Das Bild als Akteur - das Bild als Queereur : Methodologische Überlegungen zur sozialen Produktivität der Bilder

Abstract

The article investigates the social productivity of images, or, more specifically, their capacity to queer the heteronormative social order. Focusing on the agency function of images, it suggests a form of ekphrastic reading that acknowledges the power relations at work in the reading process itself. This process doubles the image through a detailed description, which step by step takes in elements of an unexpected discourse. Such an approach is exemplified through the reading of the series Pin Ups For Beginners, produced by the Hamburg-based artist durbahn in 2005. The work is viewed in the light of queer and feminist discourses on sexual representations and critical disability studies.