Visual Reality Archaeology

Visual Reality Archaeology may just be become a sub-discipline of VRA. Here is a photo of a little action I encountered last Saturday up near Shoal Lake, Manitoba. The tow truck driver who pulled us out told me, "sometimes you just have to gun it". Guess I'll know for next time.

Me

Me...

Why was there no band practice?

VRA - A Structuralist View

As pertaining to the previous post about still photography, I believe that a structuralist theoretical stance is the strongest tool of interpretation of the still photo in VRA. Structuralist theory is used in archaeology to interpret artifact distributions and assemblages (ie. spatial analysis). A world view or ideology of the inhabitants is then constructed based on the material culture of the people being studied. For example, in South Africa, the Central Cattle Pattern is a structuralist model of social and spatial organization of Bantu speaking peoples during the Early Iron Age. The structuralist view ascertains that these people place high importance on bridewealth and the symbollic importance of cattle. Structuralist theory can be used in VRA in much the same method. The still photo is similar to a map of artifact distributions and both require study and interpretation. In a photo, a person's actions, facial and body expressions, environment, etc. all provide information about the subject's mood, belief systems, morals and other human characteristics all of which can provide a preliminary understanding of the subject. As stated previously, this is similar to archaeology maps where different bits of information may be gleened from a single image. What might be interesting is to see what kind of data can be interpreted from the series of photographs from the previous post.

Does the photograph fit the criteria of VRA?

Visual Reality Anthropology - The Still Image

I was recently proposed with the question of "Does a photograph fit the criteria of VRA?" The answer is, a still image is part of the VRA family. One of the main defining aspects of this method is that the Anthropologist is allowed and enouraged to use creative angles to shoot his or her subjects. The different angles provide a new perspective into the people being studied.

VRA also encourages the use of a series photographs. That is, numerous photos of the same subject with only a short interlude between shots. The pictures, when viewed together provide a story and are a useful research tool that can be shared between Anthropologists.

Anyways, these are just a thoughts at the moment.

Visual Reality Anthropology - A Definition

Here is an article about Visual Reality Anthropology I wrote with Carlos Quinonez. It was published inSynoptique, an online journal out of the University of Toronto. Here is the link http://www.synoptique.ca/core/en/articles/vr_anthro/

A picture is worth a few words

Alright folks, I'm still learning how to use this thing, think I'll be able to upload any video? Anyways, there is more to come.