Show pageOld revisionsBacklinksExport to PDFODT exportBack to top This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong. **Week 40: October 4-8, 2021** **Abstract** The Western visual language has long been modeled on the human experience. Images were created to represent the world as it was seen by a single person. Mechanical photography both strengthened this regime by producing vast amounts of images that claimed to represent external reality, but also began to undermine it by separating the visual capacity from the human eye. In the 1920s Russian avant-garde director Dsiga Vertov built a visual theory and aesthetics on this separation and the potential of mechanization. Today, digital image-making has unsettled the relationship between images and human experience is more than ever. Ubiquitous pre- and post-processing mean that images are more generated than recorded, often never to be seen by humans but used for automated processes. 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 this module, we are investigating visual theory and artistic approaches that, like Vertov 100 years ago, respond to these contemporary challenges by creating a new type of “realism”, which the artist Paolo Cirio calls “evidentiary”. A visual language that is able to account for the reality we are living in. We are, among others, focussing on works by Trevor Paglen, Suzanne Treister, Marc Lombardi, and Forensic Architecture. === 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 ===== Monday ===== === Human/Post-human Photography === [[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) Walker Evans (1903–1975), https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/evan/hd_evan.htm 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 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. Entries: Art (Tom Holert) / Posthuman Critical Theory (Rosi Braidotti) / Postimage (Ingrid Hoelzl) / Sensing (Jennifer Gnabris, Helen Pritschard) ===== Tuesday ===== === Realism(s) === Realism, 19th Century Painting, Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rlsm/hd_rlsm.htm Tsiga Vertov: Kino-Pravda (1920s) Man with the Movie Camera, 1929 Cinema Verité / Direct Cinema Photo Realism === 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. Paolo Cirio https://www.paolocirio.net/ ===== Wednesday ===== === Conversation with Paolo Cirio === via Zoom === Seeing Machines === **Read:** Trevor Paglen: Seeing Machines, 2014, https://www.fotomuseum.ch/de/2014/03/13/seeing-machines/ Harun Farocki, Eye/Machine, 2000, https://www.harunfarocki.de/installations/2000s/2000/eye-machine.html **Read:** Crawford, Kate. 2021. Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence. New Haven: Yale University Press. (Chapter 5, Affect. p.151-179) **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 ===== Thursday ===== === Forensic Architecture === https://forensic-architecture.org **Read:** 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 **Lecture: ** Weizman, Eyal: Forensic Architecture – Lecture, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Nov. 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc49ppFXG1w&t=463s (start at 11:30) **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 **Additional references:** Matthew Fuller, Eyal Weizman. 2021. Investigative Aesthetics. Conflicts and Commons in the Politics of Truth. London: Verso * [[http://petitpoi.net/investigative-aesthetics/|Conversation with Fuller/Weizmann]], Oct. 10, 2021 ===== Friday ===== === Forensic Architecture === Cont. === 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) art_post-human_photography.txt Last modified: 2021/11/02 17:27by fstalder@zhdk.ch