater than that' It offers an o ortunity effort “is !igitiFe! art history" one #uilt on to rethink the )ay )e !o" as )ell as to !eli%- the use of online resources' 3ut no articu- er ne) research in the arts'1[4] lar changes of thought or critical stance 3ut )hat are exactly, accor!ing to come )ith this convenience1' ,uno" the rospects of the !igital? /;he ;he !istinction ma!e here #et)een o)er of our com uters to store massive !igital an! !igitiFe! art history is not only amounts of information an! then or!er an! crucial #ut also fatal for the role of art his- reor!er it in a near-infinite num#er of )ays tory )ithin Digital Humanities since it )eak- shoul! #e ro!ucing ne) ara!igms in art ens even )ell-meaning !efenses of art his- historical research' Imagine )hat ?r)in tory'[6] <anofsky or A#y War#urg coul! have !one ;his !ichotomy reflects a certain )ith our technology.1 8uch a lack of ne) conce t of Digital Humanities that has its e istemic ara!igms )as also o#serve! #y see!s mainly in the hilological !isci lines, +ohanna Drucker in an article rovocatively especially linguistics. When I assert a rather entitle! “Is ;here a @Digital6 Art History?1" !ifficult relationshi #et)een art history an! cite! $ust as fre-uently as ,uno6s state- the Digital Humanities, I #asically )ish to in- ment'[5] 8he states that !igital technologies !icate a certain conflict of conce ts concer- !i! not in!uce any metho!ological an! the- ning the use of the com uter in various !is- oretical changes in the !isci line. “A useful ci lines of the humanities. contrast might #e !ra)n #et)een the im- We &still( have to assume a )i!e- act of critical theory an! that of !igital sprea! o inion that the Digital Humanities metho!ologies. In the 1AB0s, tra!itional art are rimarily a#out text analysis. ;his has to history )as u en!e!' 8emiotics, structural- !o )ith the fact that the um#rella term Digit- ism" ost-structuralism" sychoanalysis, al Humanities )as coine! in linguistics an! 7arxism" cultural an! critical stu!ies, an! other text-#ase! !isci lines. Here" com- feminist thinking shar ly !ivi!e! art histori- uter-#ase! o erations start from a &given( ans. CDE ?very aspect of art historical kno)- cor us, i'e' a text in !igital format" for e>- le!ge )as shaken at its foun!ations.1 8he am le" the com lete )orks of ;homas A-ui- !eman!s that /)e have to see a convincing nas. ;heir e> loration #y <a!re 3usa in the !emonstration that !igital metho!s change 1A40s an! =0s )ith the su ort of I37 is the )ay )e un!erstan! the o#$ects of our regar!e! as the #irth of Digital Humanities G in-uiry. CDE )hat are the )ays of thinking at least in accor!ance )ith the common a#out )orks of art that arise from !igital narrative of com uter hilologists.[7] ;hough metho!s an! reconfigure our fun!amental it )as e> ensive to #uil! u a !igital te>t un!erstan!ing of )hat constitutes a )ork of cor us )ith these !imensions at that time" it art? What ne) research -uestions can #e )as not too !ifficult to im lement" as char- aske!?1 Drucker answers her o)n -uestion acters an! text are almost !igital er se' #y ro osing “that )e coul! situate a )ork ,ontrary to art history an! relate! su#$ects )ithin the many net)orks from )hich it &)e )ill come #ack to this later(" the exciting gains meaning an! value" an! then resent )ork #eing !one )ith the com uter in the the results )ithin com le> visual argu- text #ase! !isci lines only starte! )hen the ments'1 In her o inion" ho)ever" this is not cor us )as rea!y to #e analyze!' In the !i- 4eorg 8chel#ert Art History in the 9orl! of Digital Humanities kunstte>te'!e 4/2017 - * gital format" text !oes not have to #e rea! any more la#oriously #y human #eings, #ut it can #e rocesse! an! visualiFe! gra hic- ally in various )ays. 0ranco 7oretti an! his /!istance rea!ings” of hun!re!s or thou- san!s of #ooks at a time may alrea!y #e fa- miliar to the au!ience'[8] :ot only !o many colleagues from the hilological fiel!s un!erstan! “Digital Humanities” exclusively in this )ay, #ut art historians have #egun to a!o t this vie) as )ell. so-calle! /!igital art history”" on the one han!" involves analytical metho!s, )hereas /!igitiFe! art history” is sim ly the ro!uction of !igital re resentations of )orks of art' ;he liaison #et)een art history an! com uta- tional metho!s I )oul! rather see the so-calle! !igitiFe! art history as an essential art of #oth !igital art history an! !igital humanities. 8o I a!- Fig. 2. /Taking ossession1 of the )orks of art &here still )ith re-!igital technology). 