DOCSLIB.ORG

Social Media, Visual Culture and Contemporary Identity

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Social Media, Visual Culture and Contemporary Identity Proceedings of The 11th International Multi-Conference on Society, Cybernetics and Informatics (IMSCI 2017) Social Media, Visual Culture and Contemporary Identity Jennifer STOKES UniSA College, University of South Australia Adelaide, South Australia, Australia and Dr. Bianca PRICE UniSA College, University of South Australia Adelaide, South Australia, Australia ABSTRACT trustworthiness and authenticity factors into question. Through exploring the construction of contemporary identity through In developed nations, university students lead a rich digital life image-based tools and the impact of constant online comparison which includes maintaining connections through image-based to high status peers, this paper will offer insight into the social networks such as Instagram, Snapchat and Tinder. These complex digital lives of contemporary university students and ubiquitous technologies are shaping student identities and social provide directions for future research. practices in an ongoing manner. Social media is used to construct identity through visual branding, wherein individuals Deaton notes that ‘the most immediate consideration of utilise imagery designed to attract followers and maintain Educators exploring the use of social media in the classroom is careful curation of an online persona. In this digital economy, an evaluation of the students’ context’ [2]. People aged 18-29 social capital is attached to attributes such as trustworthiness, are the most prolific users of social media in developed nations, authenticity and attractiveness. Regular social media use assists such as Australia [3] and the United States of America [4]. This in the development of sophisticated visual practices, through coincides with the commencement of university for many and which the everyday user shifts their own representation. also aligns with the identity development of adulthood. Heavy Network members draw upon increased compositional social media use amongst adolescents has been directly linked knowledge and digital tools to depict themselves in a flattering to esteem, anxiety and depression, demonstrating the ways in manner which conveys a positive message about their identity which ‘social media has a greater impact on teens and plays a as brand. Attractiveness and creativity become dominant factors role in their identity formation and their search for a sense of in these online fora, whereas the widespread use of image self’ [5]. In order for educators to understand the lived reality of editing tools draws trustworthiness and authenticity factors into contemporary university students, it is important to explore the question. This paper uses Social Learning Theory to explore the information systems they are immersed in and the ways use of social media for identity construction, identifying issues students utilise these systems to construct identity in visual inherent for students who place themselves in constant culture. comparison to a wide range of peers, and ways in which educators can utilise these perspectives to inform teaching. 2. CONSTRUCTING ONLINE IDENTITIES: SOCIAL Keywords: Social Media, Social Learning Theory, Identity, LEARNING THEORY AND SOCIAL MEDIA Authenticity, and Attractiveness. Social Learning Theory can be observed in everyday interactions with friends, family, colleagues or even strangers 1. INTRODUCTION across a variety of environments and social spaces. Social Learning Theory (SLT) is considered as one of the most In developed nations, university students lead a rich digital life influential learning theories given its focus on the learning that which includes maintaining connections through image-based occurs in social contexts [6]. The theory proposes that people social networks such as Instagram, Snapchat and Tinder. These learn from one another and that people can learn new ubiquitous technologies are shaping student identities and social information and behaviours through observation [7]. Research practices in an ongoing manner. Social media is used to suggests that often people in social situations will observe the construct identity through visual branding, wherein individuals behaviours and actions of others and this will subsequently utilise imagery designed to attract followers and maintain affect their thoughts, attitudes and behaviours. This does not careful curation of an online persona. This paper uses Social always result in direct behavioural change; rather, it is argued Learning Theory [1] to explore the use of social media for that social learning may occur if the subject is influenced identity construction and the issues inherent for students who enough by others. place themselves in constant comparison to a wide range of peers. In this digital economy, social capital is attached to Bandura (1977) developed Social Learning Theory (SLT) to attributes such as trustworthiness, authenticity and explain how learning may occur within a social context and attractiveness. However, this research will argue that how people can learn from one another [7]. The theory gained attractiveness becomes a dominant factor in these online fora, drive in the 1950s as it provided a platform for exploring how whereas the widespread use of image editing tools draws people can learn, adapt and develop both cognitively as well as 159 Proceedings of The 11th International Multi-Conference on Society, Cybernetics and Informatics (IMSCI 2017) behaviourally across social situations. Centred on the principles identities who have professional teams working to curate their of learned behaviour including Pavlov’s classical conditioning