NCCR Guide 2013 - Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)

The Power
and Meaning of Images
NCCR Iconic Criticism
Third Party Cooperation
Programmes
• Forschergruppe «Bild – Schrift –
Zahl», «Das Technische Bild»
• Forschergruppe
“Das wissende Bild”
• Graduiertenkolleg
«Bild Körper Medium. Eine
anthropologische Perspektive»
• Graduiertenkolleg
«Körperinszenierungen»
• Graduiertenkolleg
«Mediale Historiographien»
• SFB/FK 427
• SFB 447
• SFB/FK 615
• SFB 626
• SFB 447
Research Institutions
• Ägyptologisches Institut,
Universität Leipzig, DE
• Center for Art and Media,
Karlsruhe, DE
• Central Institute of History Art,
Munich, DE
• Centre for Architecture,
Canadian Centre for Architecture,
Montreal, CA
• Centro Internazionale di Studi
di Architettura Andrea Palladi,
Vicenza, IT
• Datenströme GbR, Berlin, DE
• Department of Adult and
Continuing Education,
University of Glasgow, GB
• Department of Art History,
University of Chicago, US
• Department of Egyptology,
Hebrew University, Jerusalem, IL
• Department of German,
Northwestern University,
Chicago, US
• Dipartimento di Discipline storiche,
artistiche, archeologiche e geografiche,
Università di Verona, IT
• Ecole des Hautes Etudes en
Sciences Sociales (EHESS),
Paris, FR
• Fachgebiet Formale Modelle,
Logik und Programmierung,
Berlin, DE
• Facultad de Arquitectura,
Diseño y Urbanismo,
Buenos Aires, AR
• Fakultät Bildende Kunst,
Hochschule der Künste Berlin, DE
• Fakultät Medien,
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, DE
• Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum
für Kulturtechnik, Berlin, DE
• Institut für Ägyptologie,
Universität München, DE
• Institut für deutsche Sprache
und Literatur, Humboldt-
Universität Berlin, DE
• Institut für Film- und
Theaterwissenschaften,
Freie Universität Berlin, DE
• Institut für Informatik,
Humboldt-Universität Berlin, DE
• Institut für Mathematik,
Humboldt-Universität Berlin, DE
• Institut für Neuere deutsche
Literatur, Justus-Liebig-
Universität, Giessen, DE
• Institut für Philosophie,
Technische Universität
Darmstadt, DE
Topics
The digital revolution,
which has been unfolding
globally since the beginning
of the nineties, turns
the old, inert image into
an extremely flexible
instrument that everyone
can use, serving global
communication and,
above all, the generation
of knowledge. Especially
in the natural sciences,
many new insights can
only be realized with iconic
methods. Images no longer
illustrate what was first
thought; they now represent
an independent mode
of thinking.
The knowledge society has
become a society of images.
This transformation
can probably only be compared
with such epochal
Achievements of the previous years
moments as the invention
of the printing press or
the general spread of literacy
since the eighteenth
century. Now we are all
users and producers of
images – but without necessarily
understanding
how they create meaning,
how their power is generated,
and what becomes of
reality when it is understood
as a function of the
flexible perspective of the
image. That is the starting
point for our project: the
image-oriented society is
increasingly dependent on
iconic criticism if it wants
to master its problems.
The paradigm of the image,
which had not previously
existed, deserves the scholarly
attention language
After completing its setup
phase and fully consolidating
its work in the whole
range of its modules, the
NCCR Iconic Criticism has
now established itself as
a visible, recognized research
competence center,
the heart of a network with
regional, national, and international
connections. In
only a few years, the project
has succeeded in assuming
a position as one of
the leading institutions in
image research. The great
frequency of its scholarly
events and publications, including
a Summer School,
cooperation with institutions
all over the world,
intensive collaboration between
senior scholars and
younger researchers, and
last but not least a Graduate
School, have made it
possible to create a firstclass
interdisciplinary academic
institution. The projects
suggested in the first
proposal have proven successful
and are now being
extended, supplemented,
and developed further.
The overall project‘s trademark
is an exciting balance
between empiricism and
theory, between individual
research and a general critical
interest in images. The
has received for centuries.
Linguistics is a matter of
course; iconic criticism
must be one, too. The two
complement each other –
but only if the particular
capacity of the image
can be determined. This
demands a fundamental
reorientation, for we are
used to identifying knowledge
with language. The
meaning potentials of the
image create new openings
to the present, to history
and tradition, and into the
future. An iconic criticism
that addresses epistemic
principles and exemplary
applications is – as mentioned
above – the task of
a generation.
NCCR has a group of all its
members that meets regularly
and is dedicated to the
common interest in basic
issues of the image and the
task of „iconic criticism“.
The project defines itself in
terms of the overall coherence
of its results, connecting
basic research with case
studies and theories with
applications. In terms of
both organization and content,
the NCCR has steadily
adapted to new challenges
and changing situations.
Further information see
www.eikones.ch
82 | Guide 2013