Page - 75 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 01/01

Religion, Belief and Medial Layering of Communication | 75www.jrfm.eu 2015, 1/1, 75–88 Sigrid Schade Religion, Belief and Medial Layering of Communication Perspectives from Studies in Visual Culture and Artistic Productions aBsTraCT The paper analyses the relationship between religious practices, belief and the media based on the medial layering of communication. The arguments are situated within the fields of studies in visual culture and cultural studies, reflecting on the role of art as a specific medium in the Western religious tradition. Vera Frenkel’s video This Is Your Messiah Speaking (1990) is reviewed as a critical inquiry into religious practices and the media structures of communication. KeyWOrDs studies in visual culture, cultural studies, art religion, contemporary art as critical in- quiry, medial layering of communication BiOGraPhy sigrid schade is head of the institute for Cultural studies at the Zurich University of the arts since 2002. she studied art history, empirical Cultural studies and German Language in Tübingen in the 1970s. She finished her PhD on the representations of witches in the 16th century in 1982, and her habilitation in 1994 at the University of Oldenburg. she has taught as a professor at the humboldt-University Berlin, the Universities of Tübingen, Zurich and Bremen, at the last mentioned from 1994–2005 (homepage: http://blog.zhdk.ch/sigridschade). STUDIES IN VISUAL CULTURE(S) – NeiTher a DisCiPliNe NOr a MeThOD Studies in visual culture – in which studies of the media and film within religious con- texts should have their place – represent not a discipline but a transdisciplinary field