In this course, we implement a new method for reflecting on the visual politics of peace and war: interactive peace imagery (IPI). We focus it on our contemporary European moment as it is reflected in the Eastern European regions most directly affected by the renewal of war and geopolitical rivalry.
Emphasizing images’ interpretive openness and surplus of meaning, IPI helps to unearth, (re)vitalize and capitalize on the plurality of meanings images always carry with them. In IPI, images serve as vehicles by means of which students learn to critically think about politics, culture, and society and the subject positions conditioning their performance within these wider cultural and political configurations.
In the course, we focus on digitization and active interaction (seeing – changing – sharing) in a non-hierarchic teaching environment: students interactively engage with visual images by regarding existing images, elaborating on them, changing them, sharing the changed images with their fellow students or producing original images. Students become involved in the production process and their responsibility for both the image and the knowledge claims attached to it increases.
- Opettaja
Rune Saugmann Andersen