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Modules
subject to possible revision
First Semester
Second Semester
Third Semester
Fourth Semester
FIRST SEMESTER
(Winter term from October 1st 2012 to February 15th 2013)
Opening Guest Lecture: "From Observation to Communication" (Dr. Itsushi Kawase)
In-house class
Itsushi Kawase's lecture will discuss issues with the level of intervention of an anthropologist in the lives of his or her subjects, as well as a researcher’s roles and responsibilities in advocacy within the field. The films that he has produced on hereditary singers and children in northern Ethiopia such as "Kids Got a Song to Sing" and "Room 11, Ethiopia Hotel" will be shown as case studies in the above discussion. These films were made to explore and develop the concept of the camera as a witness to the communication and collaboration between the anthropologist (himself) and the people in the film through frequent interaction with them, rather than treating the camera as a simple tool for documentation and observation of the filmic/research subject. Following this, the audio-visual approach to the anthropological knowledge based on the personal and intimate exchange with the people in the film will be discussed.
Basic Module 1: Visual Anthropology (15 credits)
Students are introduced to the basic working methods and theories of Visual Anthropology. They are familiarized with prevalent approaches and theories and their application. As they are expected to have rather diverse backgrounds, this introduction also aims at achieving a common basis from which to proceed to the specific modules. Visual Anthropology consists of four courses: 1a, 1c, 1d are in-house courses in Berlin in a workshop-style, 1b is an Online-course, that starts after the in-house classes.
1a) Introduction to Visual Anthropology (Dr. Nadine Wanono)
In-house class
An Introduction to Visual Anthropology as a Discipline and a Methodology
How and why did visual anthropology become a discipline and what are the implications, consequences and difficulties raised by this academic recognition?
In the Sixties the main approaches were the observational cinema and the direct cinema: we will explain and contextualize these methodologies within their personal, academic and intellectual background. Obviously the world’s political situation was a source of inspiration and we will screen excerpts from this period in order to understand the ways filmmakers could offer their personal stance.
As Rouch positions himself politically as an anarchist, we will focus more precisely on his contribution with concepts like: shared anthropology, cinema vérité, direct cinema, ciné-transe and the importance of being and staying an amateur in opposition to taking on a professional approach.
How can these key concepts be interpreted and used nowadays as our field of reflection and practice are expanding on digital open spaces where different categories of media can freely intertwine thus stimulating a transversal approach? We will screen numerous excerpts of films in order to facilitate the discussions and open up the debate toward experimental attempts.
© Thomas John 2012, Mexico
1b) Classics and Varieties of Ethnographic Film (Elhum Shakerifar)
Online-course
Spread over thirteen units, this course will take us from the first grainy ethnographic film shot in the Arctic all the way to southern Ethiopia, with stopovers in Bali, Russia, Italy, Ghana, the United States, Canada, Germany and England. On this journey, we will explore classic works, figures and issues in the history and practice of ethnographic film. In so doing, we will encounter the visual anthropologists Margaret Mead, Timothy Asch, Jean Rouch, Robert Gardner, Judith and David MacDougall, and many others. The goal is to experience and reflect on a diversity of ways of seeing, and thereby inspire new ways of filming.
Each unit will be based on viewing and discussing films. We will aim to grasp an understanding of each film and its relationship to anthropology, and the way these films deal with issues and themes on-camera, off-camera, behind-camera and on the screen. We will consider the use of the camera as a research tool, the Kino-Eye, early British Realism and Italian Neorealism, aesthetics in film, ciné-trance, ciné-vérité, observational film, issues of cultural and gender representation, auto-ethnography, and ethical questions raised by the practice of ethnographic film.
1c) Poetic Framing I (Kristian Petersen)
Seminar
Through our monthly meetings (in real life and via adobe connect/Skype) this course provides a basic introduction into technical aspects of video production. Among terms like depth of field, its relation to focal length and lens aperture, we will also touch on the basics of semiotics, grammar of film and eventually try to discover the poetry of film. We will read basic texts about film theory and each student will do some simple assignments in order to learn the basic workflow of: filming, capturing, editing, exporting and finally uploading. This course is for beginners and for those who want to practice filming and editing.
