The Disobedience of Seeing
Steyerl, Foucault, Butler
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58519/aesthinv.v5i2.12980Keywords:
ambiguity, aesthetics, ethics, politics, Hito Steyerl, Roland BarthesAbstract
This paper addresses the subject’s relationship to visual culture and its norms. I start from the fact that contemporary visual culture presents itself as a constant circulation of images that always bring with them a certain ‘politics of truth’, which includes a normative framing of what is and is not considered human. I propose the possibility of an ethico-political resistance to this framing on the part of the perceiving subject, who is simultaneously shaped by this framing. First, I focus on the problem of the disobedience of seeing as an ethico-political stance towards the ‘politics of truth’ in the framework of Foucault’s thought as it applies to several of Hito Steyerl’s artworks (‘Politics of Truth’ and ‘The Courage of Truth’). I next discuss the tension between the circulation of images and the agency of the seeing subject with reference to Judith Butler’s ethical and political approach to visual culture, arguing for an ethics of photography that transcends the Foucauldian framework.
Downloads
References
Barthes, Roland. 1981. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. New York: Hill and Wang. trans. Richard Howard.
Bierhanzl, Jan. 2021. Estetika ambiguity. Myšlení současnosti. Praha: Karolinum.
Butler, Judith. 2002. “What is Critique? An Essay on Foucault’s Virtue.” In The Political, edited by David Ingram, 212–228. Blackwell.
------. 2009. Frames of War: When is Life Grievable. London, New York: Verso.
------. 2015. Senses of the Subject. New York: Fordham University Press.
Foucault, Michel. 1997. The Politics of Truth. New York: Semiotext(e). eds. Sylvère Lotringer and Lysa Hochroth, translated into English by Lysa Hochroth.
------. 2007. Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-1978. Basingstoke; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
------. 2011. The Courage of the Truth (The Government of Self and Others II) – Lectures at the Collège de France 1983-1984. Basingstoke; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gros, Frédéric. 2004. “Michel Foucault, Une philosophie de la vérité.” In Michel Foucault. Philosophie: anthologie, edited by Arnold I. Davidson Frédéric Gros, 11–25. Paris: Gallimard.
MacQueen, Kathleen. 2015. “All that is Marvellous: Hito Steyerl.” Shifting Connections.
Steyerl, Hito. 2003. “Politics of Truth. Documentarism in the Art Field.” Springerin.
------. 2009. “In the Defense of the Poor Image.” E-Flux.
------. 2010. “Politics of Art: Contemporary Art ant the Transition to
Post-Democracy.” E-Flux
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Jan Bierhanzl
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. Note: up to volume 4 issue 1, an incorrect copyright line appears in the PDFs of the articles.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
How to Cite
