Development

Politics of image:

Edward Said’s orientalism perfectly depicts how the relationship between image and politics is inextricably linked.

Through Said we explore how these racist themes still exist today. By understanding the way the west creates these narratives all the way from racist fantasies to shaping a recognisable antagonist.

 There is a particular type of history which carries with it a racist tone, which even lies in science. Orientalist attitudes, tied with the Foucaudian idea of regimes of truth – normalising power

The winners write history, and they will always script it in their favour

·         Understanding the relationship between aesthetics, representation power and discourse

·         Controversial as it expanded the net of what racism actually extends to

·         Academic: anyone who teaches, writes about, researches the orient is and Orientalist despite their good intentions

·       Style of thought: Oriental based on a difference of being (ontological) as well as a difference of knowledge (epistemological) between the orient and the occident (the west).

·         Institution: Orientalism is a western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the west. For example the UN

·         There is a link between knowledge and power

·         Foucault: Not interested in power as a commodity (that someone uses) but rather as a network that is intimately linked to knowledge, institutions, and subject positions

·         For example: It is not that a doctor is powerful but rather the weight that medical knowledge holds

The politics of image becomes the politics of the mindset

Images so overt, so visible, so loud yet so invisible and hidden and opaque in its motivations

Exploring the politicization of the relationship between the visible image and the invisible message

Not just exploring the negative but also the positive – they are equally orientalist