About
Rheinsprung 11. Zeitschrift für Bildkritik is a scientific journal developed by a group of researchers of the NFS Bildkritik / NCCR Iconic Criticism at the University of Basel.
The journal aims to foster dialogue and debate on the wide-ranging field of research that explores the efficacy of images and their specific production of meaning.
The following general statements relate, in nuce, a number of issues that orient the practice of Bildkritik addressed by our Journal:
- The question of the image cannot be addressed by one single discipline
Bildkritik is a «plural» perspective. Rather than searching for a universal definition of «the image», it regards images in their heterogeneity and is sensitive to their temporal and material specificity. For this reason, its relation to visual perception cannot exclusively define the image. Rather, Bildkritik inquires into characteristic forms of the image’s idiosyncratic production of meaning.
- Bildkritik is a practice, rather than a new «image science»
The practice of Bildkritik implies a constitutive and productive tension between the precise analysis of the image, including its modus operandi, and the general devices that close analysis discloses, in a complex and reciprocal movement between singular objects and theoretical paradigms.
- In images, meaning is generated in a specific way that cannot be subordinated to verbal models or sources
Bildkritik acknowledges the specificity of sense production when developed through images. This implies the questioning of all those epistemological approaches that in different ways and degrees reduce the sense of the images to codes and models of verbal devices, or to the legitimating power of verbal sources.
- Bildkritik implies the rejection of the image as a closed and self-sufficient object
The relationship between image and viewer, the question of efficacy, the devices through which images inscribe a specific position and attitude for the viewer, their circulation in cultural and social space, and the complex temporal relationships that feed the «memory of images» are all privileged issues in such a perspective.
Remarks about the structure and composition of our e-journal
Each issue of «Rheinsprung 11» named after the address of eikones in Basel has a specific thematic focus, for which a team of members of eikones / NCCR Iconic Criticism will be responsible. Team members may ask external contributors to join them. A concise introduction to and explanation of the thematic focus of one specific issue can be found in the editorial section. Future thematic focuses are announced in the section «nächste Ausgabe».
A call for abstracts or papers when announced by the individual issues are addressed to young researchers, as well as to established scholars from a wide range of disciplines, but also to artists, curators and others working in the cultural field who wish to participate in the discussion about images and sense production.
Each issue also contains additional sections independent of the thematic focus. These sections are entitled Dialog, Kritik, Glossar, Bild.Geschichte, and Vor einem Bild. The format of these sections remains constant, while the content varies from issue to issue. The names of those responsible for the individual sections are listed on the page where further editorial information can be found. Suggestions of content for any of the sections listed above should be mailed directly to the responsible person.
The concept of «Rheinsprung 11» is an interdisciplinary one. Although an individual contribution need not necessarily assume an interdisciplinary stance, it should be understandable to such a perspective.
Articles in German, English and French are welcome.