Deger, Jennifer (2018) Shimmer. In: Callan, Hilary, (ed.) The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, pp. 1-3.

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Abstract

An aesthetics of shimmer calls attention to a material world profoundly flecked with light. It suggests a material poetics for anthropological reflection while generating an allure that exceeds the confines of language or culture. In the Aboriginal art, media, and ritual of east Arnhem Land in northern Australia, an aesthetics of shimmer claims the invisible as not only an indelible dimension of the visible but also its very source. This is no abstract notion. Across a variety of media—in bark paintings, videos and digital photographs, and contexts from fine art, domestic decoration, and intricate ceremonial body designs—Yolngu harness the power of scintillation to produce encompassing fields of sensation and meaning. The effects are transformative: they break open the surface of the visible, they allow ancestral forces to show themselves, and they generate an affective surge that unites the living, the ancestral, the land, and the sea.

Item ID:	55698
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Reference)
ISBN:	978-1-118-92439-6
Keywords:	aesthetics; anthropology of art; anthropology of the media; cross‐cultural aesthetics; digital anthropology; indigenous media; indigenous peoples; material culture; sensory anthropology; visual anthropology
Copyright Information:	Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Date Deposited:	01 Apr 2020 06:15
FoR Codes:	16 STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY > 1601 Anthropology > 160104 Social and Cultural Anthropology @ 50% 20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2001 Communication and Media Studies > 200104 Media Studies @ 20% 19 STUDIES IN CREATIVE ARTS AND WRITING > 1905 Visual Arts and Crafts > 190599 Visual Arts and Crafts not elsewhere classified @ 30%
SEO Codes:	97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970116 Expanding Knowledge through Studies of Human Society @ 30% 97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970119 Expanding Knowledge through Studies of the Creative Arts and Writing @ 40% 95 CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING > 9502 Communication > 950201 Communication Across Languages and Culture @ 30%
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