1d) Modes of Representation (of Reality) (Laurent van Lancker)
In-house class
This course will go through and beyond the general categories of 'modes of representation' of reality in documentary and anthropology. In class, we will watch and discuss both classical and unusual examples of Bill Nichols' five modes category (Expository, Observational, Interactive, Reflexive, Performative). Through an exploration of current trends in the grey zone between art and anthropology we will also debate the possibility of going beyond representational modes. Films screened and debated will include works by Frederick Wiseman, Johan Vanderkeuken, Naomi Kawase, Renzo Martens, and my own audiovisual work.
Basic Module 2: Media Anthropology (15 credits)
Students are introduced to the basic working methods and theories of Media Anthropology. They are familiarized with prevalent approaches and theories and their application Media Anthropology consists of two modules. 2a and 2c are in-house courses in Berlin. 2b is an Online-course.
2a) Introduction to Media Anthropology (Dr. Tilo Grätz)
In-house class
This course aims at outlining the major perspectives, concepts and debates prevalent in contemporary media anthropology, and includes an introduction into current debates, important works and authors in this field. The central focus is on "classical" mass media such as radio, TV, journals and newspapers, but also ICT, video and (to a lesser extent) film and small alternative media.
What is the perspective of media anthropology? We are starting from the assumption that today, media shapes the social and cultural construction of (almost) all societies worldwide. This process is, however, related to the creation of distinctive modes and experiences of media appropriation, production & reception, that are framed by local social and cultural forms, systems of knowledge and power relations. Media is both shaped by global flows of information, images and technologies, as well as local modes of communication, representation, remediation and symbolic expression. We will discuss the issues on the basis of selected case studies, research data presented by the lecturer as well as contributions by the participants.
2b) Visual and Media Anthropology in Virtual Worlds: machinima production and screenshot projects (Dr. Undine Frömming)
Online-course
In this course students will use their own Avatar to conduct an (audio-)visual fieldwork in the virtual world Second Life. One aim of the course is to simulate different ethnographic fieldwork methods in virtual worlds. With the use of visual anthropological and ethnographic methods we will produce short virtual in-world-films (machinimas) and photography projects on topics such as the representation of indigenous media in virtual worlds, (de-)construction of gender and sexuality, surveillance and simulation of reality, construction and perception of virtual landscape. Furthermore we will discuss classical and latest literature on Cyberanthropology and virtual culture reserach as well as literature on ethnographic methods.The condition of participation for this course is to have one's own Avatar in Second Life and a computer which supports and can run Second Life.
© U. Frömming 2008, Screenshots, Second life
2c) "I can't tell the truth...only what I know": Multivocality/Montage and the Reflexive Application of the Photograph (Dr. Mark Curran)
In-house course
Late modern critique regarding visual representation and media in general has created an environment where photographers and artists have revised and transformed photographic research practices into more complex forms. This seminar introduces such forms and locates this work within the context of the indexical association, historically, of photography’s relationship to reality. Engaging with both theoretical and visual discourse, this seminar will examine how responses to this core tenet have impacted upon and informed contemporary research practice and how such practice has sought to represent reality and the everyday. Drawing on research, informed by visual ethnography, and multi-sited fieldwork addressing labour, global labour practices and the predatory impact of migrations of global capital, the seminar will foreground a methodological framework which affords the application of the photograph as a core method in the context of a critically reflexive research practice. Simultaneously, such an approach highlights performative and disseminative interventions regarding the re-narration of research extending to installation, web-based and bound publication.
SECOND SEMESTER
(Summer term from April 1st to July 16th 2013)
In-house classes will take place from April 11th to April 26th 2013
Profile Module A: Ethnographic Film Production (15 credits)
Students will integrate ethnographic formulation of questions with their acquired media competence (digital camera work and editing). This is an introduction to working with audiovisual techniques while taking into account visual-anthropological methods, and reflecting upon the questions those raise.
