African Heritage Design: Entertainment Media and Visual Aesthetics in Ghana
In: Civilisations: revue internationale d'anthropologie et de sciences humaines, Heft 61-1, S. 43-64
ISSN: 2032-0442
In: Civilisations: revue internationale d'anthropologie et de sciences humaines, Heft 61-1, S. 43-64
ISSN: 2032-0442
In: Medien- und Gestaltungsästhetik 6
Der Film ist heute als Kunstform anerkannt; das Kino hat sich als Institution etabliert. Gemeinsam haben sie mit ihren medialen und darstellerischen Möglichkeiten früh auf andere Künste gewirkt - insbesondere auf die Bildende Kunst und die Literatur. Der Impuls einer ästhetischen und ideologischen Abgrenzung spielt dabei eine ebenso große Rolle wie der Versuch, filmische Verfahren zu übertragen. Derartige ästhetische Transfers geschehen nicht nur als medieninterne Analogie, sondern auch als bewusste Übernahme bestimmter ästhetischer Prinzipien und Verfahren.Wie Film und Kino mit ihren spezifischen Mustern in Kunst und Literatur reflektiert werden können, verhandelt der durchgängig zweisprachige Band (deutsch/französisch) aus einer interdisziplinären, intermedialen und kulturgeschichtlichen Perspektive.
This research explores the transformation of landscape in contemporary visual culture, where aesthetics dialogues intensively with the political and social, through an intercultural perspective between the United states, Italy and France. Rather than from an exclusively artistic or geographic point of view – moving beyond the outdated thesis of a "landscape death" as developed in the 1980s – the landscape is considered as a notion and a media object in circulation, a potential medium for the creation of national and cultural visual identities, of the imaginaries and the sense of places. Firstly, we situate the contemporary photographic landscape in its relation to some Euro-American artistic traditions and cinematographic practices, addressing and developing underlying questions of intericonicity and crossed gazes. Secondly, we investigate the role of contemporary landscape photography within the strategies of visualization and planning of territories and environments, in other words in its documentary function for geographical, architectural or urban projects, which are often materialized by exhibitions. Thirdly, we observe the transformation of the landscape according to the evolution of digital media. Indeed, starting from Web 2.0 we see a new hybridization between artistic, institutional and amateur images which circulate on the same networks and a fracturing of the ontological barrier between fixed and moving images. The geo-localization and the articulation of images to geographic information systems, as well as the miniaturization of mobile devices, contribute to the constitution of a new scopic system which no longer respects the visual conventions of the traditional landscape « view » and of the central perspective. ; Cette recherche explore la transformation du paysage dans la culture visuelle contemporaine, dans une perspective interculturelle entre États-Unis, Italie et France, et sous une acception où l'esthétique dialogue étroitement avec le politique et le social. Contre la thèse dépassée d'une « ...
BASE
In: Patrimoines et sociétés
This research explores the transformation of landscape in contemporary visual culture, where aesthetics dialogues intensively with the political and social, through an intercultural perspective between the United states, Italy and France. Rather than from an exclusively artistic or geographic point of view – moving beyond the outdated thesis of a "landscape death" as developed in the 1980s – the landscape is considered as a notion and a media object in circulation, a potential medium for the creation of national and cultural visual identities, of the imaginaries and the sense of places. Firstly, we situate the contemporary photographic landscape in its relation to some Euro-American artistic traditions and cinematographic practices, addressing and developing underlying questions of intericonicity and crossed gazes. Secondly, we investigate the role of contemporary landscape photography within the strategies of visualization and planning of territories and environments, in other words in its documentary function for geographical, architectural or urban projects, which are often materialized by exhibitions. Thirdly, we observe the transformation of the landscape according to the evolution of digital media. Indeed, starting from Web 2.0 we see a new hybridization between artistic, institutional and amateur images which circulate on the same networks and a fracturing of the ontological barrier between fixed and moving images. The geo-localization and the articulation of images to geographic information systems, as well as the miniaturization of mobile devices, contribute to the constitution of a new scopic system which no longer respects the visual conventions of the traditional landscape « view » and of the central perspective. ; Cette recherche explore la transformation du paysage dans la culture visuelle contemporaine, dans une perspective interculturelle entre États-Unis, Italie et France, et sous une acception où l'esthétique dialogue étroitement avec