Seeing Politics and the Politics of Seeing
Political ideas, ideologies and attitudes are not just shaped by arguments: they are part of our political imagination, and this imagination is crucially shaped by visual media. This strand of CSPI explores the ways in which ideology is constituted by and through images, both in terms of their production – how do images articulate, reinforce, or alter political ideas and perceptions? – and in their consumption – how does ideology affect the way we perceive and interpret visual media?
CSPI is investigating such questions in both historical and contemporary contexts. These are inter-linked strands of inquiry, to test our hypothesis that the effectiveness of political images relies, crucially, on their familiarity. Modern photos in particular tend to recycle existing visual templates and apply them to new situations: often with problematic consequences. Their ideological effectiveness relies centrally on this process of recycling: our gaze is attracted by images that are, apparently, easily legible because they are familiar. Conversely, the production of new images also changes the way we look back on historical images – a link that we have explored, for example, in terms of the relationship between Holocaust images and contemporary photos of victims and refugees.
Current projects