A1) Transcultural Film Workshop (Eva Knopf, Tobias Becker, Mark Dölling)
In-house class
In this class you will realize your first film project using digital media. You will be guided through all the steps of a film production: finding an idea, presenting it, pre-production, production and post-production. The Inhouse class will focus on your pitch, introduction to the digital video equipment, filming strategies, the actual shoot and editing. By the end of the seminar you will have produced a five to ten minute film. Even though this seminar is primarily practical, it's aim is to contribute to the formation of academically trained scientists. To this end, throughout the course, the link between practical choices and aesthetics and anthropological theory is stressed.
A2) Photography and Anthropology (Dr. Samuli Schielke)
In-house class
Photography has an ambiguous place in cultural and social anthropology. Originally celebrated for being an objective means to document and study peoples and races, early anthropological photography became embedded into colonialist and racist exploitation, but it also provided inspiration for new projects in documentary photography that searched to look at the humanity of its subjects. Most crucially perhaps, with the rapid spread of photography around the world, the photograph soon ceased to be a technology of the Western colonial power as people around the world sought to record their status and aspiration in studio photographs. And with the emergence of snapshot photography, introduced in early 20th century and most dramatically magnified by digital imaging and mobile phones in the past decade, photography has developed into an everyday practice of remembrance, self-making, creativity, and social commentary around the world.
In current anthropology, the belief in the objectivity of photographs has long since waned, replaced by a reflective understanding of many meanings, uses and powers of the photographic image. This has made it only more fruitful for anthropological research, partly through the use of photography as a technique of fieldwork and publication, and partly as photography as a social practice has become a part of visual anthropology’s subject matter.
In this in-house class we focus on this ambiguity of photography as a method and a subject of anthropology by the means of a combination of readings in ethnographic research, works of art and documentary photographers, and practical experiments. The aim of this course is not just to provide you with practical skills for using your camera in the field. More centrally, it is about learning to reflect about the making and the uses of the photographic image in its different forms. In the in-house class we will approach the subject experimentally, discussing and testing different ways of photographing, being photographed and using images.
Prior to the in-house class you will receive two key texts which you have to read in advance. Please bring with you to the in-house class a photograph which you find to be expressing, illustrating, commenting, confirming, developing, questioning or contradicting the ideas conveyed in the two texts (or one of them). The only condition is that you were involved in the making of the photograph, be it as the photographer, the photographed, or in some other way. If you have a digital version of the image, please e-mail it to me not later than two days before the class. Please also bring with you an analogue camera, preferably one with manually adjustable focus, aperture and shutter speed. If you do not have one, buy one on the flea market (but do check that it works!). They are very cheap. (If you live in Berlin, Practica is a good, inexpensive and widely available choice.) Film will be provided.
A3) Poetic Framing II (Kristian Petersen)
Block seminar
This course will be a continuation of the exercise course from the first semester. We will continue with more advanced exercises, focusing on topics such as grammar of film, syntax, framing and theoretical discussions on what a frame is. The monthly meetings will also act as a platform for the project of "Alternative Healers." Here we will discuss strategies, form, and content of the singular films which are part of the compilation. Within this course Kristian Peterson also offers individual meetings. This course is not mandatory but recommended.
Profile Module B: Communication/Mediascapes (15 credits)
Students will receive an understanding of the symbolic forms of presentation and communication of ideas, values and norms in a trans-cultural and historical media context. Students will learn the user opportunities for social anthropological and audiovisual research methods in media, and will also become acquainted with virtual networks and use them for social anthropological empirical research.
B1) Indigenous Media (Steffen Köhn, Dr. Florian Walter)
Online-course
The course provides an introduction to how indigenous people use audiovisual media. Starting with a general perspective on the phenomenon, we will discuss the history of representation in ethnographic filmmaking from authoritarian styles to self-representation. Focusing on a case study in Chiapas, Mexico, we will develop a general overview of the politics and poetics of indigenous filmmaking concentrating especially on feminist and postmodern approaches. Broadening the scope, we will also discuss the reality of mass media in the traditional sites of anthropological fieldwork, as well as new transnational networks of media distribution and the role of media in maintaining diasporic connections.
The theoretical framework of this course will not only encompass the latest ethnographic material, but also perspectives from communication studies, cultural studies and the philosophy of media. We will consider the development and role of indigenous media productions in promoting indigenous cultures, languages and world-view, how media technologies affect the representation and reproduction of indigenous cultures.Potential stories, series and program ideas will be explored. Students will have the opportunity to develop a thorough understanding of production practices and skills.
