BSocSc Social Anthropology

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Manchester University is at the forefront of Visual Anthropology, with research carried out in ethnographic film, photography, sound and mixed media at the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology. Art, Sound and Images: an Introduction to Visual Anthropology will expand undergraduate access to this area of expertise by giving first-year students an introduction to five areas of study and practice in Visual Anthropology: art, digital media, photography, sound and film. This course is delivered in semester 2 and follows on from Introduction to Visual Anthropology in semester 1. Each year we will offer only two options from the five different blocks (Art and Creative Practices; Technologies of the Imagination; Photography and Anthropology; Sound and Soundscapes; Ethnographic films/videos and anthropological knowledge).

Combining theory and practice, we will explore key insights visual anthropologists have developed to generate anthropological knowledge beyond conventional textual analysis and written ethnographic.

The module will spark students to creatively engage with social and cultural phenomenon through a series of guided practical exercises for each area. The aim is to provide students with intellectual and practical tools to explore the intersection between anthropology and non-textual means of approaching and understanding the world. Hence, in addition to using anthropology to enquiring about cultural audio-visual production, students will be stimulated to use art and audio-visual means as ways of understanding the social world anthropologically. 
 

Compulsory for BSocSc Social Anthropology - Level One

The course has three inter-related aims:

• Provide an understanding of the main developments in the discipline of visual anthropology.
• Introduce to some of the key intellectual and ethical debates that have shaped visual anthropology critique and practice.
• Give students the opportunity to use art and audiovisual media anthropologically to explore anthropological topics.

This module is team-taught in four blocks of five weeks each (art, photography, sound, film). The order of the blocks is flexible in order to accommodate departmental teaching requirements and periods of research leave. Each week will have a two-hour session consisting of lectures, group discussions and other practice-based tasks as set by course giver; and weekly seminars/tutorials where students will discuss readings and receive feedback on their practice-based exercises from GTAs.

Students will work in groups using their own smartphones to create at least one audio-visual exercise for each block; a minimum of four exercises throughout the course. The media created will be edited in a user-friendly web platform (i.e. Adobe Express) and submitted to Blackboard.

Gain an introductory knowledge of the main debates on the use of media in anthropology.

Critically evaluate photographs, films and sound recordings reflecting on the conditions of productions.

Gain insight into key debates on authorship and ethics.

Understand the specific contributions that audiovisual media can bring to anthropology.

Learn the basics of still photography, sound recording and video making.

Plan a small project and justify the choice of media in the light of the research question.

Design and realise a web-based “multimedia essay” through an intuitive drag-and- drop interface.

Write in complementary way to the audiovisual components of a multimedia essay.

Make critical use of a variety of media sources within and outside anthropology.

Present arguments effectively with the support of a variety of media, and in a format that is easily shared online.

Collaborate effectively in small groups.

• Each semester: 2 x multi-media essay (audio-visual submssion + 1000 words). Both due end of semester. 
   

 Formative assessment:

• Some practice-based exercise across the two blocks in each semester, with a minimum of four exercises through semesters 1 and 2. Students will work in groups using their own smartphones to share material outside of classroom hours to make or record art and audiovisual material, which they will edit in a web platform (Adobe Express). Provision of a small compact camera will be made for those students who do not own a smartphone. 

Feedback on formative exercises will be provided during tutorials. Tutors (GTAs) and lecturers will select a sample to be discussed during lectures.

Summative assessment:

• At the end of each block, students will submit 1 x multimedia essay composed of one 1000 words essay and aural or visual materials, worth 100% of the mark. The textual and aural or visual components of the essay are given equal weighting in the process of marking. A total of 4 multimedia essays, 2 per semester.
• Students will use their own smartphones or other kids of audio-video recording devices to make or record art and audiovisual material, which they will edit in a web platform (Adobe Spark). Provision of a small compact camera will be made for those students who do not own a smartphone.
• The media criteria are as follows: artworks (between 1 and 12), photographs (minimum 10, maximum 20), a sound work (for recordings a minimum length of 5 minutes and maximum of 10 minutes), and for a video (around 5 minutes).

 The material will be edited and presented in Adobe Express, or an alternative platform.

The 1500-word essay will be conceived and written individually, and submitted to Turnitin.

Feedback on summative assessment will be provided individually through Turnitin/Blackboard

• Bell, Joshua A. 2003. "Looking to See: Reflections on Visual Repatriation in the Purari Delta, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea." in Museums and Source Communities: A Routledge Reader, edited by Peers, Laura and Brown, Alison., 111–121. London: Routledge Press.
• Bradley, J., P. Adgemis & L. Haralampou. 2014. “Why Can't They Put Their Names?”: Colonial Photography, Repatriation and Social Memory, History and Anthropology, 25:1, 47- 71,
• Buckley, Liam. 2014. “Photography and Photo-Elicitation After Colonialism”. Cultural Anthropology 29 (4):720-43.
• Cox, Rupert A., Andrew Irving, and Christopher Wright, 2016. Beyond Text: Critical Practice and Sensory Anthropology. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Cox, Rupert. 2018. ‘Anthropology of Sound’. In Anthropology Beyond Text, 1–5. The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Ferrarini, Lorenzo. 2020. ‘Photographing as an anthropologist. Notes on developing a photo ethnographic practice in Basilicata’. In Sonic Ethnography: identity, heritage and creative research practice in Basilicata, southern Italy. Manchester: Manchester University Press (forthcoming).
• Herzfeld, M. 2001 Anthropology: Theoretical Practice in Culture and Society Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
• Pink, S. 2011. Multimodality, Multisensoriality and Ethnographic Knowing: Social Semiotics and the Phenomenology of Perception. Qualitative Research 11, no. 3: 261-276
• Pink, Sarah. 2015. Doing sensory ethnography. London: Sage.
• Rice, T. 2003. Soundselves: An Acoustemology of sound and self in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Anthropology Today. 19: 4-9.
• Schafer, R. Murray. 1994. The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Destiny Books (First edition, Knopf, 1977), 3-12.
• Stoller, P. 1984. Sound in Songhay Cultural Experience. American Ethnologist, Vol. 11, No. 3. (Aug., 1984), pp. 559-570.

Torresan, A. 2018. Guto and Graça: Ethnographic Film and Storytelling. Visual Anthropology From Latin America, Special Issue in Anthrovision, 6(2): online.