Specialization Module
Curatorial Design; Art Based Research
Rose-Anne Gush
REPRODUCTION AND ITS DISCONTENTS looks to the concept of ‘reproduction’ in feminist theory, to consider the performative, photographic and filmic work of artist VALIE EXPORT. This will form a starting point and guide, to question how reality is (re)produced within a complex discursive field, made up of often fraught social relations.
Photography’s history touches on both the changing contours of experience, and its enmeshment with technology, and how a photograph looks. Today, photography claims a paradoxical status. The proliferation of images and their transformation from analogue to digital technologies has led to its displacement by algorithm and data flow. Still, it maintains a representational hold on reality (Dewdney). Thinking with the architectural model of the camera obscura – as a model for the concept of ideology (Marx) – we will consider what might become possible if we shift our view.
This course develops interdisciplinary methods, critical inquiry and questioning; sitting with difficulty; thinking multiple perspectives at once; close reading objects and texts and their contexts. With guest lecturers Blaise Kirschner and Marwa Arsanios (tbc), we will work with different media: photography (analogue/digital), film, text, and recording. During the excursion, we will visit the VALIE EXPORT Centre, Linz, to study architectural/artistic models and reproductions among other locations.
Image: VALIE EXPORT, Glasplatte Mit Schuss, 1972