© Thomas John 2012, Mexico
B2) Indigenous Media and Photography (Yulia Mahr)
In-house class
After examining and questioning the ‘indigenous’ label, we explore representations of indigenous personhood and experiencein the media and popular culture, before re-examining the historical record on early indigenous media. We go on to view and discuss many of the classics of indigenous cinema, as well as a broad selection of documentaries and short films that illustrate the diversityof visual and narrative cinematic styles being utilized. We also survey the work of a number of photographers, with a special emphasis on South American and Native-American work. We end our course by examining the new wave of emerging voices and consider issues in the production, circulation and distribution of indigenous work.
Profile Module C: Applied Visual and Media Anthropology (15 credits)
The goal of this profile module is the communication of propaedeutic principles and practice-relevant fundamental knowledge in the area of visual-anthropological work in the journalistic field. In this module the students learn, among other things, what is necessary for the development of a professional TV program for a TV magazine with cultural, especially foreign-related topic foci.
C1) Applied Visual Anthropology (developed and taught by Prof. Dr. Sarah Pink)
Online-course
Visual Anthropology methods and media are being increasingly used both in applied research across academic disciplines. The course explores historical and contemporary developments in the field of practice that we might call Applied Visual Anthropology. The basic principles of this approach might be conceptualized as involving participatory, collaborative and interdisciplinary research, with the aim of producing or contributing to some kind of social intervention. Yet within this definition there are variations. Each week we will examine a set of materials relating to specific areas and practices in applied visual anthropology.
C2) Experimental Film (Dalia Neis)
In-house class
Experimental film practice: A two day workshop exploring ways in which the cinema can subvert and challenge dominant mainstream cinematic and cultural forms. The workshop will take as its starting point key theoretical and film texts that pioneered alternative ways of making and engaging with cinema. Often described as ‘Artist’, ‘Avant-garde’, ‘Experimental’, or ‘Underground’ film, we will look at introductions to feminist film theory, queer cinema, anti-colonial filmmaking, and consider a wide variety of approaches to alternative film practice that will both question and re-frame approaches to visual anthropology. Through re-assessing the language of mainstream filmmaking, we will attempt to seek out alternative strategies for visual anthropological practice.
The workshop will include presentations, screenings, discussion, and initial planning of small-scale experimental film projects.
THIRD SEMESTER
(winter term from October 1st 2012 to February 15th 2013)
The semester starts with the first 2-week In-house classes from October 12th to the 26th 2012.
Project Module 1: Internship
Internship (extern, third semester, winter semester, in the time between Oct. 2012 - Feb. 2013, 9 weeks) (15 credits)
The students should complete their internship (9 weeks) in a film production company, TV-station, museum or other related field of the Master programme. This internship shall give students an insight into potential areas of employment and confront them with the professional demands in one of the related fields.
Please note that it is possible for advanced students to obtain an exemption from doing the internship. This should be discussed on an individual-case basis with your program director and coordinator. Students will instead have to write a paper.
For those doing the internship, you should ask your internship provider for an official letter certifying that you did your internship there. The letter should include: Name and contact of internship institution/provider, internship dates and a brief description of tasks.
You should ideally finish your internship during the third semester (before March). If this is not possible, the absolute deadline is June 30th.
Creative Producing in Documentary Film (Martin Tscholl)
In-house class
This course will cover the creative aspects of film producing and will prepare students for developing treatments and writing exposés for documentary films. We will discuss different styles and approaches of documentary filmmaking for Television, Cinema and Multimedia. By showing and discussing the possibilities of financing, budgeting and distributing documentary film projects, the students will get an overall view about the possibilities of working as a professional in the area of documentary film.