3' von TieschowitF an! R' Hamann- vocate here for a conce t of Digital Human- 7ac Hean taking ictures in Iezelay, 1A27 &Foto 7ar#urg)' ities as a !isci line" )hich also inclu!es the specific rocesses of art history an! relate! su#$ects. ;his also intrinsically inclu!es the In the !omain of the !igital ca ture of arti- !igitiFation of their o#$ects, )hich !oesn6t facts" art history is o erating com letely mean $ust scanning #ut also mo!eling an! )ithin its o)n tra!ition &fig' 2(' 0rom cata- virtualiFation in a #roa!er sense' 0inally, a loguing" to !escri#ing" to !ra)ing" to hoto- clear !istinction to so-calle! !igital art his- gra hy, the !isci line al)ays looke! for tory cannot #e !ra)n. Alrea!y storing !igital )ays to /take ossession1 of its su#$ects, images ca ture! from )orks of art even in articularly re licating an! emulating them the sim lest !ata#ase" sorting or classifying in or!er to have them rea!y for com arison them" means crossing the #or!er to a meth- an! other o erations. :either 9Jlfflin6s o!ological use of !igital ossi#ilities G in formalistic school" nor the War#urgian cul- other )or!s: crossing the #or!er to !igital tural history a roach" )ith its interest in art history G even )ithout so histicate! im- iconogra hy an! iconology, )oul! have age-technologies like attern recognition' #een ossi#le )ithout rior transformation in orta#le me!ia formats' Harge" systemat- ically structure! image archives, as )ell as classification systems like Iconclass are un- !ertakings of the !isci line that antici ate! the com uter as a !evice for counting" fil- tering an! calculation' It is true that com- 4eorg 8chel#ert Art History in the 9orl! of Digital Humanities kunstte>te'!e 4/2017 - 4 uters ha! alrea!y a eare! on the horiFon on the other han! are !efinitively only man- #y the mi!-20th century" #ut initiatives like agea#le )ith !igital technologies. While Iconclass )ere !efinitively inaugurate! #e- consi!ere! #y some e> erts as a core fiel! fore such technology )as actually availa#le' of Digital Humanities,[13] !ata mo!eling an! ;his is also true of the ,ensus of Anti-ue kno)le!ge management in art history" actu- Works of Art an! Architecture 2no)n in the ally is har!ly ackno)le!ge! as a specific Renaissance )hich )as starte! as a !ou#le fiel! of action' ;his has certainly to !o )ith file recor! system on a er #efore" in the the specific “resistance1 of material o#$ects 1AB0s, it un!er)ent a !igital transformation against formaliFation"[14] #ut also )ith a lack )ith the hel of the 4etty Institute'[9] of initiative from the !isci line itself'[15] ;hus 0or a long time" the fiel! of the a - the most com rehensive conce ts for !e- lication of com uter technology )as seen scri#ing artifacts" the ,i!oc,R7" even if it mainly in terms of classifying )orks of art #y )as create! #y an I,57 grou " largely )as form" iconogra hy, an! function G these are !evelo e! #y non-art historians.[16] As the #asic cognitive o erations
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Bild-Anthropologie:Entwiirfe Fur Eine Symbolic Patterns Seem, Every Subfield, Dieval Or Early Modern Societies
    Book Reviews HANS BELTING developed a "historical anthropology" that their nightmares. Every German art historian, finds and structural in me- it would in has been Bild-Anthropologie:Entwiirfe fur eine symbolic patterns seem, every subfield, dieval or early modern societies. American compelled to deal with the concept of media, Bildwissenschaft historians like Robert Darnton, Natalie Ze- one way or another, over the last ten years. Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2001. 280 pp.; mon Davis, and Caroline Bynum have con- Perhaps this has something to do with the 180 b/w ills. 25.20 Euros tributed to this paradigm. Points of conver- pressure to justify scholarship in the arts gence with art history are rare. Exceptions are within a state-controlled university system. Hans Belting's recent collection of essays on usually in the medieval field, where the work Perhaps scholars have been convinced that effigies, masks, mummies, ancestor portraits, of anthropologically minded historians like Medienwissenschaftis the last hope for the hu- cult statues, tattoos, anatomical models, pho- Bynum or Jean-Claude Schmitt can closely manities to connect with the weightier issues tography, film, video art, and digital art is also resemble work done by guild art historians. of technology, communication, and globaliza- a manifesto, a set of "drafts for a science The complex scholarly project of Aby War- tion. In the German-speaking world, modern- [Wissenschaft] of the image," as the subtitle burg must also be mentioned here. Warburg, ists are not alone in worrying about apparatus has it. The revisionist rhetoric is sharp a contemporary of the pioneering anthropol- theory, digitality, and cybernetics.
