The Emergence of Technical Images

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Subject guarantor:

Tomáš DVOŘÁK

Name of lecturer(s):

Tomáš DVOŘÁK

Learning outcomes of the course unit:

Students will become familiar with scholarly literature from the fields of theory and history of visual culture and media of the 19th century, they will learn to interpret it critically and apply it within their own research. They will learn to understand the conception and development of photography within its larger cultural, social, and technical contexts.

Mode of study:

Lecture

Prerequisites and co-requisites:

General knowledge of 19th-century photography and visual arts; the ability to read academic literature in English.

Course contents:

The lecture focuses on the genesis of technical images towards the end of the 18th and in the 19th century, including their aesthetic, epistemological, cultural, social and technical aspects. It will namely deal with laterna magica, camera obscura and camera lucida, the figures of Lichtenberg and Chladni, panoramas and dioramas, optical toys and early animation, instruments of mechanical inscription or lithography. This family of technologies and cultural techniques will provide the background for the analysis of early photographic processes, for questioning the problems of invention, conception and adoption of technologies and the historization of media, especially from the perspective of media archaeology.

5/10: introduction

12/10: historization of perception and technology

Jonathan CRARY, „Modernizing Vision.“ in: Hal Foster (ed.), Vision and Visuality, Seattle: Bay Press 1988, pp. 29-44.

19/10: automatization of vision

Geoffrey BATCHEN, „Electricity Made Visible.“ in: W. Chun - T. Keenan (eds.), New Media, Old Media: A History and Theory Reader. New York - London: Routledge 2006, pp. 27-44.

2/11: microstructures of perception (thaumatrope)

Tom GUNNING, „Hand and Eye: Excavating a New Technology of the Image in the Victorian Era.“ Victorian Studies, vol. 54, 2012, no. 3, pp. 495-516.

9/11: macrostructures of perception (panorama)

Dolf STERNBERGER, „Panorama of the 19th Century.“ October, vol. 4, 1977, pp. 3-20.

16/11: apparatus and dispositive

Giorgio Agamben, „What Is an Apparatus?“ What Is an Apparatus and Other Essays, Stanford: Stanford University Press 2009, pp. 1-24.

23/11: the economy of copy and original

Stephen BANN, „Ingres in Reproduction.“ Art History, vol. 23, 2000, no. 5, pp. 706-725.

30/11: epistemology of technical images 1 (natural sciences)

Lorraine DASTON - Peter GALISON, „The Image of Objectivity.“ Representations, no. 40, 1992, pp. 81-128.

7/12: epistemology of technical images 2 (human and social sciences)

Allan SEKULA, „The Body and the Archive.“ October, vol. 39, 1986, pp. 3-64.

14/12: image, screen, imagination

Erkki HUHTAMO, „Elements of Screenology: Toward an Archaeology of the Screen.“ Iconics: International Studies of the Modern Image, vol. 7, 2004, pp. 31-82.

Recommended or required reading:

for required readings see course contents

recommended literature:

Geoffrey BATCHEN, Burning with Desire: The Conception of Photography. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press 1997.

Jonathan CRARY, Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press 1990.

Erkki HUHTAMO ? Jussi PARIKKA (eds.), Media Archaeology: Approaches, Applications, and Implications. Berkeley: University of California Press 2011.

Tanya SHEEHAN ? Andrés Mario ZERVIGÓN (eds.), Photography and Its Origins. London ?New York: Routledge 2015.

Assessment methods and criteria:

The two main requirements for completing the course are: attendance (you cannot miss more than 2 classes, in serious cases announced in advance, you may compensate for missing more lectures by another - typically written - assignment: this needs to be consulted beforehand with the lecturer) and turning in all required assignments (if you fail to submit only one of the presentations, your final grade is F).

the sum of the following evaluations constitutes the final grade (100-90% = A, 90-80% = B, 80-70% = C, 70-60% = D, 60-50% = E, 50-0% = F).

40% - active participation in the class (readings of required literature, its discussion in the class)

20% - 1st written assignment (a critical commentary or an interpretation of given required text, 2-3 pages), must be sent as a pdf or doc attachment to tomdvorak@famu.cz by 29th November 2015

40% - 2nd written assignment: final essay on a given topic (7-10 pages), must be sent as a pdf or doc attachment to tomdvorak@hotmail.com by 4th January 2016

the exam will have the form of a discussion of both texts with the teacher

Course web page:

Note:

none

Further information:

This course is an elective for all students of this school

Schedule for winter semester 2015/2016:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

Schedule for summer semester 2015/2016:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans:

• Photography EN - Master (qualification subject)