Professional Perspectives in Visual and Media Anthropology (Prof. Dr. Undine Frömming)
Online-course
This course is an accompanying course to the internship. The aim is to reflect on your experiences during your internship and to share your new ideas, knowledge and experiences with your fellow students. We will meet in our 3D virtual class spaces on Edunation III in Second Life. Undine Frömming will give lectures about professional perspectives in Visual and Media Anthropology for those of you planning a professional university career or a PhD-thesis. Sophia Schama will give lectures about a professional career as an artist (exhibitions/galleries, cooperation with curators and collectors, networking et cetera). We will discuss together the questions of the students and possible options for the future. Start of the course is after the in-house class: October 19th, 4 pm in our virtual classroom in second life.
Artistic Practice in Transcultural Contexts (Tobias Becker)
Online-course
Based on examples of contemporary artistic practice, this seminar will critically examine artistic strategies with transcultural intentions. Alongside the concrete work of particular artists, some of the latest exhibitions and their curatorial conceptions will be discussed, such as the documenta13 and the 7th Berlin Biennale. The aim of this course is to approach the intersection of artistic practice and visual and media anthropology with an emphasis on methodologies and ethical considerations.
Methods of Anthropology: Visualization and Participatory Mapping of Local Knowledge (Christian Reichel)
Seminar
This seminar explores Participatory Mapping as a new and powerful method for visualizing local knowledge in diverse cultural settings. Processes of local knowledge are understood as the dominant perceptions of social and ecological environments and the ensuing response strategies in local communities. Major elements of Participatory Mapping are juxtaposed throughout the seminar to examine their potential for representing local frames of references.
In particular, this seminar covers the combination of video, images and audio through multi-media mapping, as well as sketch mapping, transect mapping, scale mapping and the basics of Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS). The importance of Participatory Mapping rests on three major elements: First, it provides a communication platform between local groups and political decision makers. Second, it facilitates interdisciplinary research. Third, it allows communities to record local knowledge.
This seminar uses examples from Indonesia and Switzerland to show in what ways visualised forms of local knowledge can contribute to an improved adaptation to climate change. This includes responses, at the local level, to on-going and expected cultural, political, economic and environmental transformations.
Project Module 2: Film Project /Media Project (15 credits)
Preparation of the Research Exposé (Dr. Mark Curran)
In-house class
In the context of the preparation regarding your Exposé for the MA theses, this course will review the Exposé guidelines and in the context of your research thematic, outline a general discussion addressing amongst others, research fieldwork methodology and related fieldwork methods informed by visual ethnography. It is divided into two parts, the first taking place in October with a subsequent part in February. The module is designed to be both responsive to the demands of your research project as it progresses while underscoring the reflexive considerations regarding all such research undertakings.
© Thomas John 2012, Mexico
Super 8 Workshop: Addressing the Senses (Mark Dölling, Florian Walter, Tobias Becker)
In-house class
On the basis of artistic-anthropological thoughts on and experiments in intercultural cinema and video, we want to experiment with the idea of synaesthetic modes of perception in a practical way. By using Super 8 material, which already incorporates a cinematic look and tactile qualities due to its graininess and warm colours, we will conduct a purely analogue film production from shooting to rough-cut-editing. Thus we will "get in touch" with the actual Super 8 material through cutting and gluing the actual rushes. Through these means, we will encounter the haptic qualities of film in the broadest sense. Afterwards, we will digitize the material and screen the final results at the cinema Sputnik in Kreuzberg.
© Florian Walter
Ethical Conciderations in Visual and Media Anthropology (Dr. Rossella Ragazzi)
In-house class
Contextualizing Ethics in Ethnographic Research and Cross-Cultural Filmmaking
What kind of ethical responsibility does anthropological research and mediation of knowledge entail?
Furthermore: what kind of moral assumptions ethnographic filmmaking practice implies, considering that it is not possible to render the participants "anonymous"? What are the exposures that could make research dangerous, for both ethnographers and social actors?
Anthropology is a discipline that has taken at its core these and other issues connected with the moral rules and laws of human societies. Furthermore, the use of media in connection to ethnography, has enhanced this aspect and demanded for a very careful evaluation of criteria, acts, intentions and consequences connected with anthropological research and mediation of knowledge.
Morality is culturally inflected, but some of the basic assumptions are transcultural and also often grounded in common sense, and in most cases they are hardly understandable in the realm of cultural relativism; there is, from one side, the need to be very well acquainted with ethical aspects of the society or community in which one conducts fieldwork, from the other side, with the personal commitment as agents of production of knowledge, towards a certain transparency of our aims and outcomes as researchers.
