=== Art & Post-Human Photography. How to account for the real. === === Week 19: 09-13.05.2022 === **Abstract** For over one hundred years, photography was one of the most important ways to document and account for our external reality, extending a visual regime that started with the development of the central perspective in the 15th century. Its claim to veracity lies in the technical replication of the visual experience of a single human being. Today, digital image-making has unsettled the relationship between images and human experience. Ubiquitous pre- and post-processing means that images are more often generated than recorded, often never to be seen by humans but used for automated processes. But not only cameras are “seeing”, increasingly a whole range of “more-than-human” actors are understood as “sensing” the world in different ways, revealing layers and dynamics not directly accessible via the human senses. Moreover, contemporary realities have become so complex, abstract, and stretched out over time and space, that the individual visual experience is less and less able to make sense of it. After all, how much can documentary photography reveal about data-centers or climate change? In response to all these challenges, artists and researchers are developing a new visual language that is able to account for the new contours of the real in the 21st century. We are, among others, focusing on works by Trevor Paglen, Suzanne Treister, Marc Lombardi, and Forensic Architecture and exploring the notion of “investigative aesthetics.” === Course requirements: === Attendance (80%) Participation in reading, discussions, and group presentations Submission of a very short paper, personal interests in relation to the theme of the module Pad for course notes: https://pad.vmk.zhdk.ch/posthuman_real ===== Monday ===== === Human Photography === "pre-human" [[https://sammlung.staedelmuseum.de/de/werk/das-paradiesgaertlein|Paradiesgärtlein (Garden of Paradise)]] Upper Rhenish Master, ca 1410 [[https://www.arthistoricum.net/themen/portale/renaissance/lektion-iii-die-geistigen-und-kunsttheoretischen-grundlagen-der-renaissance/5-filippo-brunelleschi-und-die-zentralperspektive|Invention of the Central Perspective]] (1420) [[https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/roger-fenton-valley-of-the-shadow-of-death|Valley of the Shadow of Death]] Roger Fenton, 1855, publicdomainreview.org Walker Evans (1903–1975), https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/evan/hd_evan.htm "If your photographs aren't good enough, you're not close enough." Robert Capa (1913 – 1954) [[https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20131022-robert-capa-photo-warrior| Legacy]] BBC Culture Robert Frank (1924-2019): Americans, 1959, https://www.lensculture.com/articles/robert-frank-the-americans Nan Goldin (1953- ), http://www.artnet.com/artists/nan-goldin === Post - Human Photography === Michael Aschauer * River Studies https://m.ash.to/en/Projects/riverstudies * Rivers as lines https://m.ash.to/en/Projects/WhatIfYouWouldPullRiversToAStraightLine * 7C-Days https://m.ash.to/en/Projects/7cdays Abu Ishaq al-Istakhri, 10th Century http://www.myoldmaps.com/early-medieval-monographs/211-al-istakhris-world-map/211-istakhri.pdf Harry Beck. London Subway Map, 1933 https://www.theverge.com/2013/3/29/4160028/harry-beck-designer-of-iconic-london-underground-map Google Maps, London Subway System 2021 https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5075274,-0.0849736,11.26z/data=!5m1!1e2?hl=de David Claerbout. Olympia (The real-time disintegration into ruins of the Berlin Olympic Stadium over the course of a thousand years). since 2016 https://davidclaerbout.com/Olympia-The-real-time-disintegration-into-ruins-of-the-Berlin-Olympic [[https://youtu.be/ildxLpQ29yY?t=4963|Talk at HBK, Leizpig]], 2019 === Reading: === Rubinstein, Daniel. 2018. “Posthuman Photography.” In The Evolution of the Image: Political Action and the Digital Self, edited by Marco Bohr and Basia Sliwinska, 100–112. Routledge. https://www.academia.edu/31425877/Posthuman_Photography Foster, Hal. 2017. “Real Fictions. Alternatives to Alternative Facts.” Artforum International, https://www.artforum.com/print/201704/real-fictions-alternatives-to-alternative-facts-67192. Braidotti, Rosi, and Maria Hlavajova, eds. 2018. Posthuman Glossary. Theory. London Oxford New York New Delhi Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic. * Posthuman Critical Theory (Rosi Braidotti) {{ :posthuman_glossary_-_posthuman_critical_theory_rosi_braidotti.pdf | PDF}} * Sensing Practices(Jennifer