The course will examine sociological and anthropological approaches to visual and material culture. We will map the various approaches to the image and the object by delving into the different roles played by visual and material culture in different social arenas (food, clothing, furniture), under different social conditions (practices, relationships, rituals) and in different social contexts (ethnic, national, racial). By trying to define the ways in which images and objects fulfil social needs we will analyze their symbolic value and the ways in which they take part in constructing the social order, the social structure and the definition of identity. In addition, we will explore the ways images and objects affected values, moral perspectives, and issues of inequality. The reading will include writings from the field of sociology and anthropology, as well as contemporary ethnographies of Western capitalist culture

The course will examine the diverse cultural appearances that characterize non-hegemonic ethnic and racial groups in Israeli society. By examining artifacts from a variety of mediums (plastic art, photography, fashion, architecture and dance), we will look at the ways in which the “Other” artistic language contests, undermines and is reconciled with the Western cultural representations that characterize canonical culture in Israel. Presenting the “Other" voice in local art will coincide with clarifying the concepts of ethnicity and race and surveying the ways in which they are present in Western visual culture, in light of the different orientalist conventions that they contest and seek to challenge. This inquiry seeks to raise questions concerning methods of representation, exhibition spaces, narratives, style, and aesthetics, while examining where the Israeli society is located on the axis between a multiplicity of cultures and multiculturalism. We will become acquainted with the different artistic-cultural expressions by encountering cultural entrepreneurs who operate in exhibition spaces and other arenas to expose, present and draw out voices that are underrepresented in the local culture, as well as by looking at recent critical literature that engages with these issues.

Throughout the course, the students will experience the different practices required by the photographer's trade. Starting by acquiring technical and formal tools such as understanding how light enters the camera and forms an image, the ability to create various compositions, personal archive management and how to achieve an organized workflow. We'll debate and exercise how to express an idea, a sensation and a thought through images. We'll discuss the difference between an object and an image. Each student will be required to develop and complete his/her own photographic series as a prerequisite to finish the course. Each student will have to build a theoretical framework in which his/her production will be based. It shall include not only works of contemporary or past photographers but also personal experiences, interests and readings.