In this constant oscillation, some crucial acts and decisions are taken, and demand an interconnected scrutiny of the consequences, for all those involved. There are no strict recipes that can be applied, because anthropology is a processual and contextual endeavour: but there are very good guidelines that have been produced through experience; through trials and tribulations. This course therefore will look through concrete examples, into some of the questions outlined above, borrowing from ethnographic literature, ethnographic film sequences and examples lived in first person by the lecturer and the students, in order to problematise ethical questions in cross-cultural filmmaking and ethnographic description.
Methodologies in Visual and Media Anthropology (Dr. Peter Crawford)
In-house class
‘Participant observation’ has become the field work method par excellence of social anthropology since its inception as an academic discipline, e.g. through the work of one of its founding fathers, at least in a British context, Bronislaw Malinowski. But what does participant observation actually imply, and are these implications the same when talking about visual anthropology and the use of audio-visual media in field work? Stressing the distinction between ‘method’ and ‘methodology’ our sessions will pursue these issues through film and text, and include discussions of why it seems that ‘observational cinema’ has become the ‘jewel in the crown’ of ethnographic film, as Marcus Banks once put it (in Crawford, P. I. and D. Turton (eds.), Film as ethnography, Manchester University Press, 1992).
FOURTH SEMESTER
(Summer term from April 1st to July 16th 2013)
In-house classes will take place from April 11th to April 26th 2013
© Thomas John 2012, Mexico
Supervision Courses
(The supervision courses are a combination of a lecture and student presentations of their final thesis exposés.)
I. Saying Something With and About Photography (Dr. Samuli Schielke)
In-house class
In this class, which accompanies the process of preparing your MA theses, we look at the relationship of photographic and ethnographic practice and anthropological theory. Visual anthropology in particular is an experimental field where there is no standard solution to finding the right combination of theoretical and methodological experiment and of saying something about the world and the human condition. In this class we therefore take up specific examples (including your own) of what ethnographic research and anthropological theory can and need to accomplish, and what photography and other visual methods can do to say something that could not otherwise be said about the world. In the process, we will also take up the question about what photography as a social practice can tell about being in the world in a given place and time.
II. Beyond observation(al)? (Dr. Peter Crawford)
In-house class
The presentation will question the notion of ‘observation’ and the pivotal role it has played both in anthropology, e.g. in the notion of participant observation, and in cinema, e.g. in so-called observational films. Discussing (audio-) visual perception and apperception, the course argues against visualism and the notion that there is such a thing as ‘pure’ observation. Referring to filmic examples, as well as theoretical discourse, we will focus on ways in which visual anthropology and ethnographic film may help us understand the wider issue of cross-cultural representation and ways in which the theories and practices of these may help us develop more sensorially based forms of understanding ‘otherness’. The presentation will be accompanied by the screening of film excerpts, including clips from new material from the field (Reef Islands, Solomon islands, December 2010).
III. The Construction of the Cinema Subject (Dr. Rossella Ragazzi)
In-house class
The course presents the research and digital film archive collected over a decade in the field of visual anthropology, focusing on the topics of migration and childhood. Main themes that the seminar will analyse are connected to the experience of migration and the intercultural education of non-European children entering Europe in the new millenium. Case studies presented will be from fieldwork in France and Ireland. We will analyse critical concepts, such as observational participant cinema, storytelling and personal memory, transcultural pedagogy, the role of religion in crosscultural understanding, the politics of the migrant domestic space, the practice of cinema-vérité, the construction of adolescence, the performance of migration, childhood strategies of agency and resistance, the politics of heteroglossia, the role of participant cinema and the video-interview.
IV. Aesthetics and Ethics of (Re-representing) Fieldwork (Dr. Mark Curran)
In-house class
In the context of the preparation for your MA theses, this course will present multivariant field research framing a discussion addressing research methodology informed by visual ethnography. While outlining and addressing the rationale regarding possible research strategies, the course is further grounded by presentations from members of the group. Proposing a critical consideration regarding representation and informed by theoretical constructs, the overarching agenda is to assist in the clarification towards the formulation of a critically informed, engaged and responsive fieldwork framework.
