Space & Place | Theoretical Foundations & Methods for Visualization

MA Visual and Media Anthropology - FREIE UNIVERSITÄT BERLIN

There are few research areas that do not enjoy an overlap with theories of space and place. This course is meant to accompany you in advance and in progress of your final thesis projects. In the very least, this course can offer your thesis projects a more robust understanding of the setting and perception of the locations, spaces and places where you undertake your research. In other words, we are confident that this course imparts a sensitivity to an important aspect found most likely in all of your research areas.

In this seminar we deal with the question of how individuals and communities perceive their environment and the meanings within it that are based on culturally distinct ideas, concepts and norms. The course is organized in three parts: first, students are provided with a foundation of contemporary theory to approach space and place questions in their own research. Second, students are then instructed in methods and techniques for gathering theoretically informed data from the field . Third, in order to make implicit frames of reference explicit, students are offered strategies for visually representing the data in an anthropological context.

1) Theory | Understanding that social lives are produced across both the perceptual and material domains of space and place is crucial to establish a working theoretical foundation. The effects of location, nationality, borders and the movement of the body are only a few of many aspects of lived experience consistently implicated in current anthropological inquiry. Theoretical approaches from Low, Appadurai, Hayden and Heidegger on topics such as dwelling, 'ethno- scapes', boundaries, and the land or cityscape as public memory, are emphasized.

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2) Method | In order to visualize the subjective perception of space, participatory mapping is the primary research method discussed. Based on applied visual anthropological methods, it is a cartographical approach, that integrates local perceptions captured during interviews with participant observation. In particular, this section covers the combination of video, images and audio, as well as sketch mapping, transect mapping, scale mapping and the basics of Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS).

3) Representation | How can data be gathered and represented in a visual format that provides unique knowledge apart from traditional forms of text based research? Filmic and photographic strategies stretching along the continuum between informative to aesthetic will be discussed, providing students with a rich collection of examples to build upon for their own work. Additionally, the use of multimedia maps — the combination of audio/visual material with a geo- referenced map — offer an especially valuable possibility for visualizing the hidden structures of environmental knowledge and perception of space and place. The produced visual representations endure as an object that it is subject to analysis and elicits critical dialogue. 

 The course is organized in the three parts outlined above, first, students are provided with a foundation of contemporary theory to approach space and place questions in their own research. Second, students are then instructed in methods and techniques for gathering theoretically informed data from the field. Third, in order to make implicit frames of reference explicit, students are offered strategies for visually representing field-work data in an anthropological context.

Instructors

M.A. Christian Reichel studied Social and Cultural Anthropology and Geography at the Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt Universität Berlin. His research interests are: past and current human-nature relations including “shifting baselines”, local knowledge for prediction, protection, adaptation to climate related catastrophes, and ecosystem services and livelihood analysis. He has undertaken ethnographic fieldwork in Indonesia, Mongolia and Romania.

Currently he works as a research associate at the BMBF – project: Alpine Hazards in Climate Change. His PhD thesis research specifies on the mapping and visualization of local environmental knowledge regarding natural hazards in the Swiss, German and Austrian alps.

M.A. Mike Terry is a photographer and collagist living in Berlin, Germany. He has previously worked in the American West, as well as the Southern States, Germany, India and Haiti. He earned a B.A. in Mass Communication from the University of Utah in 2010 and was awarded a scholarship as a Fine Art, Music, Architecture and Dance Graduate Grantee of the Deutsche Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD). He finished his MA in 2013 with a thesis and photographic installation on the relationship between individuals and the built environment, specifically in the former American Zone of West Berlin. Since, he has continued to work as an imagemaker and press manager primarily for clients in the music and fashion industries, as well as in theater and opera productions in Germany and the United Kingdom.

Digital Anthropology | Theoretical Foundations & Methods for Visualization

MA Visual and Media Anthropology - FREIE UNIVERSITÄT BERLIN

                                                                             Reportage Photography | f16 SCHULE FÜR FOTOGRAFIE                                                                   

Wir haben uns zum Ziel gesetzt, in unserer Ausbildung zur Fotografie die gestalterischen und technischen Fähigkeiten zu vermitteln, die notwendig sind, um eine fotografische Aufgabe gestalterisch, technisch und organisatorisch effizient zu lösen. Die Vermittlung solider theoretischer Grundlagen wird mit praktischen Übungen zu einer zukunftssicheren Ausbildung zu verbunden Die Schülerinnen und Schüler lernen, das Medium Fotografie in den unterschiedlichsten Bereichen gezielt einzusetzen und eine eigene fotografische Sprache zu entwickeln.

Wir unterstützen die Schülerinnen und Schüler in jeder Hinsicht bei der Erweiterung ihrer Kompetenzen und der Entwicklung einer Lebensperspektive.

Unsere Ausbildung ermöglicht den Absolventinnen und Absolventen eine selbstständige Tätigkeit als Fotografin oder Fotograf. Darüber hinaus bietet sich eine Beschäftigung in Werbe- und Medienagenturen, in der Mode-, Produkt- und Industrie-Fotografie, in Presseagenturen oder in wissenschaftlichen Einrichtungen.

Die Schwerpunkte der Ausbildung sind Gestaltungslehre, Aufnahmetechnik, Bildbearbeitung sowie Wirtschafts- und Sozialkunde in Verbindung mit den verschiedenen Arbeitsgebieten der Fotografie. Neben der Digitalfotografie hat die analoge Fotografie wegen ihrer grundlegenden Bedeutung einen hohen Stellenwert.

Wir richten die Ausbildung so aus, dass die Schülerinnen und Schüler die kaufmännischen und kommunikativen Kompetenzen erhalten, um Aufträge auch wirtschaftlich erfolgreich abzuwickeln.

Die Lerninhalte werden während der gesamten Ausbildung kontinuierlich erprobt und praktisch angewendet. Dazu dienen Projekte, die in ihrem Ablauf und ihren Anforderungen die Praxis widerspiegeln.

Fachdozenten und erfahrene Praktiker, die neben ihrer Lehrtätigkeit weiterhin in ihrem Fachgebiet arbeiten, führen die Ausbildung durch. Es ist sichergestellt, dass ein ständiger Austausch mit der Praxis erhalten bleibt und Kontakte zum späteren Tätigkeitsfeld geschaffen werden.

Nach drei Jahren schließt die Ausbildung mit einer praktischen und einer theoretischen Prüfung ab, deren Ergebnis in einem detaillierten Zertifikat bescheinigt wird.

Wir sind als Ergänzungsschule nach § 102 Berliner Schulgesetz in das Schulverzeichnis des Landes Berlin unter der Nummer 02E39 eingetragen.

http://www.f16-schule.de/