This thesis analyses the racial relations and political participation of the Brazilian public during the reign of ex-president Lula da Silva, (2003-2011). This thesis realises an analysis of...Show moreThis thesis analyses the racial relations and political participation of the Brazilian public during the reign of ex-president Lula da Silva, (2003-2011). This thesis realises an analysis of national identity and identity politics between the years 2003-2011 in combination with an analysis of racial representation within the government, but also within Brazilian society during this time in relation to the legacy of the theory of racial democracy. This thesis analyses whether or not the socio-economic setting for ethnic minorities such as Afro-Brazilians has improved since the colonial era.Show less
This thesis looks at Chikamatsu Monzaemon's domestic puppet play "The Love Suicide at Amijima" as a multi-level performance. It revisits the textual interpretations of Donald H. Shively and Donald...Show moreThis thesis looks at Chikamatsu Monzaemon's domestic puppet play "The Love Suicide at Amijima" as a multi-level performance. It revisits the textual interpretations of Donald H. Shively and Donald Keene, and the musical interpretation of Andrew Gerstle, while adding a study of visual elements for a full interpretation. It argues that textual elements alone do not lead to an adequate interpretation. Furthermore, it argues that Chikamatsu's stylized representation of reality, as opposed to a naturalistic one, does not impact the quality negatively, as is suggested by Shively.Show less
This thesis aims to examine the conventions governing both photojournalism and art with regard to war photography. More specifically, how are conventions in representations of war in...Show moreThis thesis aims to examine the conventions governing both photojournalism and art with regard to war photography. More specifically, how are conventions in representations of war in photojournalism interrogated by artists and what conventions in turn govern artistic approaches to war photography? The relationship between art and war photography will be examined in relation to three artworks, which present a complementary approach towards the discussed issues.Show less
From 1630 to 1654 the Dutch West India Company have succeeded in establishing a colony in the Northeast part of Brazil, then under the dominance of Portugal. Its most preeminent governor, Johan...Show moreFrom 1630 to 1654 the Dutch West India Company have succeeded in establishing a colony in the Northeast part of Brazil, then under the dominance of Portugal. Its most preeminent governor, Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, administered the protectorate through slave and sugar trade, inviting artists, botanists and scientists to document the natives and new inhabitants’ daily life and customs. Johan Maurits’ collection of Brazilian representations and artefacts was mostly donated throughout his life in order to secure him alliances after his return from Brazil and most of the works made during the period are now in European museums, such as the Mauritshuis, in the Netherlands. As art is rarely dissociated from its appreciation, it is vital in the contemporary postcolonial world that we discuss, not only the production of these artworks, but also their display, their reception and more importantly, their role in present day societies. The role of Johan Maurits as a ‘benefactor of the arts’ has been broadly praised by scholarly research, and his effort in documenting the daily life in the ‘New World’ has been commonly seen as the work of a ‘humanist prince’ in the tropics. Nonetheless, I argue that precisely because of this mythification of Dutch Brazil, historiography has failed so far – with a few exceptions – in critically analysing the representations produced during the Dutch occupation. By considering these works as true masterpieces only possible because of the effort of a magnificent patron, the relationship between the artist, his commissioner and the object is overlooked. The social and hierarchical interpretations of what is depicted give room to formalist approaches, and the impact of this fruitful production in the imaginary of a European audience is again ignored. This thesis intends to analyse these representations and their impact on the understanding and the construction of an identity of Brazilian society as viewed by Europeans. Taking Frans Post's View of Itamaracá Island (1637) as a case study, it envisions to connect the postcolonial debate of representation with the museum practice in the contemporary and discuss the role of institutions as bearers of colonial legacies.Show less
A case study of the infra-municipal/departmental decentralization in the city of Paris during the period in which Jacques Chirac was mayor of Paris (1977-1995), which shows that the institutional...Show moreA case study of the infra-municipal/departmental decentralization in the city of Paris during the period in which Jacques Chirac was mayor of Paris (1977-1995), which shows that the institutional reform led to improved local representative democracy.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
The societal role of museums has changed and is still constantly changing, the Museo de América in Madrid, Spain, is no exception. This research aims to capture the evolving role of museums by...Show moreThe societal role of museums has changed and is still constantly changing, the Museo de América in Madrid, Spain, is no exception. This research aims to capture the evolving role of museums by taking on the Museo de América as a case study. The Museo de América was chosen due to the limited international scholarly literature on the relationship museums in Spain, a once powerful and important colonial power, have with contemporary museological discourse. The research question is therefore, to what extent is the Museo de América able to create ‘contact zones’ and capture the changing narrative about indigenous communities in the Americas. This thesis uses Anthony Shelton’s methodology underlying critical museology as a set of tools as well as James Clifford’s concept of ‘museums as contact zones’. This research provides a better understanding of how an ethnographic museum in Spain addresses the colonial and authoritative practices in which museums were built on. The analysis of the Museo shows that some of the Museo’s underlying curatorial practices are consistent with Shelton’s methodological interdictions. However it also identifies a few limitations to the Museo’s capacity to navigate the challenges of bridging historical and cultural gaps across centuries. The most significant being the lack of an indigenous voice regarding the conquest itself. By including indigenous voices and presenting them as active participants, museums can play a critical role in providing visitors with the tools to better understand the evolution of modern society’s values.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
closed access
This thesis examines what insights the photography series Blue Sky Days (2012-) by Tomas Van Houtryve provides into concepts as vision, subjectivity and representation, which means that the series...Show moreThis thesis examines what insights the photography series Blue Sky Days (2012-) by Tomas Van Houtryve provides into concepts as vision, subjectivity and representation, which means that the series functions as a case study, a common thread. The drone as imaging technology challenges the traditional relation between image and vision. The remarkable visuality of the series, the vertical perspective, distorts our sense of spatial and temporal orientation. It differs from the visuality that long dominated our vision, the paradigm of the linear perspective. I argue that drone vision is a collaborative vision by a human-drone assemblage that should be understood as an embodied vision. Blue Sky Days problematizes the effect of the vertical perspective and the necropolitical logic to which it invites. In contemporary warfare, the digital drone image is no longer treated as a passive representation, but as an active entity, being part of a process. Blue Sky Days as a series of static photographic images emphasizes ambiguity and undecidibility, which contrasts the visuality of certainty employed by synthetic vision systems. Van Houtryve uses a strategy of anthropomorphism, a strategy that raises awareness for the fact that agency is distributed by human and nonhuman forces. His series humanizes the other, encourages empathy for the people living under the drone, which contrast the current of anthropophobia in synthetic imagery. In the last chapter, I discuss the series in relation to the debates around representation that troubled documentary photography, war photojournalism and art. Now hypermediacy and immediacy seem both a strategy by the military to create a civic weaponized eye, Van Houtryve’s drone photography is an interesting alternative gesture by emphasizing the process of remediation.Show less
