Rhetorical Images

Visual Methodologies for Teaching Race and Ethnicity

Barthes and the rhetoric of the image

Using Images

• Barthes concept of 'rhetoric of the image'

• Images as complex conventional codes

• Rhetoric is often contrasted with rationality and allied with radical relativism or nihilism

• but... All discourse is unavoidably rhetorical

• This presentation illustrates the power of images to condition our thinking

The Elements of Myth

Denotative Level – black cadet salutes flag

Connotative Level – French empire, patriotism, colonial values to be saluted, paternalism of French state etc

Myth - Third level sign

Nation, Citizenship, Identity

Available Discourses

Romantic

Racist

Anthropological

Tourist

Literary

Romanticism

Nature ‘in the raw’

‘primeval’

‘the ruthless struggle for survival…’

‘ancient ceremonies’

‘Rock tree and man are one in the Aborigines hearts and have been since the beginning’

Conditions at One Mile Dam

DrinkingThe Northern Territory's alcohol consumption is one of the highest in the world, and certainly the highest in Australia. In 2001 the alcohol consumption rate was estimated at 1120 standard drinks per person per year.

Beer Can Regatta

http://onemiledam.org/images/St_Sp/Permits28.jpg

Law & Order

SHANE STONE, FORMER CHIEF MINISTER: People who are out there causing havoc on our streets, who are defecating in our car parks and our shopping centres, deserve to be monstered and stomped on.

Australia’s eugenic policy

The Circuit of Culture

• Production – campaigns, intentions

• Regulation – hegemony and social control

• Consumption – desire economy - distinction

• Identity – constant negotiation

• Representation – political, basis for social meanings, regimes of thought, discourses eg tourism, law and order, anthropological etc..

Critical Visual Methods

• myth of objectivitymyth of objectivity• Ethical concerns – exploitation or collaboration?Ethical concerns – exploitation or collaboration?• Obtrusiveness of video recordingObtrusiveness of video recording Immediacy and complexity of the material Immediacy and complexity of the material

gatheredgathered• 'the study and use of visual images is only of 'the study and use of visual images is only of

use within broader sociological research use within broader sociological research enterprises, rather than as ends in themselves.’ enterprises, rather than as ends in themselves.’ (Bank, M 2001: 178)(Bank, M 2001: 178)

Consider the Image

• no ‘one-way’ visual method or perspective • we don’t ‘see, we ‘perceive’ • the visual, as objects and images, exists

materially in the world but gain meaning from humans.

• all images are regarded as polysemic • images can be ‘researcher found’ (generated by

others) or ‘researcher generated’ (created by the researcher).

• Photographs or film cannot be equated with truth or reality

Conclusions

• How to address issues in a relevant way?• Allows focus on how social meanings are formed

and circulate• Visual material drawn from a variety of sources

is immediate and interactive• Needs backing up with reading • Less can be more – small interactive nuggets

which when unpacked can really stimulate discussion and understanding

• Potential for use in virtual learning environments

Images• Images

• Baron Cuvier's Natural History (1890) Landseer's plates Mongols, Negros• Lambe, Mick

– 'Black Australia has had enough' photograph from PARIAH website - reproduced with permission of Mick Lambe • Hammerton, Sir J. (circa 1933) Peoples of All Nations, Amalgamated Press, London

– 'Negro Women' at work in sugar cane field – Vol 1 p203, - Photo Service (untraceablele)– 'Bejewelled Beauty of the Kabyle' Crete, (Vol 2, facing page 28)– 'Fleeting Glimpses of Feminine Charms' (Vol. 1, p441)

• Metropolitan Police– Anti-Terrorism poster -

• Nucolorvue Postcard – Australian Aborigines - - NCV 12972 11SZ132. –

• Northern Territory News, – 'Go Home', Headline April 2003 – Permits for Aborigines March 4th 2003– Black v White, April 26 2003– Gang of 30 Bashes 3 Teens, April 16th 2003

• Spencer, S – 'John Bull Anti-Euro Protestor' (2005)– Defaced Statue of Queen Victoria (Victoria) Georgetowm, Guyana– Didgeridoos on sale at Darwin's Mindil Beach Market*– Detail of 'boat' at Darwin's Beer Can Regatta and 'tinnies' from One Mile Dam*– David Timber, Coordinator of One Mile Dam community– Scared' CRE poster, Authors picture but permission granted from CRE Louis Mackay 19th January 2005– All other stills from author's short film Framing the Fringe Dwellers (2005)

• • Spooner John cartoon 'Sorry' in The Age Newspaper, Melbourne• Wheeler, H, ed. (1935?) 'Peoples of the World in Pictures'

– People of the Desert - Australian National Travel Association• Woodrow Ross of University of Newcastle NSW

– Caricatures of Aboriginal people from Queensland Figaro 1887

Bibliography• Banks, M (1995) ‘Visual research methods’ Social Research Update Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Winter 1995• Banks, M (2000) Visual Methods in Social Research, Sage • Barthes, R (1984) Camera Lucida, Flamingo• Barthes, R, (1982) Image, Music,Text, Flamingo• Barthes, R, (1972) Mythologies, Paladin• Critcher, 2002• Hall, S. et al 1978, • Hall, Stuart, ed. (1997) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, Sage• Kumbutjil Association (One Mile Dam Community) onemiledam.org• Muecke, S. (1982) ‘Available Discourses’ in Botsman, P. d (1982) Theoretical Strategies, Sydney, Local Consumption Press. • PARIAH website (People Against Racism In Australian Homelands) managed by Mick Lambe (Better a Pariah than a Liar)

http://www.country-liberal-party.com/pages/incarc_p5.htm • W.J.T. Mitchell (1994:13) Picture Theory. Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation University

of Chicago Press.

• Rose (2001) Visual Methodologies, Sage• Said, E (1978) Orientalism, Penguin • Spencer, S (due 2005) A Dream Deferred: Ethnic Conflict in Guyana, Dido Press • Spencer, S (2005) Contested Homelands: Darwin's 'itinerant problem' in Pacific Journalism Review, Auckland University: New Zealand • Also Available Online http://onemiledam.org/pages/Framing_the_Fringe_Dwellers.htm• Spencer, S (2005) 'Framing the Fringe Dwellers': Visual Methods for Research & Teaching Race & Ethnicity: A Sample Case Study, in C-

SAP Monograph • Spencer, S & Todd, M (2005) Reflecting on Practice: teaching and learning issues in race and ethnicity, C-SAP Monograph, University of

Birmingham • Woodlock, R. (2002) Muslim Feminists and the Veil: To veil or not to veil - is that the question?

http://www.islamfortoday.com/feminists_veil.htm • Woodward, K (1997) Identity & Difference, Sage• Yegenoglu M (1998) Colonial Fantasies: Towards a Feminist Reading of Orientalism Cambridge Univ Press • Sonia Smallacombe(July 2004)• Chas Critcher interview (June 2004)

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