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Thematic courses

Winter 2018, CairoThematic Course

Visual Anthropology: Film as a tool for research

Visual anthropology: Film as a tool for research
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Course details

Cycle
Winter 2018, Cairo
Length
10 sessions
Taught in
English

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About the course

Visual anthropology is a rather young discipline that offers creative methods that can cross the borders and limitations of traditional anthropology in order to question representations and to rethink our and other’s roles, values, norms, rituals, mythologies, and media practices in the age of digital modernities.

This class will provide examples of visual and media anthropological researches in order to discuss the different strategies of visual anthropologists and filmmakers and the issues raised by their choices. The course will lay down fundamental tools and ideas through screenings of films and discussions and will give practical insights through a research exercise. Students will choose a topic of enquiry they would like to explore through the spectrum of visual anthropology over the span of the class.

Why apply for this course?

- If you would like to discover the field of visual anthropology in a playful way - If you interested in bridging practice and theory through an exercise on the field - If you are keen on exploring new ways of seeing the world and envisioning research - If you are open to discuss and challenge your views about culture, media, representation of the Self and of the others

Who teaches it

  • Céline Burnand is a Swiss artist and researcher living between Cairo and Berlin. She studied visual arts with a specialization in painting and drawing at the Haute Ecole d’Art et de Design (HEAD) in Geneva, and later graduated in art history, literature and history of cinema. After a few years of working and travelling in Switzerland and abroad (San Francisco, Paris, Madrid), she became interested in the potentiality of film to explore the world and social realities beyond the cluster of her studio. She graduated from the Master of Visual and Media anthropology in Berlin in 2017 with her film ‘Looking for a Rifa’i’ that focused on snake handlers in Egypt.

Course flow

Showing 10 sessions

Sessions without a date

  • Presentation of each participant and his/her interest in the course. What is your background? What are your expectations of the course? Do you have an idea of the topic you would like to research within the course? What is anthropology? What is visual anthropology?

    In class

    • ScreeningScreening of the films listed
    • DiscussionDiscussion

  • What is ethnography? What do we talk about when we talk about fieldwork? What is a research question?

    • Clifford James. Anthropology and/as Travel, Etnofoor, Jaarg. 9, Nr. 2, 5-15, 1996.
    • Marcus, George E., 1995. Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-sited Ethnography. In Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 24. pp. 95-117, Annual Reviews.
    • Ingold, Tim. The Temporality of the Landscape. In World Archaeology. Vol 25. No 2. Conceptions of Time and Ancient Society. (Oct.) pp. 152 – 174. Taylor & Francis, Ltd, 1993.

  • Participant observation. Field notes, diary, visual notes. Interviews: structures, semi-structured, informal. Photography and film. Soundscape. Collaborative actions.

    • Darren Newbury, Diaries and Fieldnotes, Research Issues in Art Design and Media, 2001.
    • MacDougall, David (1998) Transcultural Cinema. Princeton University Press.
    • Additional readings to be announced

  • Grounded theory and epistemology. Interpretive Anthropology. Narrative anthropology. Phenomenological anthropology.

    • Additional readings to be announced

  • Discussion on the role of the camera and the filmmaker based on Mead and Bateson’s argument and Rouch’s film.

    In class

    • ScreeningScreening of the two films
    • DiscussionDiscussion on the role of the camera and the filmmaker based on Mead and Bateson’s argument and Rouch’s film.

  • Screenings of films extracts (to be announced) to discuss Nichols categories.

    • Nichols, Bill (2001), Introduction to Documentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
    • Additional readings to be announced

    In class

    • ScreeningScreenings of film extracts (to be announced) to discuss Nichols categories
    • DiscussionDiscussion

  • Discussion of individual projects in the class. Feedback, proposition, analyzing potential visual strategies.

    In class

    • DiscussionDiscussion of individual projects in the class; feedback, proposition, analyzing potential visual strategies

  • Screenings of films extracts (to be announced) to discuss Nichols categories.

    • Additional readings to be announced

    In class

    • ScreeningScreenings of film extracts (to be announced) to discuss Nichols categories
    • DiscussionDiscussion

  • An overview of crossover research-based practices. Proposals / discussion / feedback about the upcoming display of the projects for the screening /exhibition.

    • Readings to be announced

    In class

    • DiscussionProposals / discussion / feedback about the upcoming display of the projects for the screening /exhibition

  • Screening / exhibition.

    In class

    • PresentationPresentation of the student’s projects: screening / exhibition

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