Annotation
The course aims to cultivate and enhance student skills in interpreting visual material. We will step away from the unreflected usage of images as illustrations and instead explore analytical ways of employing images as evidence. We will look for example at narrative aspects of visual representations, at objects of material culture in their roles of gifts and communication tools, at the roles of women artists and at gendered meanings in visual culture. We will make use of the public space and art collections in Prague. Please, note that this course takes place in five bloc and therefore no absences are possible.
Literature:
Hans Belting, Florence and Baghdad. Renaissance Art and Arab Science, Cambridge 2011.
Peter Burke, Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence, Ithaca 2007.
James Elkins, Visual Studies. A Skeptical Introduction, New York 2003.
Ivan Gaskell, Visual History, in: Peter Burke (ed.) New Perspectives on Historical Writing, Pennsylvania University Press 2001, pp. 187-217.
Sarah Pink, The Future of Visual Anthropology. Engaging the Senses, London − New York 2006.