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”Scientific Looking, Looking at Science”

”Scientific Looking, Looking at Science”. Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright Practices of Looking: An Introduction of Visual Culture. Characteristics of scientific imaging/images. it comes with confident authority behind (279, 292) assumption of objective knowledge (279)

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”Scientific Looking, Looking at Science”

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  1. ”Scientific Looking, Looking at Science” Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright Practices of Looking: An Introduction of Visual Culture

  2. Characteristics of scientific imaging/images • it comes with confident authority behind (279, 292) • assumption of objective knowledge (279) • provides the capacity to see the ”truths” otherwise not available to the human eye (281) ~ X-ray invented in the 1890s ~ medical gaze to see the hidden truth • new frontiers of vision (281) → categorization/classification (!) • they are held to present accurate/self-evident proof of certain facts (286) • it can blur the border between the medical and the personal (293)→ non-medical cultural function • encourage emotional bonding (e.g. between the mother and the foetus) ~ more effective than the text (293)

  3. What is the basis for the assumption of photographic truth? • camera as an objective device for capturing reality (280) • no intentionality ~ the truth is told without mediation or subjective distortion • it is an all-seeing instrument (281)

  4. Video recordings and their effects • Video conveying a high-degree of authenticity/sense of realism (287) → Why? Due to what? Formal conventions: • low-tech • consumer grade video/film • grainy black and white • hand-held camera • long takes • unscripted action • no selective framing

  5. Video recordings and their effectsThe Rodney King case • Rodney King video producing its counter-effect by employing the scientific imaging techniques: • breaking the flow of the filmic narrative to stills/frames (288) • eliminating its time aspect → discrete elements of the visual text will tell a separate story/narrative (289-290) • sharpening • enhancement • off-focus elements brought into focus • use of interpretative language → undermined the authenticity of the video, the officers were acquitted

  6. Anthropometric/clinical imaging&Genetic mapping of the body • makes distinctions of the races • creation of the images of the Other in the name of scientific inquiry (284) • Objectification of the human being (285) → they become racialized subjects • effacing subjectivity • Clinical regime of knowledge (299) • Vision as primary avenue of knowledge → sight takes precedence over the other senses (discredits ”felt evidence”) → camera as a foreign body (306) • biological and cultural differences marked by genetics (301) → the body as an accessible digital map → the body as a communication centre (302)

  7. Conclusion • PRACTICES OF LOOKING: central to discriminatory systems (303) • Stereotypes are constructed through them SCIENCE IS NEVER SEPARATE FROM SOCIAL MEANING OR CULTURAL ISSUES (294) • What science signifies depends on social, political, cultural meanings. • The nature of science practiced in a culture is a political issue. (294) → new subject positions created (295)

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