Abstract

ANDRADE, X.  and  ELHAIK, Tarek. Anthropology of the Image: An Introduction. Antipod. Rev. Antropol. Arqueol. [online]. 2018, n.33, pp.3-11. ISSN 1900-5407.  https://doi.org/10.7440/antipoda33.2018.01.

The anthropology of the image is an emerging field of inquiry. It is the result of three separate yet closely interconnected lines of flight: the reconfiguration and expansion of the conversation between art, philosophy, and anthropology; anthropology's shift beyond the classic focus on ethnos towards strategies of assemblage; and the recognition of the need to curate the daily practices of anthropology itself.

Decisively not the result of developments rooted in visual anthropology -which are noticeably dependent on the ethnographic documentary and its offshoots, trapped in issues regarding representation- the anthropology of the image is based on the activation of several strategies and logics which work against the grain of ethnographic method and manuals of methodology. The reshaping of the figure of the anthropologist as a conceptual persona and the mutual intrusions of anthropology and contemporary art -both prominent features of the anthropology of the image- ultimately amount to a radical redefinition of the nature of fieldwork and the empirical approach. In fact, fieldwork is being transformed by design and curatorial practices and redefined as image-work. The curation of images also emerges as a surrogate, among others, to the comparative method.

Keywords : Contemporary art; Assemblage; conceptualism; curatorship; image.

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