Question 9

Perhaps traditional viewing modes, such as photography, would need to expand for more complex interpretations. One photo of a figurine is clearly not sufficient to show it in its entirety. Photos from every angle of a figurine would be more helpful, particularly in examining the figurine corpus. The videos, which showed all sides of the figurines, illustrated the way sexuality was portrayed in figurines. For example, the front of one woman had her holding her breasts while her stomach protruded out from under her. When it was turned around, however, she was shown to have a skeletal back. Another showed a robust woman with an large backside. These figurines perhaps locate sexuality in larger women, as one had a large front and one a large back. But it would be impossible to know what every side of each figurine looked like from one photograph. Traditional 2D viewing modes significantly limit the interpretation of figurines. (KP)

As KP suggested, multiple photos of one object from different angles could begin to get at a more complex documentation of that object, rather like video; perhaps a more flexible medium in terms of understanding gender, sexuality, and personhood is drawing. I would be interested in seeing a handful of different ways that a single artist could imagine a particular reconstruction, or even a few different artists' takes on the same "scene" -- in conversation, multiple reconstructions can encourage the viewer to consider which parts seem likely or real, and which parts seem like overexaggeration on the part of the artist. These reconstructions are also a way of exploring hypothetical situations without making any major claims, and can be a fun and interesting medium with which to try out different hypotheses as to how objects fit into the culture of a past time. (TL)

I think that TL's concept of multiple artistic renderings of an object is a great idea -- in many ways I find the interpretations of the object more engaging than the object alone. Because we know that these representations are not objective, we are more inclined to examine them critically than the actual figurine itself, and perhaps through that critical analysis we can achieve a deeper understanding of the object and its impact on individuals. Another way to accomplish this might be to have several people handle the object in the same video, that way there is a recognition of variability in handling and perception of the object. [LMR]

I agree with KP and TL, in that multiple renderings of the same object, whether that is in photographs or drawings, would add to it just as much as videos. It would also be interesting, I think, to add photographs of the actual contexts from which the figurines were taken from the ground, or possibly a site map with certain figurines linked to their locations of the site, along with any interpretations about what the various locations were once used for. As I said earlier in Q. 5, the figurine may have to do with the perception of self or humans in general at the time of the figurines production, but it must also be remembered that representations can vary depending on context within the culture. In Monte Alban, Oaxaca, the “Dancing Figures” on the stones outside one of the pyramids were recently reclassified not as dancers but as prisoners of war, contorting while being tortured. Pitfalls such as this must be born in mind when making interpretations about any representation of humans. (CBL)