    [Show full text]
  • Hypertext Semiotics in the Commercialized Internet
    Hypertext Semiotics in the Commercialized Internet Moritz Neumüller Wien, Oktober 2001 DOKTORAT DER SOZIAL- UND WIRTSCHAFTSWISSENSCHAFTEN 1. Beurteiler: Univ. Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Wolfgang Panny, Institut für Informationsver- arbeitung und Informationswirtschaft der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Abteilung für Angewandte Informatik. 2. Beurteiler: Univ. Prof. Dr. Herbert Hrachovec, Institut für Philosophie der Universität Wien. Betreuer: Gastprofessor Univ. Doz. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Veith Risak Eingereicht am: Hypertext Semiotics in the Commercialized Internet Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften an der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien eingereicht bei 1. Beurteiler: Univ. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Panny, Institut für Informationsverarbeitung und Informationswirtschaft der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Abteilung für Angewandte Informatik 2. Beurteiler: Univ. Prof. Dr. Herbert Hrachovec, Institut für Philosophie der Universität Wien Betreuer: Gastprofessor Univ. Doz. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Veith Risak Fachgebiet: Informationswirtschaft von MMag. Moritz Neumüller Wien, im Oktober 2001 Ich versichere: 1. daß ich die Dissertation selbständig verfaßt, andere als die angegebenen Quellen und Hilfsmittel nicht benutzt und mich auch sonst keiner unerlaubten Hilfe bedient habe. 2. daß ich diese Dissertation bisher weder im In- noch im Ausland (einer Beurteilerin / einem Beurteiler zur Begutachtung) in irgendeiner Form als Prüfungsarbeit vorgelegt habe. 3. daß dieses Exemplar mit der beurteilten Arbeit überein
    [Show full text]
  • Contrastes Ulrich.Indd
    Animal Artistic Agency in Performative Interspecies Art in the Twenty-First Century Jessica Ullrich Johann Wolfgang-Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main [email protected] ABSTRACT: Traditional aesthetic places non-human animals in nature and not in culture. Non-human animals are generally considered to be artless beings without any urge or capacity to create aesthetic objects. To the contrary, the ability and the need to produce art is perceived as one of the last thresholds of humanity. Nevertheless, in the last decades more and more contemporary artists involve living non-human ani- mals in artistic productions. By doing so they declare some non-human animals to be co-authors of artworks and trust in their creative agen- cy. But is it legitimate to take animal contributions to installations, sculptures, video works, or paintings seriously? Can non-human animals be aesthetic actors in their own right? The text focuses on interspecies artworks that only come into existence with the help of non-human ani- mals. While it seems clear that the participating non-human animals display some form of agency, it is debatable if they can be called artists. KEYWORDS: Artistic Agency; Animal Agency; Interspecies Art; Animal Aesthetics; Contemporary Art. Agencia artística animal en el arte performativo interespecies en el siglo XXI RESUMEN: La estética tradicional sitúa a los animales no humanos en la naturaleza y no en la cultura. Los animales no humanos son ge- neralmente considerados seres carentes de arte sin ningún impulso o capacidad para crear objetos estéticos. Por el contrario, la habilidad y la necesidad de producir arte es percibida como uno de los últimos umbrales de la humanidad.
