This ties nicely to Foucault’s work in “Discipline and Punish. Allan Sekula: the body and the archive A part of this reading that struck me the most is one that we did not discuss in class, perhaps because of its not being so related to art it is where Alan Sekula discusses the relationship between phrenology and the legitimization on scientific grounds of the valuing of manual over intellectual labor. “photography is modernity run riot” (344).Ĭonnections and Context: *Sekula repeatedly uses the juridical use of photographs as an example of the regulatory power of the image. What to make, therefore, of Sekulas statement that what he. This dynamic is usefully extrapolated onto the cyborg/bio body, and the healthy/traumatized body. Reproduced in Allan Sekula, The Body and the Archive, October, vol.39, Winter 1986, p.35. of seminal essays including, The Traffic in Photographs (1981) and The Body and the Archive (1992). Useful Quotations/Ideas: There is a lengthy and useful discussion of how the criminal body is needed in order to define the law abiding body (351). Allan Sekula + Kaja Silverman In Conversation. This can be unproductive (when each criminal’s appearance is compared to all available photographs) (358) or of little rigorous value (when photographs are produced to develop a phrenological approach to criminality) (353-354). Sekula explains how photographs, in bulk, require processing as aggregates. This uniqueness, however, tends not to survive when the photograph is taken up institutionally. 6 For discussions of the salvage paradigm in ethnography see. Similarly, the perfect vision of the photograph carries with it an implicit uniqueness (347). 5 See Allan Sekulas The Body and the Archive in October, number 39 Winter, 1986. He discusses how photographs can “incontrovertibly” document a person’s possessions, in the case of a theft (345). Sekula1986TheBodyandtheArchive.pdf (file size: 3.2 MB, MIME type: application/pdf) 'Body and the Archive', October, no. Allan Sekula, The Body and the Archive, October, 39 (1986), 364. Summary: Sekula begins with an exploration of how photographs influence the perception of truth. The reflections on the archives role in forgotten heritage research are based in. This, in turn, leads to insight into how the body becomes inscribed with meaning (361). Materials with the location “Reading Room” are in an area that can be seen but not accessed by the public however, most of these titles are commonly available in other libraries.Central Claim(s): Sekula provides a historical analysis of the role photographs have played in redefining truth and witnessing (345). Materials with the location “Rare Book Room” can be made available on demand. Use the link above to explore the collection via the library’s online catalog. The collection, as shelved in the Manton Research Center Reading Room, is both an archive that maintains Sekula’s organization of the material in his personal and work spaces and a visually stunning art installation that allows varying levels of interpretation of format and content. In 2015, the Clark library acquired the 15,000-volume library through the generous gift of the artist’s widow, art historian and professor Sally Stein. A thoughtful and thought-provoking artist, photographer, filmmaker, writer, and teacher, Allan Sekula amassed over decades a library that informed his prolific body of work and reflected his wide-ranging personal and professional interests in such topics as contemporary art and photography, social justice, economic disparities, consumerism, the history of the workers’ movement, and the destruction of natural and built environments.
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