Bildphilosophie
Final Report Abstract
The aim of the academic Network "Bildphilosophie" was the development of a philosophical approach to the phenomenon "Picture" in the context of general media philosophical reflection. One main concern of a philosophy of pictures has been the question what it means to be able to communicate with pictures and how beings that possess such a picture competence would have to be defined. Against the background of these general and anthropological questions, the network focused on a methodological reflection of the wide range of picture theory research. In recent years, this research has been expanded to various disciplines, and this is where the value of the network becomes particularly visible, as it has worked toward the systematization of these different approaches and provided methodological support for future research. The network’s results have been summarized in four conference proceedings, one volume about picture methodology, and one glossary. The main function of the network "Bildphilosophie" was to accomplish a methodological instrumentation for interdisciplinary as well as transdisciplinary collaboration. To realize this goal, a comprehensive volume focusing on methodological issue has been published, which ultimately turned out to be more challenging and sophisticated than was initially expected. To ensure the understanding of each method, the volume has been divided into two parts. The first part contains articles about the general and theoretical background of the methods in question. In contrast, the second part contains detailed portrays of each method, which include concrete examples of applications. To picture the variety of methods as appropriate as possible, the network also collaborated with external researchers. With respect to the Network's overall aim, the volume focuses on picture theoretical methods in its specific historical and theoretical context. A detailed, comprehensive, and comparative discussion of the methods from this interdisciplinary perspective turned out not to be possible. The methodological volume is complemented by a glossary, which contains central picture theoretical terms and might get used by any particular approach. To complete the glossary, the members of the network have collaborated with various external contributors. Furthermore, the glossary is available online, and offers a number of interactive options to its users. Initially, the glossary was conceived to contain 250 articles, which were classified in six research perspectives and 21 subcategories. At present, 150 articles have been completed, 90 of which were written by network members. Many articles exceeded the designated 4 pages of manuscript. Even in its current state the glossary already achieves an inventory of salient picture theoretical terms. As it has been created with the free available software “Mediawiki”, the articles are accessible for the general public. To keep the glossary up to date, new articles are published continuously. A list of the completed lemmata is provided on the homepage, along with a visualization of their structural hierarchy.
Publications
- Homo pictor und animal symbolicum. Zu den Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer philosophischen Bildanthropologie. IMAGE - Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft, Ausgabe 14, Juli 2011, Special Issue/Themenheft, 83 S.
Halawa, Mark A.
- Bilder als Gründe. Köln: Halem Verlag 2013, 152 S.
Harth, Manfred, Steinbrenner, Jakob
- Enacting Images - Representation Revisited. Köln: Halem Verlag 2013, 138 S.
Kondor, Zsuzsanna
- Auf dem Sprung zum bewegten Bild. Narration, Serie und (proto-)filmische Apparate. Köln: Halem Verlag, 2014, 160 S.,
Grabbe, Lars C., Liebsch, Dimitri, Rupert-Kruse, Patrick
- Bild und Methode. Theoretische Hintergründe und methodische Verfahren der Bildwissenschaft, Köln: Halem Verlag 2014, 520 S.
Netzwerk Bildphilosophie (Hrsg.)