le politique et le social. Contre la thèse dépassée d'une « mort du paysage » comme développée dans les années 1980, et plutôt que d'un seul point de vue artistique ou géographique, le paysage est considéré comme une notion et un objet médiatique en circulation, un moyen pour la création des identités visuelles culturelles et nationales, des imaginaires et des sens des lieux. Un premier axe situe le paysage photographique contemporain dans sa relation à des traditions artistiques et des pratiques cinématographiques euro-américaines, avec les questions sous-jacentes d'intericonicité et de regards croisés. Un second axe examine le rôle de la photographie de paysage contemporaine dans les outils et les stratégies de visualisation et d'aménagement des territoires et des environnements, donc sa fonction documentaire pour des recherches et projets géographiques, architecturaux ou urbanistiques, souvent matérialisés par des expositions. Un troisième axe observe les transformations du paysage au gré de l'évolution des médias numériques. Le « tournant web » permet en effet une nouvelle hybridation entre images artistiques, institutionnelles et amateurs qui circulent toutes sur les mêmes réseaux, et une fracturation de la barrière ontologique entre images fixes et mobiles. La géolocalisation, l'articulation des images à des systèmes d'information géographique et la miniaturisation des dispositifs mobiles contribuent à la constitution d'un nouveau système scopique qui ne respecte plus les conventions visuelles de la « vue » paysagère traditionnelle et de la perspective centrale.
BASE
In: Revue française de science politique, Band 57, Heft 3-4, S. 489-516
ISSN: 0035-2950
Considers Thierry Vedel's 'How Does One Become President of France? Candidate Strategies' & Jacques Le Bohec's 'Elections & Television' in the light of a concern about the role media play in current politics. Both works are regarded as belonging to the tradition of considering political campaigns as performances designed to influence voters' choices. Vedel deals with elections during France 's Fifth Republic & is said to offer a sort of reference manual for the perfect candidate by dealing with publicity, legal restraints & regulations regarding campaign material, & issues raised by the various forms of communication. Evidence is in the form of large amounts of statistical information & anecdotes. Acknowledging that studies of French television are not numerous, Vedel is is regarded as cautious in dealing with that medium's influence. Notes an epistemological problem in Vedel's failure to deal with the media as interactive. Le Bohec, on the other hand, focuses on this very issue in his linking of media procedures (narrative & aesthetics) by relating them to social processes in general. However, finds certain statements in Le Bohec to be inconsistent with the sound premise & certain others unsupported by evidence. Overall, maintains Le Bohec's discussion of the variety of relationships between the press & political figures & the treatment of the televising of political celebrations show the benefits of a sound theoretical base. References. Adapted from the source document.
International audience ; Mainly known for his operas, the composer Franz Schreker (1878–1934) had a rather uncommon path: though his first operas got hailed by critics, he quickly came under fire for various reasons. In addition to the ad personam attacks—he came from a Jewish family—the press responded with semantic networks that supported this anti-Semitism: the leitmotiv of decadence and degeneration. Quite popular in the Germanic press of 1918–1921, these terms did not seem to trigger a response from Schreker, who preferred to publish his aesthetic essays in the Musikblätter des Anbruch, a new Austrian paper that supported him. The composer was far from polemics, wether they be political or aesthetic. Instead, he described his compositional approach in a limited number of articles published in the Musikblätter des Anbruch, and he did not seem to make any reference to the controversial terms: decadence, degeneration, impressionism and expressionism. ; Principalement connu pour ses opéras, le compositeur Franz Schreker (1878-1934) connaît une trajectoire des plus étonnantes : si ses premiers opéras sont salués par la presse, il subit rapidement le feu de critiques extrêmement diverses. Outre les arguments ad personam-il est issu d'une famille juive-, la presse s'empare de réseaux sémantiques qui étayent cet antisémitisme : ceux de la décadence et de la dégénérescence. Particulièrement féconds dans la presse germanique des années 1918-1921, ces termes ne semblent pas susciter de réponse de Schreker, qui préfère publier ses essais esthétiques dans les Musikblätter des Anbruch, jeune journal qu'il se sait acquis. Le compositeur se tient loin des polémiques : politique ou esthétique, aucune ne suscite de véritable réponse. Définissant sa démarche compositionnelle dans un nombre restreint d'articles publiés dans les Musikblätter des Anbruch, Schreker semble en effet évacuer toute référence aux termes concentrant la polémique : décadence, dégénérescence, impressionnisme et expressionnisme. Mots clés : esthétique ...
