As digital technologies are increasingly incorporated into daily experience there is a growing interest among students to utilise these technologies as part of their educational practice. This course will introduce students to the field of visual anthropology, providing a well-rounded overview of conceptual and practical methods. The aim is to take technologies with which students are already familiar and have a good working knowledge of — their own digital cameras, laptops and mobile phones — and to teach them to apply an anthropologist’s eye to the use of these technologies as part of a broader research methodology. In this course students will be asked to engage with current, readily accessible technologies and integrate their use into ethnographic, visually-oriented research. This undergraduate course is designed to give students a solid grounding in visual anthropological research techniques, such as observational filmmaking, as well as introducing them to a diverse range of relevant scholarly literature and experimental visual work. This course will articulate with existing postgraduate courses in Visual Culture Research, and establish a base from which students might go on to honours and/or postgraduate study using visual technologies as research tools.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will have the skills and knowledge to:
1. Identify and define key concepts in visual anthropology
2. Distinguish the key approaches and aims of ethnographic filmmaking
3. Apply anthropological analysis to visual social phenomena
4. Speak and write clearly about concepts, methods, theories as these apply in visual anthropology.
5. Produce visual work that demonstrates ethnographically informed attention to social life.
Indicative Assessment
- The “Single Shot”. Students will produce one observational shot using a moving camera, on a subject of the student’s choosing of 1-3 minutes in length. (20%) (LOs 1, 3 and 5)
- “Representing the Other”. Students will be required to produce a film-based portrait of a person. This assignment may consist of still or moving shots that are edited together in the observational style but can be of no more than 10 minutes in length. This assignment will be presented in the final week of class. (30%) (LOs 1, 3, 4 and 5)
- 2,500 word research essay on a theme of relevance to the field of visual anthropology. (30%) (LOs 1, 2, 3, 4)
- Presentation of one in-class summary of set weekly readings (10%) (LOs 1, 2, 4)
- Contribution to workshops and inclass discussions (10%) (LOs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
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Workload
One three hour lecture/workshop/tutorial per week for 12 weeks. A total of 120 hours preparation and class time across the semester.
Requisite and Incompatibility
Prescribed Texts
Weekly readings as specified in the course guide will be available on the class Wattle site. Preliminary recommended readings are:
Pink, S. 2007. Doing Visual Ethnography, Sage
MacDougall, D. 2006 The Corporeal Image, Princeton
Assumed Knowledge
To be admitted to this course students must have access to a laptop computer, preferably Macintosh, with basic editing software, and digital camera, and be confident with the use of these. The course assumes no background in film-making but relies upon the students' ability to handle their own equipment. No specialist IT support will be available.Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
If you are a domestic graduate coursework or international student you will be required to pay tuition fees. Students continuing in their current program of study will have their tuition fees indexed annually from the year in which you commenced your program. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 1
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are an undergraduate student and have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). You can find your student contribution amount for each course at Fees. Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
| Year | Fee | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1994-2003 | $1164 | |
| 2014 | $2478 | |
| 2013 | $2472 | |
| 2012 | $2472 | |
| 2011 | $2424 | |
| 2010 | $2358 | |
| 2009 | $2286 | |
| 2008 | $2286 | |
| 2007 | $2286 | |
| 2006 | $2286 | |
| 2005 | $2286 | |
| 2004 | $1926 |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 1994-2003 | $2574 |
| 2014 | $3246 |
| 2013 | $3240 |
| 2012 | $3240 |
| 2011 | $3240 |
| 2010 | $3240 |
| 2009 | $3240 |
| 2008 | $3240 |
| 2007 | $3132 |
| 2006 | $3132 |
| 2005 | $3132 |
| 2004 | $2916 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.