images. and Skinner’s operant conditioning, SLT provides a strong theoretical foundation for the present study. Where Bandura Greater internet speeds and convergent devices have contributed agreed with traditional behavioural learning theories, he went to the current information age where much communication on to add that mediating processes may occur between the occurs through visual forms [12]. Users are engaged in a stimuli and the response and that learning behaviours may be continual practice of identity construction and maintenance, attributed to social interactions and that through these specifically through photographs and videos on social observations, imitations and replications may follow. In other networking sites (SNS). For university students who have words, we have the capacity to learn from others and our social grown up with these technologies, the act of maintaining an environment is a powerful learning tool that can influence authentic and engaging online persona is a continual and time- behaviours and attitudes. As far as social learning theory is consuming process. Most students arriving at university today concerned there is both a cognitive and operant view of were born at the turn of the millennia and have grown up with learning. Humans learn from others through socialisation and the presence of SNS alongside their schooling. With the growth imitation, as Bandura notes: ‘most human behaviour is learned of SNS in the 2000s, today’s students have borne witness to the observationally through modelling: from observing others one waves of visual trends and meaning-making emerging online forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed, and on throughout their lives. The proliferation of low cost, convergent later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for digital tools allowed Millennials to document their lives in an action’ [cited in 8]. Conditions for effective modelling include unprecedented manner. The ability to constantly communicate attention and retention, reproduction of the image or behaviour, in visual forms has created a generation of new media and motivation to imitate, all of which support ‘reciprocal bricoleurs, who draw upon these creative tools to construct determinism’ wherein the individual’s behaviour is both shaped identity in multiple and shifting ways [13]. Early adopters used by and shapes their environment [9]. basic coding of multimodal elements on SNS such as MySpace, to engage in creativity and taste-making which contributed to an The growth of social media in Web 2.0 and beyond has acceleration of trends through rapid dissemination in transformed the way people experience the internet. For participatory culture. The rise of MySpace and its significance everyday users, no longer is it a one way communication to music subcultures was a noteworthy moment in internet channel for information, data and resources; instead, it is now a culture [14], which led to the emergence of a subcultural thriving ground of social interactivity and social connections. photographic style which was rapidly adopted in the Indeed social media now plays an increasingly important role in mainstream. Members experimented with the growing the lives of users, with some reporting social media as a key site availability of digital cameras and an emotional punk (“emo in their sociality and identity [10]. Social media produces rich kid”) aesthetic to create shots with high angle, flattering and observable sites of identity construction wherein SLT framing which became a signature visual representation of provides a strong theoretical explanation for the behavioural MySpace and was adopted across other sites. In the 2010s, practices demonstrated online. SLT can be used to explore internet culture has moved away from anonymity and toward users’ experience and identity development online, as well as authenticity, as ‘people began to see the internet as a tool for
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Culturalistic Design: Design Approach to Create Products
    CULTURALISTIC DESIGN: DESIGN APPROACH TO CREATE PRODUCTS FOR SPECIFIC CULTURAL AND SUBCULTURAL GROUPS Except where reference is made to the work of others, the work described in this thesis is my own or was done in collaboration with my advisory committee. This thesis does not include proprietary or classified information. Brandon J. Allen Certificate of Approval: Bret Smith Tin Man Lau, Chair Professor Professor Industrial Design Industrial Design Tsai Lu Liu George T. Flowers Assistant Professor Dean Industrial Design Graduate School CULTURALISTIC DESIGN: DESIGN APPROACH TO CREATE PRODUCTS FOR SPECIFIC CULTURAL AND SUBCULTURAL GROUPS Brandon J. Allen A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Industrial Design Auburn, Alabama May 9, 2009 CULTURALISTIC DESIGN: DESIGN APPROACH TO CREATE PRODUCTS FOR SPECIFIC CULTURAL AND SUBCULTURAL GROUPS Brandon J. Allen Permission is granted to Auburn University to make copies of this thesis at its discretion, upon request of individuals or institutions and at their expense. The author reserves all publication rights. Signature of Author Date of Graduation iii THESIS ABSTRACT CULTURALISTIC DESIGN: DESIGN APPROACH TO CREATE PRODUCTS FOR SPECIFIC CULTURAL AND SUBCULTURAL GROUPS Brandon J. Allen Master of Industrial Design, May 9, 2009 (B.I.D., Auburn University, 2005) 93 Typed Pages Directed by Tin Man Lau Designers have a unique process for solving problems commonly referred to as design thinking. Design thinking, especially on a cultural level can be used to tackle a wide range of creative and business issues. Design thinking with true cultural infusion is known as “Culturalistic Design”, and can have profound and varying effects on product designs.
