Visual Cultures of the Middle East: Moving Images from Daguerreotypes to Smartphones
(Or alternatively, how to think and work with imagery in your research and move beyond the page!)
Graduate Course - New York University - Spring 2020 (planned Spring 2023)
Rather than just a normal syllabus visualizingthemiddleeast.com allows students to brainstorm and explore different ways to think about the relationship of TEXT/IMAGE in your scholarship - all through a digital platform. Each week’s readings will model technical skills which we will discuss in class so you can better craft your final digital essay.
This course examines changing technologies of image capture/(re)production/circulation in the Middle East from the turn of the century through today. We examine historical moments through an appreciation of changing technological advancements of visual material. From changing printing practices on postcards, consumer grade cameras, increasing photographs in periodicals, TVs & VHS, leading up to networked technologies and the digital morass in which we now live.
Across the arch of the course, emergent technological capabilities of visuality become entwined in issues of nationalism, revolt, consumerism, tourism, changing gender roles, and boundaries of sexuality.
The second half of the course focuses on the contemporary landscape of smartphones/internet/apps/digitality and the dizzying array of visual material in which we now drown. From protests to citizen journalists, emergent political movements and social media on smartphones, from Grindr to surveillance, selfies, & sex. We will consider broader themes as they relate to the Middle East.
Finally, there is an emphasis for students to develop and integrate visual material in their MA research. We will explore some visual methods across the course and you will learn how to create a digital story paying special attention to not simply using visual material as the "represention" of your argument.
As part of this class, students will be constructing a "visual essay" for their final. You will be asked to assemble/build/identify a larger set of visual material that directly connects to your research interests. You will then explore the relationship of text & image as you "jump off the page” to iterate a blended visual & written argument on a digital page.
Alaa Salah (Lana Haroun- Twitter: @lana_hago)