Vision and visuality: Regimes of knowledge and appropriation of others in ethnographic museums and ethnographic film

Abstract

This paper presents some similarities between epistemological paradigms in anthropological museum exhibitions and ethnographic films. Both the museum and ethnographic films are analysed as the models of representations based on the domination of vision as mode of knowledge through which curators and film ma­kers produce subjects of their representations. Paradigmatic shifts in the 1980s with the critique of 'modern constitution' and domination of vision as a major 'sense of knowledge' in Western thought had great impact on museum curators and ethnographic film authors who in the last two decades tried to incorporate those changes in their practices. The paper presents some examples of film and ethno­graphic practices that followed those theoretical shifts and try to deconstruct their own representational practices and evaluate the results of those attempts.

U ovom radu predstavljene su paralele između antropoloških muzejskih postavki i etnografskog filma kao modela reprezentacije koji se zasnivaju na dominaciji vizuelnog kao specifičnog oblika znanja o svetu kroz koje se objekti tih reprezentacija proizvode. Promena paradigme antropološke discipline osamdestih godina prošlog veka, kritika velikog 'modernističkog ustrojstva' i dominacije vizuelnog kao paradigmatskog 'čula saznavanja' imala je velikog uticaja i na muzejske kustose i na autore etnografskog filma koji su u protekle dve decenije na različite načine pokušavali da na tu promenu odgovore. U radu su predstavljeni i kritički evaluirani neki od pokušaja dekonstrukcije i ponovnog uspostavljanja muzejske i filmske antropološke prakse.