Dismantling the Face
Landscape for Another Politics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4475951 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jenny Edkins (0000-0003-1477-0607, Aberystwyth University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 538-553 |
| Publication date | 2013-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environment and Planning D Society and Space (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0263-7758 • E-ISSN: 1472-3433 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1068/d16312 |
| OpenAlex | W1968879618 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 14 |
The face is central to contemporary politics: it is photographed, pinned down, stored, documented, and presented as proof of identity in passports and ID cards. Automatic face recognition and face-processing systems are key to biopolitical control. However, Deleuze and Guattari argue that the face is a particular politics, and dismantling the face is also a politics. This paper explores what it might mean to dismantle the face, and what politics this might entail. It examines prosopagnosia, or face-blindness, as described by Oliver Sacks and exemplified by Chuck Close's paintings, which see the face as landscape. It asks whether the use of grid and screen in Close's portraits amounts to a dismantling of the face, and compares his approach to that seen in Francis Bacon's heads. It argues that Close's portraits trace a politics of becomings, a distribution of the sensible where we cannot, and do not, know who we are
Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Face (sociological concept · Face-to-face · Identity (music · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Portrait · Social science · Sociology · Visual arts · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law · Law in Society and Culture · Philosophy · Photography and Visual Culture
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,38 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2021 (9) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |