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.
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
Chemical Immersions: The Chemo-Ethnography Installation at #AmAnth2017
Stepping into the Chemo-Ethnography installation felt a bit like walking into a party. Noisy, excited conversation filled the dark, hot room, which was lit by s... More
Sonic Registers and Observational Techniques: A Review of Linefork
Sound precedes most imagery and all meaning: it causes trajectories and orientations to rebound, as though its resonance and timbre mark affective and atmosph... More
Making the Rounds: Ethnographic Film in Circulation
In April 2017, Melissa Lefkowitz and Alia Ayman invited five anthropologists, filmmakers, and industry professionals whose work is integral to thinking about ... More
Deserts of Polyphonic Longing: A Review of El Mar La Mar
The world appears tranquil at its edges. There, on the radiating borders between this and that, there’s a slight fog, or the thinnest of desert dust: almost f... More
Watery Worlds: A Review of Helena Wittman and Theresa George’s Drift
Imagine a giant crocodile is paddling in the primeval ocean, back and forth, circling around, constantly mixing the mud with the water. Everything is in motio... More