Visual and New Media Review is a multimedia forum for expanding the boundaries of academic and artistic engagement. Working at the intersections of anthropology, contemporary art, media, sound and film studies, and the digital humanities, the section seeks to sustain dialogues among these kindred pursuits and to provide a platform for experimental and innovative work, as well as critical assessment and reviews of scholarship, film, and visual culture.
(De)compositions: A Review of Anthropocene
Our entrance into Anthropocene was initiated by a loud noise of what we imagined to be a bomb exploding. Repeated on a loop from a concealed source, this sonic ... More
Streaming Closeness: A Review of Present.Perfect
Since its inception in 2005, the live-streaming industry has grown into a $5 billion enterprise. Today, hundreds of thousands of Chinese anchors (主播; zhu bo) ar... More
Review: I’ve got a little problem
I’ve got a little problem (2018) Directed by Ren Hang Documentary film, 44 min. * * *... More
Letting Stories Speak: A Review of Dead Souls
Dead Souls (2018) begins with this still. It is all the context that the documentarist, Wang Bing, provides for the viewer. Then, for almost eight hours, surv... More
Book Forum: Violence’s Fabled Experiment
Richard Baxstrom and Todd Meyers’s Violence’s Fabled Experiment (2018) is a superb account of the relationship between images, violence, and history. It is al... More
Storying Otherwise. A Review of Donna Haraway: Story Telling for Earthly Survival
“We need other kinds of stories,” Donna Haraway implores as she faces the camera. “Storying otherwise,” in Haraway’s expression, is an apt characterization of... More
The Politics of Compilation: Around India with Sandhya Suri
How does one approach the past? Whether as a vast, uneven field, a spiral, or a stairway, spatial metaphors fail to do justice to time. Excavating memory, as ... More
The Margins of a Home: A Review of Familienleben
Some bodies run toward loud noises. Others flee from such sounds, running away as fast as they can. Rosa Hannah Ziegler’s Familienleben (2018) incites attentio... More
Sketching Visual Anthropology: An Interview with Illustrator Judit Ferencz
In I Swear I Saw This, Michael Taussig (2011) chronicles his travels in Colombia through his mostly colorless drawings. He writes that he is “not much of a dr... More
The Seeds of Divinity: An Interview with Antonia Foias and Robert Rock
This spring and summer, the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) features an exhibition entitled The Seeds of Divinity, curated by Antonia Foias, Chair and Pr... More