    [Show full text]
  • Carol Zemel, Looking Jewish: Visual Culture and Modern Diaspora, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015, 216 Pp. 72 B/W Illus
    Document généré le 30 sept. 2021 02:25 RACAR : Revue d'art canadienne Canadian Art Review Carol Zemel, Looking Jewish: Visual Culture and Modern Diaspora, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015, 216 pp. 72 b/w illus. $ 45 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-253-01542-6 Nicholas Chare Volume 43, numéro 1, 2018 URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1050830ar DOI : https://doi.org/10.7202/1050830ar Aller au sommaire du numéro Éditeur(s) UAAC-AAUC (University Art Association of Canada | Association d'art des universités du Canada) ISSN 0315-9906 (imprimé) 1918-4778 (numérique) Découvrir la revue Citer ce compte rendu Chare, N. (2018). Compte rendu de [Carol Zemel, Looking Jewish: Visual Culture and Modern Diaspora, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015, 216 pp. 72 b/w illus. $ 45 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-253-01542-6]. RACAR : Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review, 43(1), 111–113. https://doi.org/10.7202/1050830ar Tous droits réservés © UAAC-AAUC (University Art Association of Canada | Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d’auteur. L’utilisation des Association d'art des universités du Canada), 2018 services d’Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d’utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne. https://apropos.erudit.org/fr/usagers/politique-dutilisation/ Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit. Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l’Université de Montréal, l’Université Laval et l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. https://www.erudit.org/fr/ der bildenden Künste (1843).
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter Thirty Visual Culture/Visual Studies James D. He"Bert
    Chapter Thirty Visual Culture/Visual Studies James D. He"bert "Visual culture" has emerged of late as a term meant to encom­ pass all h Ulnan products with a pronounced visual as­ pect-including those that do not, as a matter of social practice, carry the imprimatur of art. "Visual studies" (which I select from a number of cognate designations currently in use) serves as a convenient name for the academic discipline that takes visual cul­ ture as its object of study. The day has passed, however, when a nascent discipline such as visual studies can justify itself simply by gathering more goodies behind its disciplinary parapets: art ... and much more! Practical considerations aside (and such consid­ erations are far from trifling in the modern university), the exer­ cise smacks of unreasonable acquisitiveness, of academic hubris. Visual studies, rather than engaging in the science of accounting for a massive collection of fresh data points, must embark on the historical and social analysis of the hierarchies whose formation and operation have generated-and will continue to generate, even under the aegis of visual studies-greater interest in some artifacts than in others. To enlarge the compass of the study of vi­ sual artifacts beyond art does not force scholars to homogenize away the differences between art (or other favored categories) and things not thus endowed. Visual studies, rather than leveling all artifacts into the meaningless commonality of "the visuaL" treats the field of the visual as a place to examine the social mech"ni51115 of differentiation. Let me, then, offer an abbreviated sketch of the expanded tcr­ ritory-the necessarily and self-consciously artificial territory­ across which visual studies hopes to chart the production of hier­ archies among artifacts.
