Images and Words

Ekphrasis and parataxis in archaeological representation

Lecture by Associate professor Tim Flohr Sørensen (University of Copenhagen).

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 20th century, archaeology has celebrated the distanced, interpretation-free and authorless account of its observations. Whether in textual or visual modes of representation, this scientific ideal tends to result in descriptions, photographs, drawings, graphs, floor plans and maps that remove the artist, staging a detached and neutral’ depiction of objects and locations, devoid of viewpoint. Allegedly, this makes for a sober and impersonal mode of representation, traditionally praised as scientific and objective, timeless and unaffected by the author’s situation and contextual dispositions.

Focusing on the relationship between images and captions, I note that this ekphrastic strategy means that words and images are used to the same effect: what the image shows, the caption must also describe. In this lecture, I explore a paratactical alternative to archaeological representation by deliberately disrupting and displacing the constellation of images and captions, highlighting the interstice between the visual and the textual as a space for new ways of encountering things.