Gnabris, Helen Pritschard) {{ :posthuman_glossary_-_sensing_practices_gnabris_pritchard.pdf |PDF}} ===== Tuesday ===== === Realism(s) === Realism, 19th Century Painting, Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rlsm/hd_rlsm.htm Cinema Verité / Direct Cinema Photo Realism: [[https://www.museum-franzgertsch.ch/de/franz-gertsch]] Franz Gertsch (*1930) **Machinic Realism** Tsiga Vertov: Kino-Pravda (1920s) Man with the Movie Camera, 1929 === Evidentiary Realism === Evidentiary Realism. GROUP SHOW. FEBRUARY 28 - MARCH 31, 2017 https://nomegallery.com/exhibitions/evidentiary-realism/ Exhibition Catalogue, https://nomegallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ER_Catalog.pdf **Read** Introduction by Paolo Cirio * The Other Nefertiti, by Nora Al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles * Seamless Transitions, by James Bridle * Reconnaissance, by Ingrid Burrington * 2 Works, by Mark Lombardi. ===== Wednesday ===== https://forensic-architecture.org **Lecture: ** Weizman, Eyal: [[https://youtu.be/Bc49ppFXG1w?t=700|Forensic Architecture – Lecture]], Haus der Kunst, Munich, Nov. 2018 (start at 11:40) **Works:** * The Killing of Nadeem Nawara and Mohammed Abu Daher, https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/the-killing-of-nadeem-nawara-and-mohammed-abu-daher * Triple Chaser: https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/triple-chaser * Intentional Fires in Papua https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/intentional-fires-in-papua * The Murder of Halit Yozgat; https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/the-murder-of-halit-yozgat, https://www.nsu-tribunal.de/en/ * Lawrence Abu Hamdan: 77sqm_9:26min at Documenta 14 https://forensic-architecture.org/programme/exhibitions/77sqm_926min-documenta-14 * https://news.artnet.com/art-world/documenta-14-kassel-forensic-nsu-trial-984701 **Read:** Fuller, Matthew and Eyal Weizman (2021): Investigative Aesthetics: conflicts and commons in the politics of truth, Brooklyn: Verso Books. * Introduction * Part One: Aesthetics (sections 1-4) Prepare questions for Matthew Fuller: * question/comment/elaboration on a specific quote from the text * question/comment/elaboration that goes beyond the text **Additional references:** * [[http://petitpoi.net/investigative-aesthetics/|Investigative Aesthetics. Pierre D'Alancaisez in Conversation with Mattehw Fuller and Eyal Weizmann]], Oct, 10.2021, Audio, 74 Min. * Weizman, Eyal. 2017. Forensic Architecture: Violence at the Threshold of Detectability. Brooklyn, NY: Zone Books. Introduction p. 13-33 * Weizman, Eyal. 2019. “Open Verification.” E-Flux Architecture (June 2019), 2019. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/becoming-digital/248062/open-verification ===== Thursday ===== Discussion of reading 12:00 - 13:00 conversation with Mathew Fuller (via Zoom) === Seeing Machines === Harun Farocki: [[https://www.harunfarocki.de/installations/2000s/2000/eye-machine.html|Eye/Machine]], 2000 **Read:** Trevor Paglen: [[https://www.fotomuseum.ch/de/series/is-photography-over/|Is Photography over?]] Four-Part Series, 01.03. – 15.04.2014 ===== Friday ===== === Seeing Machines === **Lecture:** Kate Crawford, Trevor Paglen. Datafication of Science, 2019, 32 min https://www.hkw.de/de/app/mediathek/video/69622 * Kate Crawford and Trevor Paglen, [[https://www.excavating.ai|Excavating AI. The Politics of Images in Machine Learning Training Sets]] * [[http://www.fondazioneprada.org/project/training-humans/?lang=en|Fondazoione Prada: Training Humans]], Fondazione Prada, Venice, 12 Sep 2019 – 24 Feb 2020 [[https://we-make-money-not-art.com/training-humans-how-machines-see-and-judge-us|Review]], we-make-money-not-art.com, Dec. 16.2019 * Lyons, Michael J. 2020. “Excavating ‘Excavating AI’: The Elephant in the Gallery.” ArXiv:2009.01215 [Cs], September. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4037538. * Lyons, Michael J. 2021. “‘Excavating AI’ Re-Excavated: Debunking a Fallacious Account of the JAFFE Dataset.” ArXiv:2107.13998 [Cs], July. http://arxiv.org/abs/2107.13998. * Paglen, Trevor. [[https://thenewinquiry.com/invisible-images-your-pictures-are-looking-at-you/|“Invisible Images (Your Pictures Are Looking at You).”]] The New Inquiry (blog), December 8, 2016 === Writing of papers === 1-2 pages, personal interest, relating to themes discussed during the week. Presentation of ideas for paper **Afternoon** individual writing personal mentorat (if interest) ------- Parikka, J. (2023) Operational images: from the visual to the invisual. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.