    [Show full text]
  • What Is Visual Culture Studies? Visual Culture Studies Is the Discipline Or Sub-Discipline Or Field of Inquiry That Studies Visual Culture
    01-Smith-Intro 4/10/08 3:47 PM Page 1 INTRODUCTION Visual Culture Studies: History, Theory, Practice 1 What is Visual Culture Studies? Visual Culture Studies is the discipline or sub-discipline or field of inquiry that studies visual culture. If we go to our university or college library, to a local bookshop or to any website that sells printed matter, we will encounter numerous books with ‘visual’ and ‘culture’ in the title. When they are not in a section of their own – which rarely happens – Visual Culture Studies books are shelved throughout the library or bookshop in sections that are in keeping with the categorizing systems of these places and the programmed drifting of the potential lender or purchaser. Depending on the type of library or bookshop you’re in, these books appear in sections as diverse as Art History or Art Theory or Aesthetics or Critical Theory or Philosophy or Film and Media Studies or Women’s Studies or Black Studies or Theatre and Drama or Architecture or Queer Theory or Anthropology or Sociology. No one quite knows where to put ‘Visual Culture Studies’ books and no one quite knows where to look for them. Neither authors, publishers, retailers, nor customers are entirely clear as to what a Visual Culture Studies book should do or where it should be placed. 2 Why is this? Because books with ‘visual’ and ‘culture’ in the title come in all shapes and sizes, they provide an almost infinite diversity of texts that seem to want to address all historical periods, explore any and every geographical loca- tion, conceive of all manner of thematic, and recommend an encyclopaedia of accompanying methodological tools and practices.
    [Show full text]
  • How Has Visual Culture Been Defined?
    How has visual culture been defined? Visual culture, or visual studies, or visual culture studies, is an academic movement that has coalesced over the last thirty or so years, as the product of an increased self- consciousness about, and belief in, the importance of sight and its correlatives (the visual, vision, visuality) in the workings of cultures. Prior to being subjected to rigorous critical debate, the term visual culture came into being rather informally, introduced at different times by writers (Marshall McLuhan in Understanding Media, Michael Baxandall in Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy, Svetlana Alpers in The art of describing: Dutch art in the seventeenth century) who all meant something slightly different. Its two constituent terms are in themselves elusive. Raymond Williams is often quoted as saying that the word ‘culture’ is ‘one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language’. Defining what is ‘visual’ is no less problematic, a term potentially so expansive it becomes meaningless. The phrase has thus proven both usefully and confusingly versatile, and the issue is frequently clouded by the conflation of terms for the object of study with the activity of studying it. As an academic field, its diversity of origin is matched by its current contested status. Is it a new set of tools with which to analyse traditional forms of ‘art’, or an opening up of the canon to include all images and representational objects? Or, remembering that it is not only images that are ‘visual’, and not all art is images, or appreciable only through the eyes, how is the new object domain to be defined? Rather than placing the emphasis on the object, many scholars believe it is instead a question of analysing the subject: how people see, rather than the things they look at.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 6 of Engaging Visual Culture
    K a ren Keifer- B o y d Jane Maitland-Gholson Engaging Visual Culture Davis Publications, Inc., Worcester, Massachusetts Copyright © 2007 Davis Publications, Inc. Worcester, Massachusetts U.S.A. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in conjunction with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast. Publisher: Wyatt Wade Managing Editor: David Coen Manufacturing: Georgiana Rock Design: Jeannet Leendertse Library of Congress Control Number: 2007000000 ISBN-978-0-87192-775-0 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America v i To teachers and learners willing to engage seriously with the visual culture meanings vital to fostering social justice in a democratic society v i i C o n t e n t s A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s . x v Authors’ Statement . x v i I n t ro d u c t i o n . x v i i C h a p t e r 1 B e l i e f s . 1 Expose: Actively Examining Beliefs . 2 A Draw a Chair Activity . 2 Chair Categories . 3 Identifying Shared Strategies and Feelings . 5 Making Connections . 5 Insights Revealed Through the Activity . 5 Explode: Understanding Visual Mind-sets . 6 A Categorization Activity . 6 Making Modes of Thought Visible .
