DemCP open research lecture - ALEXANDER SCHWINGHAMMER (Bauhaus University Weimar): 'Public narratives of political Imagination: The election poster as visual materiality'

Open research lecture at the Centre for the Stody of Democratic Cultures and Politics

Abstract

In an almost anachronistic way, political posters enter public spaces on each election. Regardless of regional or state election, political posters appear on lamp posts, buildings or are put on display along the road. We are smiled at, reminded of what has been achieved or what is to be achieved, we are addressed with slogans, but above all we are prominently informed about an election event.

Political posters are very suitable for analysing advertising history in the sense of a social and mental history. As material objects they are also of a history of technology and media practice.

In this lecture, Alexander Schwinghammer will look at political posters as visual materiality in public space and examine its role as a narrative artifact in political communication.

This Open Research Lecture will be open for all members and students of the Faculty of Arts.

About the speaker

Alexander Schwinghammer is an anthropologist and communication scholar. He lectures at Bauhaus University in Weimar. His research interests stretch from political media communication to ecology in popular culture and performance studies. He has published on anthropology of the future, media cultures and urban farming.