Transforming Visuality: Reciprocal Relations of Image and Society

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Claudia Dreke, since 4/2020
• Subject Area: Sociological Theory ; Empirical Social Research ; Communication Sciences
• Term: from 2018 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 413866949

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

Images do not simply depict social realities, but can also have a formative and transformative effect on them. Central to the network was the question of how exactly this social impact of images unfolds, a question that has hardly been addressed in the social sciences. The aim was to record and systematically describe various relations between visuality and society in an interdisciplinary manner. The basis was a heuristic concept of image and pictoriality as materialised images – from there, worlds of perception and imagination were to be explored in their interactions. The discussions therefore centred on the role of images and visuality as a transformative force for society. The network work, critically supported by external guests from research and practice, increasingly focussed on power and imagination in the context of photography as well as multimedia in the context of digital social media. This was related to the presence of images in society and the visual social debates during the project period and corresponds to the forms of expression and appearance of the visual beyond the project. The different disciplinary approaches of the network members (sociology, educational science, visual science, communication science, art science) were a necessary prerequisite for dealing with specific questions about the enormous social power of the photographic in particular, but also of other image forms: in this way, thematic aspects of images, pictoriality and image practices could be grasped and differentiated from various theoretical and empirical perspectives and thus do justice to the complexity of the topic. Looking back on the joint discussions, another overarching aspect has become central: the collaborative image viewing practice. This term is based on the realisation that pictorial constitution of reality and its social effects can only be grasped in interdisciplinary, essentially open-ended approaches. As a joint result of the work, eight transdisciplinary and interrelated key concepts were identified and elaborated, which became central to the context of transformative visuality: Epistemology and transformative visuality; Platform/social media; Composition and positioning; Affect/affectation; The photographic; Body/corporeality; Memory/memory pictures and visibility. A framework text introduces the term „transformative visuality“ including the terms „image“, „imagery“, „image forms“ and „image practices“. Central to this is the assumption that images can contribute to both social stabilisation and social transformation. Times of crisis and upheaval seem to have a particular affinity for this. In a society determined by images, visual competence is therefore fundamental – this is another key finding of the network.

Publications

• Kulturen und Praktiken des Körpers. Handbuch Kultursoziologie, 1-17.
  Meuser, Michael & Kirchhoff, Nicole
  
• Digitale Bildpraktiken. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
  Schreiber, Maria
  
• 3 Digitale Ambivalenz? Übergegensätzlichkeiten in Bildkommunikation auf Social Media. Sozialwissenschaftliche Analysen von Bild- und Medienwelten, 55-78.
  Schreiber, Maria
  
• Bilder, soziale Medien und das Politische.
  Kanter, Heike; Brandmayr, Michael & Köffler, Nadja (Eds.)
  
• Körperbilder und Bildkörper als soziale Praxis von Jugendlichen (Dissertation). Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena
  Kirchhoff, N.
  
• Zwischen Optimierung und ludischen Gegenstrategien. MedienPädagogik: Zeitschrift für Theorie und Praxis der Medienbildung, 42, 259-280.
  Flasche, Viktoria & Carnap, Anna
  
• Jugendliche Selbstentwürfe an der Social-Media-Schnittstelle. Ästhetische Artikulationen Jugendlicher auf und mit Social-Media-Plattformen zwischen 2012 und 2018 (Dissertation). Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlange
  Flasche, V.
  
• Identifikation und Illusion – Körperbilder auf Social Media. In B. Richter & Museum für Gestaltung Zürich (Hrsg.), Talking Bodies: Bild, Macht, Wirkung (S. 89-99). Lars Müller Publishers
  Schreiber, M.
  
• Social figures as elements of sociological theorizing. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 25(2), 208-227.
  Schlechtriemen, Tobias