As we are currently witnessing what is often called the sixth mass extinction, photography is facing a new challenge. It can either respond with acting upon the “rescuist” impulse which often...Show moreAs we are currently witnessing what is often called the sixth mass extinction, photography is facing a new challenge. It can either respond with acting upon the “rescuist” impulse which often arises under such dark prospects (by keeping endangered species alive in the form of an image), or follow a more self-reflective path. In my written as well as visual research, I use lichens — the symbiotical growth of algae, fungus and bacteria — as a metaphor through which to explore the precarity of our environmental conditions. The resulting photograph which is normally said to “immortalise" turns out to be a trap, as lichens become less likely to die as they grow older. This thesis aims to investigate how photographing extraordinarily durable organisms in times of ecological instability challenges the notion of photography as an embalming practice. It delves into the aesthetic implications of the current condition — joined under the term Anthropocene, by introducing the concepts of Timothy Morton’s “hyperobjects” and Tim Ingold’s “leaky things.” Subsequently, it scales up to the level of photography as a medium declared dead multiple times, often following major technological shifts. Here, extinction as an affective threat takes the place of such a disturbance, and, understood as a generative process, serves as the basis for speculating about the future of photography.Show less
In the 5th century BC, athletes in Greece increasingly became heroized and celebrated in legend and cult. Through alleged displays of dúnamis, aretē, and other parts of their narratives, athletes...Show moreIn the 5th century BC, athletes in Greece increasingly became heroized and celebrated in legend and cult. Through alleged displays of dúnamis, aretē, and other parts of their narratives, athletes were compared to mythic heroes and associated with a ‘heroic paradigm’ that made it possible for them to gain enough kleos or ‘fame’ to turn into new heroes and to become incorporated in Greek legends. The aim of this thesis is to compare these ‘heroic athletes’ to non-heroized athletes in a threefold way: by looking at athletic feats and displays of strength (dúnamis), other ways in which athletes measured up to a heroic paradigm in life (aretē), and alleged manners of death and possible cults as they were narrated in Greek legends. In doing so, it lays bare similarities and differences between accounts of heroic athletes and those who were not heroized, and takes a step towards applying the notion of kleos to the ideological motivations behind Greek processes of heroization in the 5th century BC.Show less
