Conference

Envisioning Human Rights. How to claim the Common (Good)

Organized by the Minerva Research Group "The Nomos of Images. Manifestation and Iconology of Law" in cooperation with the European University Institute, Florence

Tony Cokes, Evil.27.Selma, 2011

The claim for universal human rights is not restricted to proclamations of international conventions. On the contrary, the history of human rights has been intertwined with the history of images on many levels. Recently, questions regarding photography and the emergence of human rights after WWII have strongly shaped academic debates. New forms of mass communication that emerged during the 1940s fostered a closer alignment between the usage of photography and political debates concerning the implementation and acceptance of human rights, and led to ethical debates about the limits of representation, which continue to this day.

How did and do images continue to stimulate discourses about human rights and their acceptance? What is their contribution in shaping, implementing and legitimizing fundamental human rights or in initiating movements? How do they negotiate the subject positions of victims and agents, function as evidences of rights violations or as visual remembrances of such? Alternatively, how can images violate human rights or manifest inequalities themselves when neglecting the dignity of individuals or groups?

Moreover, as in recent history, digitization strongly shapes the life of society, different visual languages and visual media developed. While photography for a long time promised to function as evidence attesting to the violation of rights, the acceptance of the evidentiary status of photography in times of digital photography and image progressing has been fundamentally questioned. It is also within these transformations of visuality that the power of the visual in light of human rights debates will be discussed.

 

Participants

Ariella Azoulay (Brown University, Providence), Carolin Behrmann (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz), Lia Börsch (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz), Katrine Bregengaard (Columbia University, New York), Tony Cokes (Brown University, Providence), Hannah Feldman (Northwestern, Chicago), Neha Jain (European University Institute, Florence), Thomas Keenan (Bard College, New York), Dieter Schlenker (European University Institute, Florence)

Partners

in cooperation with

16 December 2019

Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz
Max-Planck-Institut

Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai
Via dei Servi 51
50122 Firenze

Notice

This event will be documented photographically and/or recorded on video. Please let us know if you do not agree with the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz using images in which you might be recognizable for event documentation and public relation purposes (e.g. social media).

Newsletter

Our Newsletter provides you with free information on events, tenders, exhibitions and recent publications from the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz.

If you would like to receive our newsletter, please enter your name and e-mail address:

*required field

Notes on the content of the newsletter and transit procedures

This letter is sent via MailChimp, where your e-mail address and name will be saved for sending the newsletter.

Once you have completed the form, you will receive a "Double-Opt-In-E-Mail," in which you are asked to confirm your registration. You can cancel your subscription to the Newsletter at any time ("Opt-out"). You will find an unsubscribe link in every Newsletter and in the Double-Opt-in-E-Mail.

You will receive detailed information about transit procedures and your withdrawal options in our privacy policy.