Body Capital

 Description

From testicular grafting (1920s) to step counting watches (2014), the perceptions and practices of health seeking individuals have been marked by continuities and profound changes during a twentieth century largely shaped by the advent of communication societies. In postulating the interactive, performative power of mass media in societies, visuals are an important but yet not well studied source for understanding such transformations. The research group will engage a visual perspective on a long twentieth century to answer questions about roles of audiovisuals in changes from public health and human capital collective understandings of the healthy self to new (sometimes debated) perceptions and practices of our bodies as forms of individual capital in an increasing market-economized world.