Jennifer Deger, Shimmering Screens: Making Media in an Aboriginal Community.

Jennifer Deger, Shimmering Screens: Making Media in an Aboriginal Community. Jennifer Deger, Shimmering shim��mer?intr.v. shim��mered, shim��mer��ing, shim��mers1. To shine with a subdued flickering light. See Synonyms at flash.2. Screens: Making Media in an AboriginalCommunity. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. External linkUniversity of Minnesota Press , 2006.256 pp. In Shimmering Screens: Making Media in an Aboriginal Community,anthropologist Jennifer Deger draws from fieldwork conducted March1995-October 1997 in the Yolngu community of Gapuwiyak, inAustralia's remote far north, to explore how media technologiesstrengthen indigenous culture. This monograph is a significantcontribution to the now-robust subfield sub��field?n.1. A subdivision of a field of study; a subdiscipline.2. Mathematics A field that is a subset of another field. of anthropology, indigenousmedia, and adds important insights to an increasingly interdisciplinaryconversation about how traditional modes of producing subjectivity areboth incorporated and reconfigured by new visual media forms. Degerrelies on a phenomenological approach to simultaneously emphasizeembodied, experiential knowledge as constitutive of aboriginal meaningmaking and to interrogate the relationship of seeing and knowing in allour lives, especially in the complex navigation across sameness anddifference that is a perennial challenge of anthropological inquiry. The Prologue, Introduction, and Chapter I provide an intensivelyself-reflexive account of Deger's path to knowledge, detailing hermethods of fieldwork, analysis, and ethnography-writing. The Prologuebegins with a 1997 studio photograph of Bangana Wunungmurra,Deger's main informant, his family, and their adoptedanthropologist (Deger herself). Through a close reading of this image,Deger seeks to subvert early anthropological traditions of image-takingand image-making; and assert that there is much that this photographdoes not show: a long history of cross-cultural engagement mediated bymultiple visual technologies; claims to culture, tradition, or modernitythe subjects might be making; and the power of the photograph-object toevoke memory, imagination, relatedness. Deger expands herself-positioning in the Introduction, constructing herself as a deeplyinvolved, critical participant in the media-making about which shewrites, interested in the complex nexus of new technologies,imagination, and cultural production occurring in a particularhistorical moment. She seeks to understand how and why Yolngu usevarious media (including photography, video, and radio) to extendtraditional ontologies and produce community cohesiveness, yet alsoallow space in the anthropological endeavor for dissonant dis��so��nant?adj.1. Harsh and inharmonious in sound; discordant.2. Being at variance; disagreeing.3. Music Constituting or producing a dissonance. and incompleteknowledge. Chapter I traces how Deger came to work in this northeastArnhem Land community, develop a unique relationship with culturalbroker Wunungmurra, and subsequently foreground their collaboration asher primary source of ethnographic data. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 provide intellectual scaffolding for theethnographic examples of still and moving-image production, circulation,and reception which Deger presents in the second half of the book.Chapter 2 is a literature review of Deger's predecessors inindigenous media: Eric Michaels' work with Walpiri inAustralia's Central Desert was the first to situate sit��u��ate?tr.v. sit��u��at��ed, sit��u��at��ing, sit��u��ates1. To place in a certain spot or position; locate.2. To place under particular circumstances or in a given condition.adj. media textswithin broader social relations; working with Kayapo in the BrazilianAmazon, Terence Turner asserted that video could be imbued with localindigenous values; and finally, through multi-sited research inAustralia, Faye Ginsburg has been instrumental in forging indigenousmedia as a global form of cultural activism, expressing and producingcontemporary indigenous subjectivities. From these foundationalscholars, Deger then considers the work of visual anthropologist DavidMacDougall and film theorist Laura Marks, both of whom emphasize thephenomenological dimensions of making films about culture. Finally, inthis chapter, Deger adapts philosopher Martin Heidegger's positionthat the relationship between media technologies and the production ofknowledge is co-constitutive. In Chapter 3, Deger applies these thematic constructs to aspecifically Yolngu context. Seeking to transcend the dualistic modelsof traditional anthropologists' imaginations, she argues that newtechnologies do not inherently damage or inhibit indigenous sensoryperceptions, but rather, can and do mediate the Ancestral asconstitutive of contemporary Yolngu life. It is in this chapter thatDeger coins the "Ancestral Always" as a substitute for the"Dreaming" or "Dreamtime dream��timealso Dream��time ?n.The time of the creation of the world in Australian Aboriginal mythology: "Aboriginal myths tell of the legendary totemic beings who wandered across the country in the Dreamtime . . . ," preferring the former forits resonance with a Yolngu