    [Show full text]
  • Art History and the Parameters of Image Studies
    Art History and the Parameters of Image Studies York Summer Theory Institute in Art History (YSTI) University of York, June 8 – 12, 2015, 1 – 4:45 pm daily Convener: Professor Whitney Davis (University of California at Berkeley and University of York) Description : Designed for students undertaking postgraduate research, the first York Summer Theory Institute in Art History at the University of York (YSTI), Art History and the Parameters of Image Studies , will explore the relationships between art history as a discipline (an array of propositions and practices related to an array of objects and evidence) and the relatively recent consolidation of an inter- or trans-disciplinary ‘image studies’, identified in some measure with the work of leading French and German art historians and theorists as well as with ‘visual-culture studies’ in the UK and North America. Art historians often say they work with images, but it might equally be said that they make images of objects and/or produce images of images. Moreover, images—as an object of study and as a procedure or a practice—are not the exclusive domain of art history. Contributions highly relevant to art history have been made by anthropologists, psychologists, historians of science and technology, and others, and images obviously need not be identified only with objects of art. The Institute will explore some of the main lines of thinking in image studies conceived as an array of possible ‘parameters’ for art history, that is, as constituting certain of its conditions and horizons of possibility and as operating on – and possibly trying to break down – certain borders in and of art history.
    [Show full text]
  • Semiotics at the Crossroads of Art* 1 Visual Semiotics
    DE GRUYTER MOUTON DOI10.1515/sem-2013-0037 Semiótica 2013; 195: 69-95 Virve Sarapik Semiotics at the crossroads of art* Abstract: This article first examines and compares three partly overlapping terms - visual semiotics, pictorial semiotics, and the semiotics of art - and aims at the specification of their interrelations. Then, the focus shifts to the problems of the semiotics of art, and the changing mutual relations between the semiotics of art and art history are analyzed. It is important to note that, during the last half- century, the notions of visual art, its ontology, and functions have thoroughly changed and, during recent decades, changes have also appeared on the meta- level of art history. The question is whether and how the semiotics of art should react to these changes. Keywords: visual semiotics, pictorial semiotics, pictorial representation, visual culture, semiotics of art Virve Sarapik: Estonian Literary Museum and Estonian Academy of Arts. E-mail: vlrve.sarapii<@artun.ee The present article arose from the wish to specify and define the three circulating and partly overlapping terms visual semiotics, pictorial semiotics, and the semi- otics of art, and to examine, in an introductory way, the problems related to the third term. Thus the aim of this article is not so much to offer an exhaustive solu- tion to the problems as to point out and specify them more precisely. Although all three appear to be specialized trends proceeding from general semiotics, we can tell from the very notions that their categorization is based on entirely different principles. Visual semiotics is based on one of the senses - vision; pictorial semiotics should discuss everything that can be defined as a pic- ture; semiotics of art should be concerned with all that is conceived as art.
    [Show full text]
  • Art Historiography and Bild
    Suzanne de Villiers-Human Art historiography and Bild- wissenschaft: new perspectives on some objects by the Venda sculptor, Phutuma Seoka First submission: 25 January 2012 Acceptance: 20 June 2012 It is argued that the apparatus of western art history has been sharpened by the current media consciousness. Typical art historical tools are self-consciously harnessed in the process of scrutinising objects which resist and expand these methods and theories. The focus is on some objects of Venda polychrome sculpture which “took the South African art world by storm” in the 1980s when these specimens of rural craftsmanship in wood were deemed fit to enter the gallery circuit. An analysis of the Venda sculptors’ religious and social knowledge of the use of patterned decoration on ritual tools in wood, and of performances by firelight of myths of origin with wooden dolls during initiation rituals, informs my alternative interpretation of the modern polychrome sculptures steering away from issues of cross-cultural aesthetics, the dialectic of modernism and traditionalism and post-colonial studies. Rather, I interpret the works as medium-self- conscious objects which extend their own cultural and social agency to communicate more widely to a non-initiate audience which may include visitors to an art museum. This shift of focus from a history of art to a history of media effects an altered perspective on the objects themselves and on the methods used to interpret them. Kunsgeskiedenis en Bildwissenschaft: nuwe perspektiewe op sommige voorwerpe van die Venda beeldhouer, Phutuma Seoka Daar word geredeneer dat die gereedskap van die westerse kunsgeskiedenis deur die gangbare sensitiwiteit vir media verskerp is.