V. Sensorial, Narrative and Collaborative Strategies in Visual Anthropology (Laurent van Lancker)
In-house class
To articulate materiality, senses and imagination in documentary cinema might be an alternative means to create and convey knowledge, as are thoughts, paradigms and concepts. A dialogue, combination and/or juxtaposition of meaning and being, of senses and points of views, could originate in documentary practices that are not 'about' or even 'near', but are 'with' and 'within' cultural experiences. Thus, practices that play upon the grey area between art, anthropology and cinema. This means encompassing cinematic strategies (sensory, narrative, collaborative) and practices (asynchronicity, materiality, decontextualisation) within an anthropological approach, instead of following existing paradigms, such as the expository, observational or representational strategies.
VI. Exhibiting Visual and Media Anthropology (Prof. Dr. Undine Frömming, Tobias Becker)
Online-course
In this course we will address space-related questions of presentation within a concrete exhibition situation. Individual supervision meetings with students who would like to do a photography or multi-media project as their final master project, shall work to clarify questions of content and form for the particular research projects. Furthermore, the projects will be discussed, curated and arranged in group meetings. The aim of this course is to open an exhibition of the final master projects in photography and multi-media installations at the Platform of Abstract Photography at the end of the Inhouse classes in the fall.
VII. Hands on Camera - Cinematography on Location (Mark Dölling)
Block-seminar
This course is designed to help you better handle film production in professional way, specifically in terms of camera work. Individually and independently, this course will lead you through preparation, shooting in the field, both artistically and technically, and finally through post-production. In the end you will be able to choose the right equipment for your production, handle it steadily and with confidence, and know how to wrangle with your raw material during and after the shooting.
VIII. Qualitative Methods: Introduction to Theory and Method of Ethnography (Dr. Julia Eksner)
In-house class
This workshop is an introduction to the epistemology, methodology, and practice of qualitative data collection and analysis. The course will address both the dominant theoretical approaches to qualitative research (analytic, grounded theory, interpretive, narrative, phenomenological) as well as practical techniques, such as methods for collecting and interpreting qualitative data. Topics covered include qualitative vs. quantitative research paradigms, fieldwork, participant observation, writing field notes, interviews (unstructured, semi-structured, structured), as well as an introduction to data analytic methods. The workshop is designed for graduate students who are planning their research and data collection. Special attention will be paid to epistemological and methodological considerations as they pertain to the practice of visual anthropology.
Please note: This workshop requires advance preparation in order to make the most of the short time we have together. You will need to dedicate considerable amounts of time in preparing adequately for the three meetings, and you should plan your time accordingly. All readings and assignments need to be completed. Experience shows that you will be able to use most of your written assignments in your MA thesis. This is the good news. The bad news is that students who cannot prepare the readings or who cannot complete the assignments will not be able to participate. All readings will be available as PDFs in an online module by early March.
IX: Introduction to Non-Linear Editing (Lefteris Fylaktos)
Online-course
A beginner's guide to non-linear editing (NLE): The course intends to familiarize the students with the philosophy of non-linear editing. The course includes practical information about:
-Filming with the right format
-Which software suits my computer and my budget
-Starting a project
-Setting up a smooth workflow
-Acquiring media into the software
-Basic editing
-Exporting the right formatThe intention is to present practical course material that can be used as an instruction manual for the production of the Master Thesis. Explanatory screen captures and links are available along with personal supervision and support during the production of the Thesis films.
Master Thesis (30 credits)
After completing all units and in-house workshops, students should complete within three months one of the following options:
- A Master's thesis of about 18,000 words
- A film (30-40 min) accompanied by a Master's thesis of about 7.500 words
- A photography project (25 pictures, each with a caption) or other media project (Second Life, Web 2.0 projects etc.), also accompanied by a Master's thesis of about 10.000 words
Students may choose the topic they wish to elaborate on. The topic has to be closely connected to the matters studied. Great importance is attached to the correct use of methodology, the application of theoretical models as well as an acceptable format.
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