BGHS

Berit Bethke

Global views in local media - A historical case study on "Visual Communication"

Since the beginning of the 20th century until the end of the Cold War the German Museum of Hygiene (DHMD: Deutsches Hygiene Museum Dresden,) was one of the leading institutions for health education - not only in Germany. Almost all over the world the visual media and teaching aids (Lehrmittel) of the DHMD were deployed to teach different audiences in the anatomy of the human body and to procure knowledge about a healthy living. Through these media the DHMD generated and transmitted knowledge about health and disease as well as healthy living practices in different cultural and professional context. In a historical case study I analyse how »Visual Communication« structured and formatted in visual media from the DHMD. This study focuses on exhibition plates that were produced for and presented in various African, Asian, Caribbean and European cities between 1954 and 1980. My approach is communication theoretical. »Visuality« is examined as an aspect of communication in a sociological sense (Burri 2008, Raab 2008). My dissertation concern the specific ways of constructing and presenting knowledge - as a manifestation of communication - through visual media. In particular, the study is interested in conjunctions of universal and particular visual pattern providing access to different cultures and shaping global semantics.