Fotografia po człowieku

Author(s): Joanna Żylińska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

This article deals with images ‘after the human’. This expression refers not only to the material disappearance or conceptual displacement of the individual into the distant future, but also to the presentation of that disappearance here and now. Artistic (re) presentations of how the world as we know it vanishes, often described as ‘ruin porn’, have predecessors in Romantic landscape paintings or works such as Joseph Gandy’s Rotunda, which shows the Bank of England in ruins. At the same time, however, this visual practice has acquired a new modulation in the present – also called the anthropocene – as the global economic crisis and climate change became particularly intense. Żylińska broadens the time scale beyond human history in order to question the political and aesthetic frameworks through which we view and understand ourselves as humans. She also tries to imagine a post-neoliberal world.

Pomiędzy tabu a pornografią. Graficzne reprezentacje śmierci w prasie

Author(s): Łukasz Kałużny / Language(s): Polish Issue: 04/2012

In much‐cited essay “The Pornography of Death”, Goeffrey Gorer argued that, since the twentieth century, death had exchanged positions with sex as the taboo subject. Nevertheless, its portrayals had not completely disappeared, but rather re‐appeared in the form of entertainment genre – viewed as pornographic because of its brutality, exploitation, and distance from emotions like grief. This seminal claims are updated with a discussion of the relation between taboo and pornography in the context of contemporary media images of actual death. Examining the photographic coverage of death in one of the leading national Polish newspaper (also, compared to one German and one Australian), the article follows such questions as: How confrontational is that coverage? How actually visible and present is death? Does the news media participate in or challenge modern death taboo? Is there still much to value in Gorer’s argument in this context?

Photographs from 1887.

Author(s): Marcin Danielewski / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

The paper examines a collection of nineteenth-century photographs housed in the Iconographic Laboratory of the Special Collections Department of the University Library in Poznań. These unique photos were taken by Regierungsrat Meydenlender in 1887. Some additional prints of Meydenlender’s photos are also kept in the Museum of the City of Poznań. Illustrating the state of preservation of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Inowrocław, showing the then damage to its walls and alternations done to the church in the course of 1900–1902 reconstruction, the photographs provide a valuable source for any conservatory works. The article explores several issues related to this barely known photographic material.

Familial nostalgia

Author(s): Muhammad Asghar / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

Based on an ethnographic field research conducted in the domestic and public spheres of the province of Punjab (Pakistan), this paper discusses real images (the family photos) embedded in their narrative context. It contributes towards understanding the role play by photographs both in domestic and public spheres by focusing on their function and the effect they have on the everyday lives of people and it also explores the changing dynamics of this role in a micro-social process. My contention is that displaying photographs at home or in the workplace and looking at them brings not only emotional satisfaction and nostalgia but it also functions to help one to overcome the sorrow of the passing of time entails. Our research suggests that photographs are bond up with the private lives of people and serve as a form of “home entertainment”.

Projects - Images

Author(s): Martina Šimkovičová / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

Projection as a technical method to produce images and artworks has been existing long enough to develop certain conventions and modes of use. The invention of cinema happened almost parallel to the development of the psychoanalysis theories of Sigmund Freud. Projection became not only a word describing a technological process, but also of a mental activity, which can take place both in the artist and the spectator. Projection became also a tool for diverse artists and filmmakers of the the art avant-gardes of the 1920s. The search for aesthetics that could reflect the state of the contemporary society was paired with the striving for social change and progress, with plans, utopias, projects of a better society. Almost 100 years later, with my own artistic practice, I reflect upon the legacy of their visions and art. How far is the contemporary society dealing with the legacy of the modernity, of the striving for productivity, effectiveness and perfection today, in the, back then envisioned and now very present future?

Етнографският филм – документ, визуално изкуство или памет

Author(s): Veselka Toncheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 16/2018

The text interprets the ethnographic film as a document and research tool of visual anthropology, as a form of preservation or renewal of memory, but also as an object of documentary filmmaking, i.e. as a visual art. By presenting of different dominants, the text defines different functionality and meaning of the ethnographic film.