cultural logic in which the past inheres inthe present (see Deger 2006:81,233n17); all three terms areEnglish-language approximations of indigenous systems of cosmology, law,and interrelatedness in��ter��re��late?tr. & intr.v. in��ter��re��lat��ed, in��ter��re��lat��ing, in��ter��re��latesTo place in or come into mutual relationship.in between persons, places, and things. In Chapter 4,Deger elucidates the work of Walter Benjamin and Michael Taussig onmimesis mimesis/mi��me��sis/ (mi-me��sis) the simulation of one disease by another.mimet��ic mi��me��sisn.1. The appearance of symptoms of a disease not actually present, often caused by hysteria. , and then departs from them to argue that for Yolngu, mimesis isan ontological imperative deriving from the Ancestral Always producingrelationships based more on similitude than on alterity Al`ter´i`tyn. 1. The state or quality of being other; a being otherwise.For outness is but the feeling of otherness (alterity) rendered intuitive, or alterityvisually represented. . In Chapters 5-9, Deger shifts her attention to how stillphotography, video, and television are mimetic mimetic/mi��met��ic/ (mi-met��ik) pertaining to or exhibiting imitation or simulation, as of one disease for another. mi��met��icadj.1. Of or exhibiting mimicry.2. technologies beingdeployed in ways that produce contemporary Yolngu-ness. Deger isinterested in both the meaning of the photographic encounter and themateriality of the photograph. In Chapter 5, interactions betweenphotographer and subject, and viewer and photograph are under constantnegotiation and can be depleting as well as generative. Also,photographs "presence" what they are assumed to only copy(Deger 2006:101); they are extracorporeal extracorporeal/ex��tra��cor��po��re��al/ (-kor-por��e-al) situated or occurring outside the body. ex��tra��cor��po��re��aladj.Situated or occurring outside the body. extensions of the self (Deger2006:101,107) and make tangible the past in the present. Photographs ofthe deceased are particularly potent objects, and the protocolsregarding their treatment are undergoing important shifts in Gapuwiyak.In Chapter 6, Deger describes how, among younger Yolngu, photographs ofthe deceased, once destroyed along with other personal effects aspotentially dangerous to the living, are increasingly sought as a sourceof comfort, ameliorating the pain of loss, bridging the gap between thepresence of life and the absence of death, between the materiality of arelationship then and the longing of now. Deger argues that theexactitude of photography as a mimetic technology makes it aparticularly effective tool in the affective work of remembering (Deger2006:136). Chapter 7 is an introduction of Yolngu videomaking through Gularri:That Brings Unity, the major project on which Deger and Wunungmurracollaborated before the latter's untimely death in 2002. ForWunungmurra, the goal of this video was not to preserve tradition, butrather, to produce culture anew. Deger argues that viewing Gularri, likeparticipating in a ritual, dance, or ceremony, was intended to unifyYolngu of many different communities, and re-commit them to theirindividual responsibilities to Ancestrally-authorized relationships.This is elaborated in Chapter 8: the power of the video does not inherein the tape, but rather, is activated in its playing and replaying. Theimages and sounds are semantically open for interpretation, and yetsimultaneously emphasize Yolngu clans' similitude across ArnhemLand. By describing the logistics of who participated in the filming,narrating, selection of sites and shots, and editing, Deger details inthis chapter how she and her main informant skillfully managedinformation and negotiated among many stakeholders to produce a videothat respects the different claims of various groups yet (re)activatesthe senses for all Yolngu. Through Gularri, we learn in Chapter 9 and the Conclusion, thedifferent agendas of Deger and her main informant converge. The videohad to succeed: Deger needed it as justification to her academicadvisors for the unusual length of her stay "in the field,"and as a basis for her ethnography; for Wunungmurra, it was an attemptat redemption for an egregious cultural transgression (before Degerbegan her fieldwork, Wunungmurra--in the midst of a drunken rage--hadwillfully willfullyadv. referring to doing something intentionally, purposefully and stubbornly. Examples: "He drove the car willfully into the crowd on the sidewalk." "She willfully left the dangerous substances on the property." (See: willful) torn a sacred clan dilly dil��ly?n. pl. dil��lies SlangOne that is remarkable or extraordinary, as in size or quality: had a dilly of a fight. bag, resulting in severalmonths' exile to Darwin, and a long period of socialrehabilitation). Deger asserts that tradition and modernity are notopposites; indeed it is the conjunction of ritual form and newtechnology that rendered Gularri so potent (Deger 2006:210-211). Shealso argues throughout for the productivity of Yolngu mimesis (seeespecially Deger 2006:224), and through these last two chapters, itbecomes clear that Deger has written this monograph to be mimetic of hercollaborative videomaking with Wunungmurra. She has married thetraditional anthropological medium of ethnography with an innovative,self-reflexive, phenomenological