Between nature and culture

Jakob von Uexküll's concept of Umwelten and how photography shapes our worlds

Bibliographic Data

ID4871373
AuthorsJoachim Froese (0000-0002-9567-8038, Griffith University, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume10
Issue1
Pages11-22
Publication date2019-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhilosophy of Photography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2040-3682 • E-ISSN: 2040-3690
PublisherIntellect (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1386/pop_00003_1
OpenAlexW3003250460
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited12

This article addresses traditional perceptions about photography's position between nature and culture and concomitant schools of thinking focusing pre-dominantly on the photographic image as a form of visual representation. Aiming to develop an alternative perspective it considers a biosemiotic approach and turns to Jakob von Uexküll's model of subjective sentient worlds (Umwelt) that critically dissolves the perceived dualism between nature and culture that has also underpinned most theoretical thinking about photography in the past. Today photography is largely embedded into social media platforms and their interlinked digital networks, which holds far-reaching consequences for a medium that in this current form can only be fully understood if it is considered as a form of embodied material practice. Aiming to understand some of the complex manifestations this technical evolution entails the article further considers the relevance of recent non-representational concepts arising out of cognition theory and cultural geography and uses the 'selfie' as a 'theoretical object

Aesthetics · Art · Cognitive science · Dualism · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Perception · Photography · Sociology · Visual arts · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Philosophy · Photography and Visual Culture · Psychology · Visual Culture and Art Theory

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