    [Show full text]
  • Christian Nille Hochschulforschung Und Historische Bildwissenschaft
    Hochschulforschung und historische Bildwissenschaft Potenziale einer bislang unerprobten Zusammenarbeit Christian Nille In diesem Text wird allgemein für eine Mainz bislang nicht vorhandene Zusammenar- beit von Hochschulforschung und histo- rischer Bildwissenschaft argumentiert, indem gezeigt wird, wie eine solche Zu- sammenarbeit aussehen und weshalb sie sich für beide Seiten als fruchtbar er- weisen könnte. Um dieses Anliegen zu konkretisieren und zu illustrieren, wird das Georg Forster-Gebäude der Mainzer Universität samt Einrichtung als exemplarisches Untersuchungs- material behandelt (Übersicht 1). Übersicht 1: Georg Forster‐Gebäude auf dem Campus der Mainzer Universität 46 die hochschule 1–2/2018 Die Argumentation erfolgt in vier Hauptschritten: In einem ersten Schritt wird dargelegt, was in den folgenden Ausführungen unter Hochschulfor- schung und historischer Bildwissenschaft verstanden wird und welche methodischen Spezifika damit verbunden sind (1). Daraufhin wird das zu bearbeitende Problem herausgestellt, dass aktuell keine (fruchtbare) Zu- sammenarbeit von Hochschulforschung und historischer Bildwissen- schaft existiert (2). Es folgen zwei Analysen von gestalterischen Einzel- elementen, mit denen jeweils eine Frage aus dem Problemfeld der Hoch- schulforschung sowie eine bildwissenschaftliche Methode verknüpft wer- den: Zunächst geht es um die Einrichtung des Georg Forster-Gebäudes und das Problem der Ökonomisierung der Hochschule, die ikonologisch behandelt werden (3.1), dann um die dortige Vorhoffassade und das Pro- blem des
    [Show full text]
  • The Idea of a Universal Bildwissenschaft
    Zlom2_2014_Sestava 1 29.10.14 10:10 Stránka 208 The Idea of a Universal Bildwissenschaft THE IDEA OF A UNIVERSAL BILDWISSENSCHAFT JASON GAIGER The emergence of Bildwissenschaft (image science) as a new interdisciplinary formation that is intended to encompass all images calls for an analysis of the grounds on which the claim to universality can be upheld. I argue that whereas the lifting of scope restrictions imposes only a weak universality requirement, the identification of features that belong to the entire class of entities that are categorized as images imposes a strong universality requirement. Reflection on this issue brings into focus the distinctive character of Bildwissenschaft and the features that distinguish it not only from other related disciplines such as art history and visual studies, but also from recent work in the philosophy of the image. I When Raymond Geuss wrote his short book, The Idea of a Critical Theory , he set himself ‘the modest task of explaining clearly what a critical theory is meant to be’. 1 His aim was not to provide a full account of the views of the various authors he discusses but rather to assess the claim that ‘critical theories have special standing as guides for human action’ by analysing the grounds for drawing a principled distinction between a descriptive and a critical theory. 2 The allusion to Geuss’s book in the title of this article is intended to indicate a similar restriction in scope. The emergence of Bildwissenschaft as a new disciplinary – or, rather, interdisciplinary – formation that is intended to encompass all images calls for an analysis of the grounds on which the claim to universality can be upheld.
    [Show full text]
  • Theories of Photography and Technical Images in a U.S
    FLUSSER STUDIES 18 Martha Schwendener Vilém Flusser’s Theories of Photography and Technical Images in a U.S. Art Historical Context1 In the field of art history the photography specialization is fairly new and the discourse is dominated by a handful of voices that came to prominence in the nineteen-seventies and eighties. Interviewed three days before his death in 1980 Roland Barthes noted, “there does seem to be a kind of ‘theoreti- cal boom’ in photography … People who are not technicians, historians, or aestheticians are becom- ing interested in it.”2 Geoffrey Batchen has written that by the time Barthes’s most important essay on photography, the short, book-length Camera Lucida was published in 1980, “Susan Sontag and Michel Tournier had just published their own books on photography (Sontag’s is in Barthes’s bibli- ography), and [in that same interview Barthes] also points out that the University of Aix-Marseilles had recently accepted a proposal from Lucien Clergue for a doctoral program in photography—‘but in the Chemistry Department!’ To these events, we might add the establishment of a photography collection at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris in 1978, the special issue of Cahiers de la photographie pub- lished in 1981 … and the creation of the Centre de la Photographie in Paris in 1982.”3 In the United States, photography entered through art history because photographs could be studied as aesthetic objects using formalist methods—although, echoing Barthes’s surprise, some scholars have suggested that photography be approached in different ways.4 But virtually the whole canon of photography theory was written in Europe, the United Kingdom, or the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • Proceedings of DRS 2016 International Conference: Future