approach to media-making; the result isan account of her main informant's expression of indigeneity thatprovides space in the academic record for further interpretations andmultiple imaginings imaginingsNoun, plspeculative thoughts about what might be the case or what might happen; fantasies: lurid imaginings. Like Wunungmurra, Deger has worked to"presence the sacra sa��cra?n.Plural of sacrum. in the modern world without unduly exposing theAncestral" (Deger 2006:220); and like she argues for contemporaryYolngu relationships to media more generally, Deger uses this book to(re)produce significant relationships and inspire new cultural praxis(Deger 2006:215). Both the video and Deger's monograph areimportant contributions to the possibility of an "interculturalregard," mediating across the gaps of cultural difference andproducing the foundations for reciprocity and respect (Deger 2006:220,226). Shimmering Screens would be a rich addition to graduate-levelseminars on Indigenous Media, Culture and Media, Visual Anthropology,and related subjects. Deger is generous with her own path toknowledge--both in the field and in her writing--and her footnotes are agreat resource for any scholar's further inquiry. I find her workon photography (Chapters 5 and 6) to be particularly fresh and creative:interested in rendering the visual haptic haptic/hap��tic/ (hap��tik) tactile. hap��ticadj.Of or relating to the sense of touch; tactile.haptictactile. , her work on photographs'shifting roles in social life exemplifies how media can be re-signifiedand deployed in the interests of new cultural production. In thiscontext, it is surprising that she does not draw from the work ofElizabeth Edwards (2001), lane Lydon (2005), Christopher Pinney andNicolas Peterson (2003), Deborah Poole (1997), or John Tagg(1988)--important predecessors in considering the complex relationshipsbetween anthropology and technologies of visual representation. GivenDeger's broader interest in how new technologies can changeconventions with which indigenous knowledge is preserved andtransmitted, and how indigenous ontologies might expand thepossibilities of new media, her future work might benefit fromengagement with indigenous media activist-scholars Kim Christen chris��ten?tr.v. chris��tened, chris��ten��ing, chris��tens1. a. To baptize into a Christian church.b. To give a name to at baptism.2. a. (2005),Michael Christie (2005), and Ramesh Srinivasan (2006). Deger's exploration of multiple media forms is a welcomedeparture from indigenous media scholars' tendency to embedthemselves in the challenges or potential of a single medium (Ginsburg2008 is an important exception). This strategy broadens her discussionto interrogate how technologies mediate perception (see especiallyChapter 7) and consider how seeing produces knowledge, both sensual andcognitive (see Chapter 9); further interrogation interrogationIn criminal law, process of formally and systematically questioning a suspect in order to elicit incriminating responses. The process is largely outside the governance of law, though in the U.S. of how film,photography, and other media forms are fundamentally different from eachother would have enriched this aspect of Deger's ethnography. Also,Deger's choice to foreground her relationship with a single maininformant as the core of the ethnography would have been reinforced ifcoupled with either an in-depth exploration of the broader social worldin which their media-making occurred and in which these media forms werecirculating; or critical analysis of Wunungmurra as himself amediator/mediation of different epistemologies. These criticisms do notdetract from the success with which this book simultaneously asserts andenacts how multiple media forms might (re)animate traditional culturalnorms in contemporary social life. REFERENCES Christen, Kimberly. 2005. "Gone Digital: Aboriginal Remix inthe Cultural Commons." International Journal of Cultural Property12(3):315-345. Christie, Michael. 2005. "Words, Ontologies, and AboriginalDatabases." Media International Australia 116: 52-63. Edwards, Elizabeth. 2001. Raw Histories: Photographs, Anthropologyand Museums. Oxford: Berg. Ginsburg, Faye. 2008 (forthcoming). "Rethinking the DigitalAge." In P. Wilson and M. Stewart, eds., Global Indigenous Media.Durham: Duke University Press. Lydon, Jane. 2005. Eye Contact: Photographing IndigenousAustralians. Durham: Duke University Press. Pinney, Christopher, and Nicolas Peterson, eds. 2003.Photography's Other Histories. Durham: Duke University Press. Poole, Deborah. 1997. Vision, Race, and Modernity: A Visual Economyof the Andean Image World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Srinivasan, Ramesh. 2006. "indigenous, Ethnic, and CulturalArticulations of New Media." International Journal of CulturalStudies 9(4):497-518. Tagg, John. 1988. The Burden of Representation: Essays onPhotographies and Histories. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Sabra sa��bra?n.A native-born Israeli.[Hebrew Thorner New York University New York University,mainly in New York City; coeducational; chartered 1831, opened 1832 as the Univ. of the City of New York, renamed 1896. It comprises 13 schools and colleges, maintaining 4 main centers (including the Medical Center) in the city, as well as the