Две къщи и половина: за един етнографски филм и две експедиции в областта Долни Дебър, Албания

Author(s): Veselka Toncheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 16/2018

In 1912–1913 during the Balkan wars, after declaring of the indepen¬dence of Albania and the constitution of its new boundaries, the region of Dolni Debar was situated on the territory of Albania. The text presents the history of the population from the region according different Bul-garian sources and also the information about the realized in 2015 and 2016 two expeditions by a team of ethnologists. One of the results is an ethnographic film from the collected visual ethnographic materials. It presents the current situation in the region through the narrations of the local Christian population and through the documentation of the feast of the Transfiguration.

Трансформации и метаморфози на термина „дизайн“

Author(s): Dimitar Dobrevski / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 16/2018

The term “design” has already become an element of our daily vocabulary. From novelty, design has become something ordinary and ordi¬nary, losing some of its original charm unfortunately. The basic term of several professions – “design” – in the 1960s and 1970s was still an “ex¬otic” word, mainly found in some more spicy jokes, and today it is being used not only by specialists but also in everyday speech and has already become a part of the everyday vocabulary and of the most uninformed cit¬izen. Everyone says: “What design .. !!!” when a shiny new car passes by, or you see a new audio video device or a garment. Popularity often does not prevent the term from being misunderstood and the worse – interpreting quite a bit. For many journalists designers are mainly fashion cutters and seamstresses. This shows that the clarification of the emergence and semantics of this basic concept is still relevant.

The Game is Out There

Author(s): Lukasz Pawel Wojciechowski / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

Glitch represents an unexpected event, an occurrence during which the system swings away from planned operation or behavior. The term doesn’t reflect only the syntactic, logical or semantic error in the code but also an error caused by an external factor.

The Art of the Document: Photography and Trauma

Author(s): Marianna Michałowska / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

Od radzieckiej amnezji do ukraińskiej (nie)pamięci. Zagłada w pamięci kulturowej Ukrainy 1991–2017

Author(s): Roman Romantsov / Language(s): Polish Issue: 14/2018

W artykule podejmuję próbę analizy, jaki wpływ na reprezentacje Zagłady w pamięci kulturowej społeczeństwa ukraińskiego wywiera polityka historyczna. Główną tezę badawczą stanowi twierdzenie, że polityka pamięci wpływa na obecność Zagłady w pamięci kulturowej Ukrainy. W celu szerszego przedstawienia tematu sformułowałem następujące pytania badawcze: W jaki sposób dokonywała się zmiana w postrzeganiu Zagłady w dyskursie politycznym? Jaki wpływ mają instytucje państwowe na kształtowanie pamięci o Zagładzie? Jaką rolę odgrywają instytucje niepaństwowe w reprezentacji pamięci o Zagładzie w pamięci kulturowej? Jakie miejsce pamięć o Zagładzie zajmuje w teatrze, kinie i wystawach fotograficznych? Podstawowym założeniem badawczym jest przekonanie, że polityka historyczna wobec Zagłady jest częścią państwowej polityki pamięci. Mówiąc o pamięci kulturowej, odwołuję się do koncepcji Jana Assmanna i mam na myśli rodzaj pamięci zbiorowej, który wymaga upamiętnienia w formie materialnej lub rytualnej

FÓKUSZ / Ioana Szeman: Láthatatlan színházak

Author(s): Ioana Szeman / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 4/2018

This inquiry focuses on the question of how the figure of the passionate Gypsy has become so fashionable lately at costume parties, in soap operas and reality shows, yet without strengthening the Roma cultural identity itself. The fact that the Roma people are missing from the Romanian theatrical palette also sheds light on​ how the Roma are excluded from the institutional and state-supported forms of national culture.

Színre vitt állampolgárság. Romák, performansz és identitás az európai uniós Romániában

Author(s): László Fosztó / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 4/2018

Ioana Szeman’s new book, Staging Citizenship, reviewed by social anthropologist László Fosztó, discusses both the difficult socio-economic conditions and damaged cultural identity of the Roma people in Romania, as well as their performances and performative actions, carried out in different cultural spaces. The fieldwork​ conducted in the Roma community, depicted under a fictional name in this volume, sheds light on a series of stereotypes and representational problems associated with the Roma, as well as on the chasms in citizenship and on the cultural and political contexts of their characteristic art performances in Romania.