    Design Research Society DRS Digital Library DRS Biennial Conference Series DRS2016 - Future Focused Thinking Jun 17th, 12:00 AM Word to Image – Image to Word The Contribution of Visual Communication to Understanding and Dialog Michael Renner University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) Follow this and additional works at: https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers Citation Renner, M. (2016) Word to Image – Image to Word The Contribution of Visual Communication to Understanding and Dialog, in Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Future Focused Thinking - DRS International Conference 2016, 27 - 30 June, Brighton, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.441 This Research Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Conference Proceedings at DRS Digital Library. It has been accepted for inclusion in DRS Biennial Conference Series by an authorized administrator of DRS Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Word to Image – Image to Word The Contribution of Visual Communication to Understanding and Dialog Michael Renner University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) [email protected] DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.441 Abstract: Translation, understood as an interpretation of experience, opens a broad field of inquiry into a variety of disciplines. Hans-Georg Gadamer’s description of hermeneutics as a language-based methodology to develop understanding, insight, and agreement within a group, serves as the starting point to analyze the practice of visual communication as a form of interpretation, negotiation, and insight. In a first step, the paper discusses the process of drawing and its relationship to interpretation.
    [Show full text]
  • Bildwissenschaften” Want? in the Vicious Circle of Iconic and Pictorial Turns
    What do “Bildwissenschaften” want? In the Vicious Circle of Iconic and Pictorial Turns SIGRID SCHADE Gender studies’ aims, perspectives and theoretical debates have con- tributed extensively to the change in the world of academic disci- plines during at least the last twenty five years. Strategically situated both outside and inside the institutions they criticise, gender studies’ representatives have to reconsider once in a while the effects the in- clusion of their approaches and questions have had in the fields in which they had a chance to be acknowledged, and whether, and how, these fields have reacted, to the effect that the responses have to be re- examined. At least in the German academic writing community, art history has overall been one of the most resistant disciplines towards chal- lenges raised by gender studies and other cultural studies. Yet some of the questions concerning the basics of structural analysis of possible elements of visual culture(s) – “artwork” just being one of these – are now also being questioned in art history and other disciplinary as well as interdisciplinary discourses that deal with the cultural mean- ing and power of images/pictures in the age of globalisation and dig- ital image circulation, such as visual studies, film studies, media studies, image or imaging sciences. Within, and extending, art history a discourse has been developed over the last five to ten years which in German academia today usu- ally runs under the term “Bildwissenschaft” or in the plural form “Bildwissenschaften”, but which
    [Show full text]
  • Sigrid Schade
    Published in: The Institutes of the Zurich University of the Art, ed. b. Hans Peter Schwarz, Zürich ZHdK 2008, p. 162-171 Sigrid Schade «Bildwissenschaft» – a new «discipline» and the absence of women 1 The aims and perspectives of gender studies and its theoretical debates have contributed extensively to a shift in academic disciplines for at least the last twenty five years. In the German-speaking academic community, art history has been one of the most resistant disciplines towards challenges raised by gender studies and other cultural studies.2 Some of the questions raised by gender studies concerning visual culture(s) – «artwork» just being one of these – are now also being raised in art history and other disciplinary as well as interdisciplinary discourses that deal with the cultural meaning and power of images in the age of globalisation and digital image circulation, such as visual studies, film studies, media studies, image or imaging sciences. Within, and extending, art history a discourse has emerged over the last five to ten years that German academia usually refers to as «Bildwissenschaft». While no comparable term yet exists in English, the representatives of «picture or image theory» are sometimes also subsumed under «Bildwissenschaft» by German colleagues, whereas in the Anglo-American academic community they might come under the notion of visual culture studies or visual studies if they claim to transgress traditional art history and deal not only with art but also with popular and mass media.3 «Bildwissenschaft» raises interesting questions. These deal with the relation between word and image, image and gaze, and the interrelations of image(s), bodies, subjectivities and culture(s), and, last but not least, with the methodological relations 1 This article is a slightly altered version of a section in my article «What do ‘Bildwissenschaften’ Want? In the Vicious Circle of Iconic and Pictorial Turns» in: Inscriptions/ Transgressions.
    [Show full text]