2024: Un/Seen
3 - 7 June 2024, University of Lucerne
Un/Seen
In his 2011 book The Right to Look, Nicholas Mirzoeff offers a compelling account of visuality as an “old word for an old practice”, whereby “domination imposes the sensible evidence of its legitimacy” (Mirzoeff 2011). As an exertion of authority over ‘looking’, visuality is not just about images and their meanings, or about the circuits of their production, circulation and consumption. It also refers to the intersection of power with representation, and to the rules and resources that govern the very limits of the visible and the invisible.
In this critical spirit, the 2024 summer school Un/Seen invites postdocs, ECRs and graduate students from a range of disciplines and backgrounds to join together for a week of critical discussion on the interplay between law, politics and visuality. We aim to open a space for exploring the relations between modes of visual authority and what Mirzoeff terms “countervisualities” that endeavour to challenge dominant regimes of the sensible – legal, political or aesthetic. Traversing diverse contexts and theoretical frameworks, our goal is to spark reflection and new thinking on the dynamics of presence and absence, visibility and invisibility, and on the conditions of seeing and not seeing, of being seen and unseen.
Issues to be considered may include:
- What visual forms and resources are central to the imaginaries that modalise and valorise power?
- What counter-imaginaries challenge or provide new readings of the institutionalised visual histories of modernity?
- How do contemporary technologies and visual media facilitate new forms of in/visibility? In what ways do they sustain, extend, or destabilise the workings of state power and governmentality?
- How are practices of surveillance and control shored up by architectural and spatial frames? How do they perpetuate the divisions between the seen and unseen?
- How do visual regimes (re)shape our affective relations to concepts such as citizenship and belonging, identity and selfhood, rights and responsibilities?
- How do countervisual practices interrupt the power of visuality and assert the right to look?
- In what ways are contemporary forms of activism, protest, resistance and refusal implicated in visuality and the aesthetic?
- In what ways and in which contexts is the question of visuality and countervisuality urgent in the fast-ramifying crises of the twenty-first century?
Walter Benjamin pronounced that “history decays into images not stories” (Benjamin 1999). Octavio Paz took a different view: “We must oppose … not with another image – all images have the fatal tendency to become petrified – but with criticism, the acid that dissolves images” (Paz 1970). A joint venture of six partner institutions on five continents, the 2024 Critical Times summer school offers the perfect environment for thinking through and responding to these and other provocations.
Organisation
The 2024 summer school was organised by
- Institute for Interdisciplinary Legal Studies - lucernaiuris, University of Lucerne
- Centre for Law, Arts and Humanities, The Australian National University
in association with
- Faculty of Law, University of Roma Tre
- Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong
Contact
Please direct all enquiries to lucernaiuris@unilu.ch
Testimonials
Below is a selection of feedback from participants in the 2024 Critical Times summer school Un/Seen:
"The programme was absolutely amazing in every respect. It was organized and coordinated really well, and it is necessary to commend the organisers and hosts for doing such a fantastic job. I really liked the pacing of the programme – the regular breaks between sessions were perfect in terms of duration (not too short or long) and really useful in enabling me to refresh completely before going back to the next session."
"I had the good opportunity to participate in the 2024 iteration of the Critical Times Summer School, on the theme of Un/Seen. With a coruscating line-up of seminars, stimulating thoughts and ideas, an array of the most carefully curated texts, an exemplary cohort of students, and a week of exuberant discussions and intellective perambulations, the summer school set an unprecedented, and perhaps unsurpassable, stage to think collectively on issues most marginalised in, and therefore most pressing for, legal theory, visual studies, and art history."
"This was the second time I participated in the [Critical Times] summer school at lucernaiuris, and I find it to be one of the most compelling and successful academic events I have ever attended. The academic programme is of outstanding quality, the students are a diverse and curious group, and it was a pleasure to share my ideas with them. The organisation was flawless."
"In terms of the quality of the academic programme, I would give it five stars. All the seminars were wonderful – each one was thought-provoking, and I was able to learn a lot from all the scholars. Some seminars were of direct relevance to my own research and participating in them enabled me to improve and re-frame some of my ideas. Having the opportunity to present my own work during the programme was also great, especially because I was able to receive really useful feedback from fellow students and eminent academics. I feel like participating at this event was the best thing that happened to me this year."
"The supportive atmosphere that was created around the delivery of each student’s material and the communal engagement with each seminar allowed for a delightfully collaborative environment. This made the social events and break times as engaging as the school itself, with conversations weaving themselves through the academic sessions and into more informal discussions of the same material over coffee, drinks, and snacks. The format of the event, in conjunction with the quality of the student group, combined perfectly in my opinion, and has allowed for friendships that I hope to continue well past the length of the school."
"Not only was the schedule intensive and rigorous, adding layer upon layer of novelty in approaching legal thought, but it was also suitably paced, with sufficient breaks and receptions, allowing multiple occasions for the cohort to rehearse, ponder, and ruminate on the vitality of the questions raised and the future directions of the individual research projects."
"The grouping was ideal, and established very well to encourage socialising. It was reassuring to have a large cohort of people at a similar level to you but also the academics running the seminars and events were very friendly and approachable as well."
"The readings have added extra insight into my own research and being able to talk through these ideas with both experts in these fields as well as my fellow junior colleagues was incredibly useful for developing this understanding further. Additionally, the event was structured in such a way where very constructive and useful feedback was provided in a way that was clearly building up rather than tearing down my work. Finally, it was a great opportunity to connect with both upcoming and experienced academics within my field and establish connections that I will be able to take with me to future academic events and life more generally going forward."
"Overall, I had a really positive experience, and I would love to take part in such a wonderful event again in the future."
"In sum, this was a truly idiosyncratic experience that has not only motivated me to rethink the potential directions of my own research but has also paved the way for how critical legal thinking and, especially, visual jurisprudence can be sustained and advanced in a congenial and convivial setting of a summer school."
"I had an incredible time at the Un/Seen summer school. Engaging with a range of people from candidates at a similar stage to experienced academics allowed me to really develop a broader picture of my academic pathway, from readings to undertake, teaching techniques, postdoctoral applications, fellowships, academic progression, and much more, I feel like my knowledge of academia as a whole has been amplified significantly. I have come away from the summer school with renewed energy and vigour for my research and teaching, increased knowledge of a wide range of topics, and a swelled network of incredible people within the field. On the whole, I can only consider the summer school a resounding success, and one I hope to return to next year."
"The event was very valuable for me, and left me with many questions / avenues to pursue. I came to the summer school having had very little exposure to this field, and came out of it with a greater sense of what others do, many ideas for how to enter the conversation, wonderful connections with people, and an impression of generosity, openness, and community that in my experience has been hard to find in academia. Thank you for a wonderful experience!"