BASE
International audience ; Mainly known for his operas, the composer Franz Schreker (1878–1934) had a rather uncommon path: though his first operas got hailed by critics, he quickly came under fire for various reasons. In addition to the ad personam attacks—he came from a Jewish family—the press responded with semantic networks that supported this anti-Semitism: the leitmotiv of decadence and degeneration. Quite popular in the Germanic press of 1918–1921, these terms did not seem to trigger a response from Schreker, who preferred to publish his aesthetic essays in the Musikblätter des Anbruch, a new Austrian paper that supported him. The composer was far from polemics, wether they be political or aesthetic. Instead, he described his compositional approach in a limited number of articles published in the Musikblätter des Anbruch, and he did not seem to make any reference to the controversial terms: decadence, degeneration, impressionism and expressionism. ; Principalement connu pour ses opéras, le compositeur Franz Schreker (1878-1934) connaît une trajectoire des plus étonnantes : si ses premiers opéras sont salués par la presse, il subit rapidement le feu de critiques extrêmement diverses. Outre les arguments ad personam-il est issu d'une famille juive-, la presse s'empare de réseaux sémantiques qui étayent cet antisémitisme : ceux de la décadence et de la dégénérescence. Particulièrement féconds dans la presse germanique des années 1918-1921, ces termes ne semblent pas susciter de réponse de Schreker, qui préfère publier ses essais esthétiques dans les Musikblätter des Anbruch, jeune journal qu'il se sait acquis. Le compositeur se tient loin des polémiques : politique ou esthétique, aucune ne suscite de véritable réponse. Définissant sa démarche compositionnelle dans un nombre restreint d'articles publiés dans les Musikblätter des Anbruch, Schreker semble en effet évacuer toute référence aux termes concentrant la polémique : décadence, dégénérescence, impressionnisme et expressionnisme. Mots clés : esthétique ...
BASE
International audience ; Mainly known for his operas, the composer Franz Schreker (1878–1934) had a rather uncommon path: though his first operas got hailed by critics, he quickly came under fire for various reasons. In addition to the ad personam attacks—he came from a Jewish family—the press responded with semantic networks that supported this anti-Semitism: the leitmotiv of decadence and degeneration. Quite popular in the Germanic press of 1918–1921, these terms did not seem to trigger a response from Schreker, who preferred to publish his aesthetic essays in the Musikblätter des Anbruch, a new Austrian paper that supported him. The composer was far from polemics, wether they be political or aesthetic. Instead, he described his compositional approach in a limited number of articles published in the Musikblätter des Anbruch, and he did not seem to make any reference to the controversial terms: decadence, degeneration, impressionism and expressionism. ; Principalement connu pour ses opéras, le compositeur Franz Schreker (1878-1934) connaît une trajectoire des plus étonnantes : si ses premiers opéras sont salués par la presse, il subit rapidement le feu de critiques extrêmement diverses. Outre les arguments ad personam-il est issu d'une famille juive-, la presse s'empare de réseaux sémantiques qui étayent cet antisémitisme : ceux de la décadence et de la dégénérescence. Particulièrement féconds dans la presse germanique des années 1918-1921, ces termes ne semblent pas susciter de réponse de Schreker, qui préfère publier ses essais esthétiques dans les Musikblätter des Anbruch, jeune journal qu'il se sait acquis. Le compositeur se tient loin des polémiques : politique ou esthétique, aucune ne suscite de véritable réponse. Définissant sa démarche compositionnelle dans un nombre restreint d'articles publiés dans les Musikblätter des Anbruch, Schreker semble en effet évacuer toute référence aux termes concentrant la polémique : décadence, dégénérescence, impressionnisme et expressionnisme. Mots clés : esthétique ...
