The Mnemosyne Atlas Workshop: Archive, Image, Text

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Code Completion Credits Range Language Instruction Semester
307DMAW credit 3 30 workshop hours (45 min) of instruction per semester, 53 to 68 hours of self-study English summer

Subject guarantor

Peter John Stuart WATKINS

Name of lecturer(s)

Peter John Stuart WATKINS

Department

The subject provides Department of Photography

Contents

“The past is not dead. It’s not even past.

”

–William Faulkner

"All that once was directly lived has become mere representation.

"

– Guy Debord

Course Description: Archives are never neutral – they are environments shaped by choices, hierarchies, and

histories. This two-day workshop explores how images and text can be reconfigured into new “constellations” of

meaning. Inspired by Aby Warburg’s Bilderatlas Mnemosyne, Batia Suter’s Parallel Encyclopedia, and the

Situationist notion of détournement, students will treat the archive as a dynamic, non-linear space.

Warburg arranged his image constellations on large black panels to suggest new associations and visual leaps across

time and space. These panels mixed photographic reproductions of artworks from the Middle East, European

antiquity and the Renaissance, alongside contemporary newspaper clippings and advertisements. Likewise, Batia

Suter’s practice shows how found photographs can be reinterpreted through her encyclopedic approach, allowing

unexpected connections and poetics to emerge.

During this workshop, we’ll engage with archives, social media, advertisements, pop culture, and political imagery

to create our own mnemosyne atlas’

. We’ll encourage critical play, and work in both analogue and digital spaces,

repurposing visual materials in ways that disrupt the established order of things, inviting new interpretive pathways

to take place.

Learning outcomes

Students will:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. analyse historical and contemporary image-archive methods (e.g. Warburg, Suter),

apply analogue collage techniques to construct associative image-text panels,

extend those panels in digital space and with digital tools (e.g. multimedia overlays, hyperlinks, animations,

gifs etc.),

experiment with strategies like détournement to subvert conventional meanings,

critically reflect on how context and viewer perspective alter image interpretation, and

collaborate and present critically engaged projects effectively.

Prerequisites and other requirements

Open to all BA/MA students from the Department of Photography.

Literature

Recommended readings/resources include: Aby Warburg, Mnemosyne Atlas (online at The Warburg Institute);

Batia Suter, Parallel Encyclopedia I & II (Roma Publications); Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (1957, on

détournement and media); Hito Steyerl, Duty Free Art (2017, essays on “poor image”); excerpts from Walter

Benjamin’s Illuminations (on art/photography).

Evaluation methods and criteria

Grading is based on active participation and creativity (30%), a cohesive analog panel (30%), a final digital extension

project (30%), and a brief written or verbal reflection on the process (10%). Participation includes group discussions

and critiques. Projects are evaluated on inventiveness of image-text combinations, successful use of both analogue

and digital methodologies, and critical insight.

Note

Date of the workshop: 9-10 April

This workshop explores image-text relationships through archival collage and digital re-mixing. Topics include

Warburg’s image atlas, Batia Suter’s photo-book method, visual taxonomies, analog collage techniques, and digital

storytelling. Students learn principles of montage, visual sequencing, and experimental editing, with an emphasis

on creative disruption of media. The format combines short lectures/demos, studio practice, and group critique.

Further information

No schedule has been prepared for this course

The subject is a part of the following study plans