Annotated Webliography

Question 1: "Visuality is a domain that Haraway critiques of science in general through what she calls 'the god-trick': the belief that it is possible to see everything from nowhere. Discuss some of the issues of visuality raised by the Visual Human Project."

In the age of the Enlightenment in the Eighteenth century, the greatest philosophers, theorists, scientists and thinkers of the age were consumed by an incessant drive for knowledge, because it was believed that above all things, to see is to know. In contemporary Western society however, we still today continue to be driven strongly by this Enlightenment-esque thirst for knowledge, as ultimately exemplified by the Visual Human Project of the 1990’s: literally the decimation of the physical human form into a digital realm, in the name of medical knowledge. The following Webliography represents a number of differing voices on this matter, each taking issue with the implicit power hierarchies at play within the drive to visualise.

Melissa Conroy's “Seeing with Buddha’s Eyes: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring.”
Although it may appear unusual to be referencing an article referring to a Buddhist film, the author actually takes issue with several concepts highly relevant to the notion of visuality, and draws from Donna Haraway’s body of work to construct a unique and well developed critique of visuality in film and camera. The author states that “all theory is a place of seeing” (Conroy, 2007, para.2), and combines her own understandings on the visuality theory with Haraway’s “god-trick” vision to construct a perceptive reading on the place of gender in the particular film she is analysing. As such, the author deconstructs the film Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring using a significant discussion and analysis of Haraway’s “god trick” in association with cinematic vision inherently being a highly mediated and subjective vision. This relates strongly to issues regarding the perceived scientific objectivity of the Visual Human Project, and voices alternate ideas regarding location and situation as feminine ways of seeing.

R.J. Johnston's “Situated Knowledge”
Ironically, the article “Situated Knowledge”, which describes Donna Haraway’s so-named theory, is here found within a large dictionary-style compendium of human knowledges, covering topics ranging broadly across the spectrum of human self-knowledge, from the scientific and medical to the philosophical and political. The author gives a particularly insightful description (in relatively simple terms) into the concept of “situated knowledge”, and gives an examination of Haraway’s dialogue regarding visuality which scratches just below the surface. Being an encyclopaedia-style article, the extent to which the author critiques Haraway’s theories is limited, and it lacks a dynamic interaction between the article’s author and subject Haraway. That said however, the article does make a strong base point of reference for the reader attempting to understand complexity of the theoretical issues Haraway weaves together.

Patricia MacCormack's “Visual Pleasure/Visual Truth?"
This article gives a highly sophisticated examination of the structures of power implicit in the varying contemporary fields of human self-knowledge, and confronts face-first the (deemed incorrect) assumptions often made about the interconnection of knowledge and visuality. Although the article relies heavily on sophisticated jargon, MacCormack makes several highly relevant points with regards to Haraway’s notion of visuality and makes some strong thought provoking connections to gender, displaying a very confident and developed view of gender with regards to visuality. Building on the old adage that “to see is to believe”, the author intimately dissects Haraway’s concept of visuality in terms of gender difference and biology. MacCormack argues that the very Western concept of “visual truth” is fundamentally linked to social phallocentricity: in terms of visual reproductive biology: the male is seen, but the woman is not (MacCormack, para.4). MacCormack references Haraway’s “all-seeing satellite eye” theory(MacCormack, para.3), and builds upon her “situated knowledge” theories to construct a sophisticated case against the implicit power relations in medical knowledge, paralleling several of the issues regarding visuality raised in the Visible Human Project.

Olson, Gary and Elizabeth Hirsch: "Starting from Marginalized Lives: A Conversation with Sandra Harding"
Olson and Hirsch’s essay critically reviews the work of feminist writer Sandra Harding in comparison to that of contemporary feminist theorist, Donna Haraway. According to the authors, Harding draws heavily on Haraway’s preoccupation with the “god trick”, and in her own work analyses how this consequently shapes the meaning and methods of Western scientific principle. The pair effectively engage with Harding’s main arguments and highlight several key points regarding visuality and the myth of scientific objectivity that resonate strongly with the principle issues raised by the Visible Human Project.

Catherine Waldby's “The Visible Human Project as a Technology of Anatomical Inscription.”
From a scientific perspective the author conducts a thorough and detailed examination of the practical processes involved in the realisation of the Visible Human Project. Waldby first details the procedure of digitalising the human body into a problem of coding (Waldby, 2007, para.1) and then delves into the array of medical capabilities that the digitalised human form as a visual object gives rise to. Whilst the author does not focus a critique on the philosophical implications of the Visual Human Project, the text does appear to consciously provoke some intriguing theoretical questions particularly relevant to Donna Haraway’s feminist discourse of “situated knowledge” and the “god trick.”

The range of sources detailed thus offer a number of alternate perspectives on the notion of visuality, and related theories concerning objectivity and subjectivity. A number of the webliographic sources are informed strongly by Haraway’s pervasive “god-trick” theory, and explore her theories further in order to construct a broader understanding of the issues of control and subjectivity at stake. Ultimately, the sources thus demonstrate that the Visible Human Project is a project located within a very socially and culturally specific time and place. While the project’s purpose to make a “visible” form of knowledge, it (mis)assumes itself to be objective, while it is in fact a contextually-situated and partial knowledge (Conroy, 2007, para.2-6).

Bibliography:
Conroy, Melissa (2007) “Seeing with Buddha’s Eyes: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring.” Journal of Religion and Film. 11(2) <http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol11no2/ConroyBuddha.htm> (22/08/08)

Johnston, R.J. (2000) “Situated Knowledge” in R.J Johnston, Derek Gregory, Geraldine Pratt, Michael Watts eds. The Dictionary of Human Knowledge. Blackwell, 742-3. <http://books.google.com/books?id=0GxowMfwlkC&pg=PA742&dq=visuality+haraway%27s+%22god+trick%22&sig=ACfU3U2DYY09Nx4TiEnnG9BRK3jaZrhuMA> (27/08/08)

MacCormack, Patricia. “Visual Pleasure/Visual Truth?” in Pleasure, Perversion and Death: Three Lines of Flight for the Viewing Body. <http://www.cinestatic.com/trans-mat/MacCormack/PPD1-3.htm> (28/08/08)

Olson, Gary and Elizabeth Hirsch. (1995) "Starting from Marginalized Lives: A Conversation with Sandra Harding" Women’s Writing Culture. (New York) SUNY Press <http://www.stumptuous.com/comps/olsonhirsch.html> (21/08/08)

Waldby, Catherine (2001) “The Visible Human Project as a Technology of Anatomical Inscription.” <http://www.cas.buffalo.edu/classes/dms/berna/dms434/readings/Waldby1.PDF> (27/08/08)