BASE
In: ESSACHESS - Journal for Communication Studies, Band 11, Heft 1, S. 197-214
This paper reconsiders the complex and somewhat ambivalent relationships between the cinematographic image and the globalized world as it is characterized by flows (of images, among other flows). For this purpose, the paper examines different aesthetic forms that contemporary cinema gives to the image-flow – taking into account the editing as well as the framing resources –, based on a multiple corpus of both blockbusters and author films. The analysis aims at bringing out the poetic and affective effects of these representations of the flow. In particular, the paper suggests that contemporary cinema offers a new tragic vision of the flow, which it links to the melancholic or depressive affect.
The photographic work of Gordon Parks (1912-2006) reflects the many ways in which the African American community evolved and changed during the 20th century. Taking as a starting point the concept of visibility – as tackled by George Didi-Huberman in his essay Peuples exposés, peoples figurants or Nicholas Mirzoeff in his book The Right to Look -- this thesis will question the interweaving of aesthetics and politics in Parks's monumental and eclectic photographic output. Parks's work finds its roots in the black Chicago Renaissance of the late 1930s, and then evolved under the supervision of Roy Stryker at the Farm Security Administration (FSA) during the Great Depression. For the next two decades, Parks's vision expanded as he worked for Life magazine, where he was the first African American to join the staff of photographers in 1949. If the photograph's own visibility in American and African American cultural and artistic history cannot be understated, this dissertation will try to go beyond the image of Parks as a pioneer of black photography or as a "Renaissance Man", as he was often portrayed in mainstream media. We shall strive to bring to light the ambiguities in Parks's photography which stemmed from his anchoring in different cultural spheres. His own dealings with racism and segregation as well as his knowledge of classical Western painting gave his photographic representations of the African American experience a powerful resonance. The fact that Parks chose to have his vision broadcasted on media outlets with catered mainly to a white audience, like Life magazine, generated tensions to which particular attention will be paid in this dissertation. ; L'oeuvre photographique de Gordon Parks (1912-2006) reflète les nombreuses évolutions et transformations de la communauté africaine-américaine au XXe siècle. En prenant comme point de départ de la réflexion le concept de visibilité, tel que théorisé, notamment, par Georges Didi-Huberman dans Peuples exposés, peuples figurants ou Nicholas Mirzoeff dans The ...
BASE
The photographic work of Gordon Parks (1912-2006) reflects the many ways in which the African American community evolved and changed during the 20th century. Taking as a starting point the concept of visibility – as tackled by George Didi-Huberman in his essay Peuples exposés, peoples figurants or Nicholas Mirzoeff in his book The Right to Look -- this thesis will question the interweaving of aesthetics and politics in Parks's monumental and eclectic photographic output. Parks's work finds its roots in the black Chicago Renaissance of the late 1930s, and then evolved under the supervision of Roy Stryker at the Farm Security Administration (FSA) during the Great Depression. For the next two decades, Parks's vision expanded as he worked for Life magazine, where he was the first African American to join the staff of photographers in 1949. If the photograph's own visibility in American and African American cultural and artistic history cannot be understated, this dissertation will try to go beyond the image of Parks as a pioneer of black photography or as a "Renaissance Man", as he was often portrayed in mainstream media. We shall strive to bring to light the ambiguities in Parks's photography which stemmed from his anchoring in different cultural spheres. His own dealings with racism and segregation as well as his knowledge of classical Western painting gave his photographic representations of the African American experience a powerful resonance. The fact that Parks chose to have his vision broadcasted on media outlets with catered mainly to a white audience, like Life magazine, generated tensions to which particular attention will be paid in this dissertation. ; L'oeuvre photographique de Gordon Parks (1912-2006) reflète les nombreuses évolutions et transformations de la communauté africaine-américaine au XXe siècle. En prenant comme point de départ de la réflexion le concept de visibilité, tel que théorisé, notamment, par Georges Didi-Huberman dans Peuples exposés, peuples figurants ou Nicholas Mirzoeff dans The ...
