Abstract:
In this lecture I will argue for an audiovisual historiography which includes exhibitions, web sites, and in particular films not only as historical sources, but also as media for the publication of scientific results. For this reason, I will do a close re-reading of the elaborations on “colonial aphasia” from Ann Laura Stoler. Even though it is a priori at odds with the etymology of this term, this re-reading can clearly show its specific audiovisual dimension, developed more or less implicitly by its founder. Taking as an example the ongoing research processes of the IFG 5 “The 4Rs in Africa: Reality or Transcultural Aphasia?” on restitution as well as a former exhibition and film project in Cameroon, it will be demonstrated in what way audiovisual historiography plays or played a crucial role. By this focus on audiovisuality, I would like to propose one way of dealing with audiovisual aphasia at play in the colonial connections between Germany and Ghana as well as Germany and Cameroon. Is it one starting point for doing things differently and dismantling “colonial aphasia” little by little?

Martin Doll earned his Ph.D. in Media Studies in Frankfurt/M. After two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the ICI Berlin, he was an Assistant Professor in the research project ›Aesthetical Figurations of the Political‹ in Luxemburg. Currently, he is Junior Professor for Media and Cultural Studies at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf. He has published articles and book chapters on audiovisual historiography, politics and media, architecture as a medium, utopias and media. Further info: www.mdoll.eu/.