Robert Stock

Popular Narratives of the Cochlear Implant

In contemporary medical discourse as well as in the field of Disability Studies, the problems concerning the Cochlear implant (CI) gave rise to a series of controversies. While medical discourses or viscourses imply a natural process of hearing, the counterargument is that “normal hearing” is a social and cultural construction, which depends on a corresponding “thought style”. However, such constructions of normality, disability, inclusion and exclusion are not only produced or criticized by scientific or journalistic mediatizations but also to a large degree by popular narrative media. Consequently, this paper analyzes the specific filmic-narrative appropriation, reworking and interpretation of discourses on the CI in popular media formations such as TV series, medical-technological viscourses in documentaries and Youtube videos. The thesis is that narrative media cannot be considered a mere reproduction of scientific or social discourses, but instead functions as productions of reality. Thus, narrative media is capable of (co)producing (in mutual exchange with social and medical discourses) interpretations, evaluations of normality and disability.

Singing Altogether Now: Unsettling Images of Disability and Experimental Filmic Practices

Conventional representations of disability on television and in documentary films often emphasise ‘pity’ or stage their characters as ‘supercrips’. Only a few productions provide alternative framings of disability. Such films can be conceived as a kind of experimental system through which established knowledge about disability can be unsettled. To demonstrate this, this chapter analyses the Singing Lesson by Artur Żmijewski, a video installation interlacing experimentally deaf singing and religious choirs, and Freakstars 3000 by Christoph Schlingensief, a TV docusoap that modifies conceptions of intellectual disability by mocking television casting and reality formats. Both productions open up a space for media participation that creates ambiguity while refusing to give a simple answer to the question of how to model a concept of ‘inclusive art’ or media.

Cinema and Conflict in Postcolonial Mozambique: Archival Images as Illustration and Evidence in Estas São as Armas (1978)

The essay analyses Estas sao as armas (1978), the first full-length documentary produced by the Instituto Nacional de Cinema (INC) in Mozambique. In a first step, the text provides background information regarding film productions in and about Mozambique as well as its historical frame considering both the colonial and postcolonial period. Then, the essay discusses the interplay between voice and image with regard to documentary films. The contextualization and theoretical reflection is followed by an in-depth study of Estas sao as armas. By scrutinizing the different ways of dealing with archival material it becomes possible to reflect upon filmic memory politics and their relation to a historical master narrative developed by Frelimo as well as to shed light on the cultural dimensions of decolonization.

Das hören des Cochlea Implantats

Das cochlea-implantat (ci) soll die Funktion eines nicht intakten innenohres ersetzen und den patienten durch direkte reizung der funktionierenden Hornervenfasern einen Horeindruck vermitteln: „[Die] strome werden an die angekoppelten Hornervenfasern weitergegeben und zum gehirn zur weiteren Verarbeitung transportiert. Der patient hort.“ Dieses hier als simples prinzip dargestellte zu erreichende resultat eines Horens mit ci wird vor allem aus medizinischer sicht immer wieder als erfolgsgeschichte einer elektronischen neuroprothese dargestellt, die im Wesentlichen auf Forschungen von pionieren wie Hallowell Davis an der Harvard Medical school in den 1930er Jahren basiert und die seit den 1950er Jahren mit und durch die Arbeiten von franzosischen, australischen sowie us-amerikanischen Medizinern weitergeschrieben wurde. noch in der Zeit der klinischen erprobung wurde 1978 das erste Mehrkanal-ci der Medizingeschichte in Australien implantiert, in Deutschland fuhrte ernst lehnhardt 1984 die erste ci-implantation durch und nur vier Jahre spater wurde das erste gehorlose Kind mit einem ci versorgt. seit dieser Zeit nimmt die Zahl an implantationen stetig zu. einer statistik der Deutschen cochlea implantat gesellschaft e. V. zufolge gibt es weltweit 300 000 ci-trager, davon in Deutschland circa 30 000. Zahlreiche Autoren, die kulturoder technikgeschichtliche Darstellungen des ci schreiben, setzen den Ausgangspunkt fur das narrativ apparativen Horens bei elektrophysiologischen Versuchen an. Als Vorlaufer des ci werden in der regel die ex-