https://at-ceu.studyguide.timeedit.net/modules/SOCL5019?type=CORECourse descriptionThis course explores the ways in which the visual conveys and broadens ethnographic investigation. In a discipline dominated by words we came to think exclusively in terms of culture as text and ethnography as 'writing culture'. Challenging anthropology's iconophobia the course proposes an alternative perspective focused on the role of vision and the moving image in anthropological research. It takes visuality as a mode of knowing and representing, looking at different ways of seeing and the cultural interpretations of such representations. It addresses critical issues related to knowledge production, reflexivity, ethics and aesthetics in ethnographic filmmaking and enables participants to explore these issues in their own visual work.The course aims to balance practice and theory by combining readings and films with practical exercises and visual production. The lecture sessions will cover the parallel beginnings of film and anthropology, portrayals of 'exotic people' and the role of visual documentation in anthropological fieldwork. We will look at observation as a mode of ethnographic inquiry, visual conventions in fiction and documentary, narrative and editing styles, issues of authorship and subjectivity in ethnographic film. Finally, we will explore the potential and perils of an anthropological engagement with new media through a survey of recent multimodal and interactive experiments. The seminar sessions build on examples from various genres to help students define their visual approach and develop a project of their own. We will proceed step by step towards the production of a visual or multimodal work, beginning with idea development and storyboarding, through production practices including photography/cinematography and interviewing, and finally postproduction processes including sound and picture editing. Class sessions include lecture on relevant concepts, viewing and analysis of visual examples, hands-on exercises and critique of class projects at each stage of completion. For students wishing to complete a film project, it is strongly recommended that they take one of the practice-based courses offered by the Visual Theory and Practice certificate program in the Fall term.