BASE
The photographic work of Gordon Parks (1912-2006) reflects the many ways in which the African American community evolved and changed during the 20th century. Taking as a starting point the concept of visibility – as tackled by George Didi-Huberman in his essay Peuples exposés, peoples figurants or Nicholas Mirzoeff in his book The Right to Look -- this thesis will question the interweaving of aesthetics and politics in Parks's monumental and eclectic photographic output. Parks's work finds its roots in the black Chicago Renaissance of the late 1930s, and then evolved under the supervision of Roy Stryker at the Farm Security Administration (FSA) during the Great Depression. For the next two decades, Parks's vision expanded as he worked for Life magazine, where he was the first African American to join the staff of photographers in 1949. If the photograph's own visibility in American and African American cultural and artistic history cannot be understated, this dissertation will try to go beyond the image of Parks as a pioneer of black photography or as a "Renaissance Man", as he was often portrayed in mainstream media. We shall strive to bring to light the ambiguities in Parks's photography which stemmed from his anchoring in different cultural spheres. His own dealings with racism and segregation as well as his knowledge of classical Western painting gave his photographic representations of the African American experience a powerful resonance. The fact that Parks chose to have his vision broadcasted on media outlets with catered mainly to a white audience, like Life magazine, generated tensions to which particular attention will be paid in this dissertation. ; L'oeuvre photographique de Gordon Parks (1912-2006) reflète les nombreuses évolutions et transformations de la communauté africaine-américaine au XXe siècle. En prenant comme point de départ de la réflexion le concept de visibilité, tel que théorisé, notamment, par Georges Didi-Huberman dans Peuples exposés, peuples figurants ou Nicholas Mirzoeff dans The ...
BASE
FabLabs, hackerspaces and makerspaces are shared workshops, equipped with digital tools and organised in a network. These places are connected to the maker movement and are heirs to hackers.They off er themselves as places where anybody can come and make anything. In spite of some strong media coverage, the reality of discourses and practices that occur in those places has not yet been much studied. This dissertation in Aesthetics and design is based on a large ethnographic survey conducted between 2012 and 2015, in France and abroad. A series of interviews and drawn observations allows for a critical description of the ways of doing that can be witnessed on these fields. Practices, discourses and ambitions of personal digital fabrication are built in the margins of the classical fields of industry and design, blurring their historical frames. The fi rst part of this dissertation retraces the origins of FabLabs as well as of the maker and hacker movements. First hand data and classical accounts reveal how American counter-culture and the technophile ambitions of MIT researchers result in diverging local appropriations.The rehabilitation of pleasure at work and the heritage of the Arts and Crafts both point to these places as fields ofsocial experimentation, beyond mere production. In the second part, this dissertation focuses on the values of openness and sharing advocated by contemporary amateurs, tinkerers, makers or inventors. The hypothesis of a design that could be open, participative, out of the standards of industrial mass production is examined. « Open design » places the production of artefacts in the wake of open source. This type of production ends up shaping a new, though hazy, field for design.The third part studies the promises and contradictions that surround the democratization of innovation and production. 3D printing is taken as an emblematic case study to consider the ambivalences behind the emancipation expected by representatives of the maker movement.These indecisive practices feed the ...
