On the senses and semantic excess in photographic evidence. (September 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gibson, Ross
• Other Names: Were Graeme guest-editor.; Favero Paolo guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of material culture. Volume 18:Number 3(2013)
• Page Start: 243
• Page End: 257
• Publication Date: 2013-09
• Subjects: Affect -- forensics -- meaning -- narrative -- photography -- pulse; Material culture -- Periodicals; 306
• DOI: 10.1177/1359183513489931
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1359-1835

Abstract

It is widely accepted that forensic procedures are meant to bring precise interpretation to puzzling scenes and parcels of evidence. Forensic activity is a cool, slow and deliberate process of making meaning. But what of the feelings that also suffuse the scenes and the evidence? Does the force of affect linger in or around forensic materials? Can these feelings be evoked so they can be assayed to produce a particular kind of knowledge, even as they pulse and pass? How can investigators pay proper attention to the feelings that often elude or bamboozle conventional semiotic and semantic procedures? To address these questions, this article considers a specific archive of crime-scene photographs.