VISUALEMPIRES
Empires of the Visual - public visual economies in Southern Africa and the genesis of African modernities
| Coordinatore | UNIVERSITAET BASEL
Organization address
address: Petersplatz 1 contact info |
| Nazionalità Coordinatore | Switzerland [CH] |
| Totale costo | 227˙851 € |
| EC contributo | 227˙851 € |
| Programma | FP7-PEOPLE
Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) |
| Code Call | FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IOF |
| Funding Scheme | MC-IOF |
| Anno di inizio | 2011 |
| Periodo (anno-mese-giorno) | 2011-07-01 - 2014-06-30 |
Partecipanti
| # | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
UNIVERSITAET BASEL
Organization address
address: Petersplatz 1 contact info |
CH (BASEL) | coordinator | 227˙851.10 |
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Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)
'The project aims to explore and synthesize the history of modern public visual production and consumption in Southern Africa. It is based on the assumption that the varied Southern African visual economies are framed and patterned by a South African claim to hegemonic control of visual production and communication. As in many other realms of society the country's imperial outreach on its neighbors remains very tangible up to date. Hence the project focuses on what has recently been termed the South African empire, an imperial formation including South Africa as the metropole and Namibia and Mozambique as its main peripheries. While the genesis of these relations of power, the discursive interdependencies, and South Africa’s attempt to homogenize visual culture form the point of departure of this project, the various subaltern voices and dynamics that counter the hegemonic claim are also considered. The project will hence engage in an inquiry of the complex history of entangled visual economies throughout an enormous geographical and socio-political space, which is Southern Africa. Three particular domains of visual production will help to illustrate this point: landscape design, poster histories and struggle photography, all of which allow the consideration of various sites and spaces of visual representation and communication in the public domain, and of different agents who become active within the visual cultures the project is concerned with. Methodologically the research is based on archival studies including known and hidden archives, on reception studies with focus groups in the three countries, as well as on the synthesis of various existing case studies and literature.'
Introduzione (Teaser)
Historians are exploring the concept of Southern Africa as an empire by collating historical visual and interview data from Namibia and South Africa.
Descrizione progetto (Article)
Southern Africa has become known as a type of modern empire, with South Africa exerting its socioeconomic influence on surrounding countries. Evidence of imperial outreach through visual communication routes by South Africa would provide added evidence of this new so-called empire.
The EU-funded VISUALEMPIRES project is investigating such visual evidence, with a specific focus on spatial features and visual representations in Namibia and South Africa. The project emphasises visual clues around three major 'empire indicators': roads and railways, the built environment, and fences and borders.
VISUALEMPIRES has investigated large archives of photographs and posters at various Namibian and South African universities, libraries and museums. Researchers also examined private collections and conducted interviews in parts of Namibia and in South Africa's Eastern Cape province.
Furthermore, the project has hosted several workshops, courses, seminars and conferences to disseminate its findings. Future dissemination activities will include travelling and static exhibitions in Europe and Southern Africa.The work of VISUALEMPIRES is contributing to a paradigm shift in the concept of Southern Africa as an empire.