The Subjective Object [electronic resource].

K Verlag 2012

Open access content

The Subjective Object engages with the controversial site of the ethnographic museum and the role of the archive. In particular, the 1920’s photographic archive of  from India by the German physical anthropologist and racist theorist Egon von Eickstedt (1892–1965) serves as a case study for an investigation into the role of historical artifacts in light of contemporary political situations. The nine interviews with curators, artists, anthropologists, and social workers provide the core of the book actively discussing the complicated issues around the archive’s function in producing knowledge. An annotated thread of images serves as a critical apparatus addressing the visual history of ethnographic display and classification practices—both in the scientific field as well as the cultural field at large. Questioning the assumption that the archive presents the “fact” of the “Other,” three literary texts counterpoint the inherent fantasies within scientific research. Just as the book begins with an archive—the Eickstedt photos—the book ends with a new archive—photos of the exhibition The Subjective Object—(Re)Appropriating Anthropological Images at the GRASSI Ethnographic Museum of Leipzig—illustrating the project’s desire to not only engage with the history of display but also to propose a future of display strategies and social engagement.
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Nicola Beißner
Anna Dobrucki
Jesko Fezer
Alexandra Karentzos
Carola Krebs
Julia Kurz
Britta Lange
Anja Lückenkemper
Barbara Mahlknecht
Katja T. Meyer
Meghnath
Ksenija Orelj
Christopher Pinney
Theo Rathgeber
Raqs Media Collective
Philip Scheffner
Katharina Schniebs
Nefeli Skarmea
Anna-Sophie Springer
Nora Sternfeld
Edda Wilde
Franz Kafka
Brion Gysin
Suzan-Lori Parks
Timm Hänecke