Charakterystyka i opracowanie zbioru archiwalnych negatywów w Bibliotece Akademii Sztuk Pięknych w Gdańsku

Author(s): Piotr Giziński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2018

The purpose of the article is to present a method of the treatment of the collection of archive negatives of the State Institution of Higher Education of Visual Arts in Gdańsk by the library of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. The article discusses the author’s own experience in the work on the photographical material and the relevant problems which were experienced by the library staff. One applied an experimental method in research. The experiences which were collected and described in the article may serve the task of the development of one’s own methods and may prompt librarians to engage in the treatment of photographical collections in their libraries. The process of the digitalisation of photographs sparked a great interest of the users of the library. When one initiates the scanning of materials, one may encounter logistic problems (e.g. the setting up of a workroom), financial problems (e.g. the purchase of a scanner and the relevant materials), also the methodology itself may become an obstacle. It is necessary to make a comprehensive inventory of photographs so that eventually they may be rendered accessible to the users of a reading room. This will contribute to the enhancement of the familiarisation with the history of the University and its influence upon the development of art in the region, and it may also influence the enhancement of the prestige of the scholarly institution. The treatment of a photograph is an interesting and also a difficult task, which requires a great deal of humility, dedication and patience on the part of the researcher.

Etnografsko-fotografski doprinos Radivoja Simonovića hrvatskoj etnologiji

Author(s): Aleksandra Muraj / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 23/2000

The paper discusses life and work of dr. Radivoj Simonovid (1858-1950), a physician from Sombor, a person of unusually wide field of interests, who took part in various activities and was equally interested in both natural and cultural phenomena. His rich writing opus contains the documented ethnographic materials, most of which describe way of life of the Dinaric cattle-breeders. Simonovid is also the author of an important photographic collection, characterized not only by its documentary value, but by the high aesthetic level as well.

Описание на образите – образи на описанието

Author(s): Dobrinka Parusheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

Невидяната история на Априлското въстание

Author(s): Petko Georgiev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

The present article attempts to elucidate some less known facts related to the process of writing of the book “History of the April Uprising“ by Dimitar Strashimirov. It gives answer to the question why the edition was published without the pictures ordered to famous photographs. In connection with this particular case, the article studies also the development of the photograph collection of the National Library in Plovdiv. The critical conclusion of the author is that sometimes from places of memory the Bulgarian archival and library repositories transform into “a knowledge graveyards“. This conclusion has its logical explanation in the text and, to some extent, it explains the “absence“ of the photographs from the history of the uprising. The appendix to the article contains a list of the available photographs in the Plovdiv Library related to the whole narrative about the writing of the history of theApril uprising.

Провокацията на изложбата. Нови постъпления в Народописния архив на ИЕФЕМ

Author(s): Elka Mincheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

Tенденции в развитието на видео блоговете в периода 01.10 – 31.12.2015 г.

Author(s): Victoria Marinova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2017

The main aims of the text is to present what are the prevailing trends and processes that take place in YouTube video blogs from 01.10. to 31.12.2015. For this purpose, a total of 50 video blogs have been compared, divided into five thematic categories, by examining the activity of the authors in the period, the approaches used to attract and retain the customer attention, the content theme and the degree of inclusion of products and services in mentioned period. The text is a part of the bachelor’s degree thesis, which was presented in the Department 'Radio and Television' of Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2016.

Границите в тракийската култова архитектура

Author(s): Adriana Sarbova / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 24/2019

A boundary can have different tangible and intangible forms, and it has a complex, usually subjective meaning since it depends on the perspective of the perceiving person. The boundary defines and changes the essence of what it surrounds. Architecture, as one of the earliest human activities aimed at enclosing spaces, is fairly able to express the complexity of this abstract term. Using both physical and metaphoric means, architecture sets boundaries defining oppositions like in/out, known/unknown, sacred/ profane, terrestrial/celestial. This distinguishing quality is most clearly pronounced in cult architecture, where part of the process of creating sacred atmosphere consists in juxtaposing and distinguishing the enclosed space to that of the profane (the environment). This paper considers some of the earliest examples of cult architecture, where the first boundaries were set, defining concrete space as sacred. Gradually, the structure of these buildings became more complex and developed into a whole system of material and virtual boundaries defining also the rules (rituals) of crossing them. For the aim of this paper I present and analyse Thracian cult buildings found on the territory of Bulgaria as representatives of the ancient cult architecture. It is my purpose to trace and identify different boundaries inherent in their structures and suggest interpretations of their symbolism.