Lecture 2, IVC
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This document discusses how images shape perceptions of power and politics through representation, interpretation, and ideology. It begins by distinguishing between passive seeing and active looking/interpretation. Several artworks are analyzed to demonstrate how images can convey denotative and connotative meanings influenced by cultural context. The role of photography in constructing myths of truth is also examined. The document suggests that images work ideologically to naturalize certain social values and can be used strategically for political persuasion and protest.
Lecture 2, IVC
- 1. Images, Power and Politics “Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.” ― Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
- 2. Seeing vs. Looking What is the difference? • Seeing= process of observing, involuntary, passive • Looking=conscious consideration, active interpretation
- 3. Looking vs. Seeing Thomas Struth, Art Institute of Chicago II, Chicago, 1990 Chromogenic print mounted to acrylic
- 4. Seeing vs. Looking: Looking Closer Seeing: a process of observing and recognizing the world around us in a somewhat arbitrary way as we go about our daily lives. Looking: to actively make meaning of that world with a more involved sense of purpose and direction. Through looking we negotiate social relationships and meanings. Looking is a practice much like speaking, writing or singing. Looking involves learning to interpret and it involves relationships of power.
- 5. Role of Representation Representation – “the use of language and images to create meaning about the world around us” -Sturken and Cartwright, Practices of Looking, p. 12
- 6. Role of Representation – “Seeing” a Still Life Henri-Horace Roland de la Porte, Still Life , c. 1765, oil
- 8. Interpreting Visual Codes and Conventions Rene Magritte, The Treachery of Images (This is not a Pipe), 1928-29
- 9. Role of Representation – “Looking” at Still Life Henri-Horace Roland de la Porte, Still Life , c. 1765, oil • Pictorial realism before photography • Contains symbolism • Simple peasant life in France during 18th century • Transience of earthly life (fruit, flowers, drink will be eaten or wither and die)
- 10. The Myth of Photographic Truth
- 11. Roland Barthes – 20th Century French Theorist Myths - the hidden cultural values and conventions through which meanings are made to seem universal and given, even though in reality they are specific to certain groups. (e.g. beauty & thinness)
- 12. Positivism – a philosophy that emerged in the mid-19th century that holds that scientific knowledge is the only authentic knowledge. What are some good examples of this belief today? DNA Surveillance photo of suspected Boston bombers
- 13. Word Presentations Denotative vs. Connotative Meaning Denotative – literal, explicit meaning Connotative – meanings informed by the cultural and historical contexts of the image and the viewers’ knowledge of those contexts and its personal significance to them
- 14. Case Study: Denotative vs. Connotative Robert Frank, Trolley Ride—New Orleans, 1955, gelatin silver print
- 16. Case Study: Denotative Meaning Robert Frank, Trolley Ride—New Orleans, 1955, gelatin silver print • Black and white photograph • Medium value contrast • City Trolley in New Orleans, LA • Viewed at mid-level from side • Three registers (horizontal bands) • Variety of passengers seated • Most engage photographer’s gaze • Appear separated by race • Children sit at center
- 17. Case Study: Connotative Meaning Robert Frank, Trolley Ride—New Orleans, 1955, gelatin silver print • Racial segregation in American South during 1950s • Tension & heightened emotional state • On verge of change due to civil rights activism • Brown vs. Board of Ed (1954) overturned segregation in schools • Montgomery bus boycott 1955-56 (Rosa Parks) • Trolley as symbol for passage of time or movement toward change • Children in the middle may signify future resolution of differences?
- 19. Ideology - set of broad values and beliefs through which individuals live out their complex relations to a range of social structures (p. 21) Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground), 1989
- 20. Newsweek vs. Time depictions of O.J. Simpson, 1994
- 21. O.J. Simpson with Heismann Trophy, 1968
- 22. Case Study: “#If they Gunned Me Down” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/ 13/us/if-they-gunned-me-down-protest- on-twitter. html?hp&action=click&pgt ype=Homepage&version=Large MediaHeadlineSum&module=ph oto-spot-region®ion=photo-spot& WT.nav=photo-spot&_r=0 Michael Brown via Facebook
- 23. Art of Persuasion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7nrByig01Q
- 24. Norman Rockwell, Freedom from Want, 1943 Oil on canvas
- 25. Vanessa Beecroft White Madonna with Twins 2006