BASE
Based upon the graduate seminar tought in 2014-2015 by Valérie Gelézeau at l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), this essay tries to engage a reading of the North Korean movie 'The Wheels of Happiness' (2010). After an introduction briefly reviewing the condition of production and the nature of cinema in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), the paper proposes to go beyond usual readings of North Korean fictions that often limit their conclusions and demonstration to the fact that they convey State propaganda.Drawing from the film's aesthetics, we questioned its narrative structure and analyzed its discourse.What do' The Wheels of Happiness' tell us about North Korean cinema and society today? What can bring to the scholarship an engaged reading of this movie? The engagement involved is modest but significant: we tried to implement an approach that means to understand, before it judges. Our reading thus takes into account the context of cinematographic production in the DPRK (a cinema controlled by the censorship of a totalitarian State using art to impose its ideology), without drifting into the simplistic moral judgments that the analysis of art and literary productions coming from the DPRK usually instigates.In a first part, the paper gives an account of synopsis and the story, before discussing certain aspects of the movie's symbolic discourse and aesthetics, in the North Korean context. We particularly develop on the issue of temporality (symbolically evoked by the "Wheels" of the title) that structures the narration, which refers to certain aesthetics' standards of the national cinema. In the second part, we analyze what 'The Wheels of Happiness' tell us about contemporary Korean society. In the core of the discourse stand gender issues and the woman's role in society, between family, work, and patriotic dedication. But two other topics brought interesting discussions: the first one dealing with objects of the material civilization as diverse as food and computers; the other one dealing with the central issue, political and national, of architecture in Pyongyang.This work points out to the limitations of approaches via film and cinema without much access to the agents of their production or sources allowing us to approach them – which is the case of most North Korean materials. The essay questions what North Koreans say about themselves and their society, within the very logics of official discourse and propaganda; by doing so, it applies a state of mind that hopes to avoid the moralizing "Othering" of North Korea where many narratives about that country (by media, experts and even academics) are often trapped. In the end, it is a concrete application of the seminar that proposed to think about epistemological conditions to study North Korea, ways to approach fieldwork and available sources and materials. ; Ecrit à partir du séminaire de V. Gelézeau (« Etudier la Corée du Nord – une introduction », EHESS 2014-2015), cet essai propose une lecture « engagée » du film nord-coréen The Wheels of Happiness (2010). Après avoir brièvement rappelé en introduction les conditions de production et la nature du cinéma en République Populaire Démocratique de Corée (Corée du Nord), le texte propose de dépasser les lectures habituelles de toutes les fictions nord-coréennes, qui se limitent souvent au constat et à la démonstration que celles-ci véhiculent la propagande d'État.Partant de l'esthétique de ce film, nous en avons questionné la structure narrative et analysé le discours.Que nous disent « Les roues du bonheur » du cinéma coréen et de la société nord-coréenne d'aujourd'hui ? Que peut apporter une lecture engagée de ce film à la recherche sur ce pays ? L'engagement dont il s'agit est modeste, mais signifiant : il s'agit de mettre en œuvre une approche traduisant d'abord une volonté de comprendre, avant de juger. Nous avons donc tenté de lire en ayant certes à l'esprit le contexte de la production (la production cinématographique contrôlée par la censure d'un État totalitaire utilisant l'art pour véhiculer son idéologie), mais sans se laisser aller aux simplistes jugements moraux que l'analyse de productions artistiques et littéraires venant de RPDC suscite habituellement.Dans une première partie, après avoir rendu compte du synopsis et de la dynamique de l'intrigue, nous discutons certains aspects saillants du discours symbolique du film et de son esthétique, dans le contexte nord-coréen. Nous développons ainsi particulièrement la question de la temporalité (représentée symboliquement par la roue du titre), qui structure la narration, ce qui s'inscrit dans certains canons de l'esthétique d'un cinéma national. Dans une deuxième partie, nous analysons ce que « Les roues du bonheur » nous disent de la société nord-coréenne d'aujourd'hui. Au cœur du sujet, on trouve bien sûr la femme et son rôle dans la société, entre famille, travail et mission patriotique. Mais deux autres directions nous sont apparues intéressantes : l'une traitant d'objets de la civilisation matérielle aussi différents que la nourriture et les ordinateurs ; l'autre portant au contraire sur la question centrale, politique et nationale, de l'architecture à Pyongyang. Ce travail souligne la limitation des approches par le matériau filmique sans aucun accès aux agents de production ou à des sources permettant de les approcher – ce qui est le cas de la plupart des matériaux nord-coréens. Le texte, qui s'interroge sur ce qui, dans la logique-même du discours officiel et de la propagande, est dit, par les Nord-Coréens eux-mêmes, de leur société, met aussi en pratique une manière de travailler sur la Corée du Nord qui parvient à éviter l'approche orientalisante et moralisante de ce pays, dans laquelle s'enferment la plupart des discours le concernant. Au final, il s'agit d'une application concrète du séminaire qui proposait de réfléchir aux conditions d'études de la Corée du Nord, à la manière d'aborder le terrain et les matériaux disponibles.
BASE