Rassisierung als Technologie bewegter Bilder. Zur kritischen Verhandlung ästhetisch-technischer Rassismen in postkinematographischen Kunstwerken

Race is a technology that operates aesthetically. This means that the category is not only shaped according to our perception, but also influences the formation of the latter. Tying in with the long history of the aesthetic construction of race(s) through technological means the text examines how the category of race has been and continues to be constructed through moving image technologies. Based on four different moving image artworks, the text demonstrates in relation to film color technologies, screening spaces, chronophotography, and infrared cameras, how race is forged as a complex visual infrastructure that places people in unequal relationships with one another by techaesthetic means. The text is not only unfolding the historical material conditions of specific racializations signified in the artworks but also examines the artistic explorations as examples of how race as technology can be altered to deviate from its oppressive features: By reworking race and its aesthetic technologies, possibilities are opened up to shift its meaning without allowing its violent history to be forgotten. This kind of work requires situated approaches that take into account the historical and contemporary contexts in which they are embedded. The text thus shows how racism and racialization must be analyzed in relation to the affordances of technologies, bodies, users, time, spaces, situations, sociopolitical horizons, etc. Since theory and practice are interdependent, the artistic works are also understood as theoretical interventions, opening up critical perspectives on canonical theories within film and media studies.