    [Show full text]
  • DOCUMENT RESUME Mapping Visual Culture in Comparative
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 407 309 SO 026 912 AUTHOR Paulston, Rolland G. TITLE Mapping Visual Culture in Comparative Education Discourse. PUB DATE 96 NOTE 49p.; Paper presented at the World Congress of Comparative Education (9th, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, July 1996) . PUB TYPE Reports Research (143) Speeches/Meeting Papers (150) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Cartography; Comparative Analysis; *Comparative Education; *Cross Cultural Studies; Environmental Influences; Hermeneutics; Maps; *Visual Environment IDENTIFIERS 1960s ABSTRACT This study selected 28 illustrative examples of the visual culture in comparative education used since the 1960s. Journals examined are the "Comparative Education Review"; "Comparative Education"; "Compare"; and others. From visual analysis of these sources, four scopic regimes or visual subcultures are identified. The paper is organized in three parts. Part 1 illustrates how the three scopic regimes of modernity (the technical rationalist, the critical rationalist, and the hermeneutical constructivist) each has its own favored rhetoric and forms of representation, as well as utilities and limitations. Part 2 presents a personal narrative of how the social cartography project has sought to elaborate and implement a new social mapping rationale and methodology. Part 3 notes possible implications of this study and the new social cartography project for current theoretical debates, representational practice, and new opportunities to reposition the field with the human sciences in the coming
    [Show full text]
  • Visual Culture/Visual Activism and the Health Humanities Therese
    Moving Pictures: Visual Culture/Visual Activism and the Health Humanities Therese (Tess) Jones, PhD Center for Bioethics and Humanities University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus How to See the World (2015) - Nicholas Mirzoeff • 100 hours of video uploaded every minute to YouTube • 6 billion hours watched every month (1 hour for every person on earth) • Americans take more photographs in 2 minutes than were made in the entire 19th century • Worldwide total of 2.5 trillion photos taken in 2016 (90% with smart phones). …trying to see and make sense of a world too big to see but crucially vital to imagine…this is the study of visual culture …confronting racism, encouraging voices, catalyzing reform… this is the work of visual activism Organization of Today’s Session Part I • Define / Describe Visual Culture and Visual Activism • Three Health and Human Rights Movements of 20th Century • What Worries You Most? Medical Student Advocacy Project Part II • Discussion of Readings and Guiding Questions Where is the line between looking and witnessing? What is our responsibility? and whose interests are being served? How do and can visual images influence attitudes towards patients and impact health policy? Where is the balance between moral outrage and compassion fatigue or outright callousness? From Visual Culture to Visual Activism “look art act,” Antje Schuhmann “Stop Looking at Us; Start Listening to Us” Social Media, Anti-Iconography, Identity as Performance How we see others… How we see ourselves… Who has the power and the privilege to
    [Show full text]
  • An Investigation of the Impact of Visual Culture on Visual Arts Practice and Visual Arts Education
    Edith Cowan University Research Online Theses: Doctorates and Masters Theses 1-1-2005 An investigation of the impact of visual culture on visual arts practice and visual arts education Robyn Roper Edith Cowan University Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Roper, R. (2005). An investigation of the impact of visual culture on visual arts practice and visual arts education. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/620 This Thesis is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/620 Edith Cowan University Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorize you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. Where the reproduction of such material is done without attribution of authorship, with false attribution of authorship or the authorship is treated in a derogatory manner, this may be a breach of the author’s moral rights contained in Part IX of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Courts have the power to impose a wide range of civil and criminal sanctions for infringement of copyright, infringement of moral rights and other offences under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form.
    [Show full text]
  • Visual Culture in the Classroom Tony Fetherston Edith Cowan University
    Australian Journal of Teacher Education Volume 33 | Issue 3 Article 2 2008 Visual culture in the classroom Tony Fetherston Edith Cowan University Recommended Citation Fetherston, T. (2008). Visual culture in the classroom. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 33(3). http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2008v33n3.2 This Journal Article is posted at Research Online. http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol33/iss3/2 Australian Journal of Teacher Education Visual culture in the classroom Tony Fetherston Edith Cowan University Abstract: The visual aspect of classroom culture is becoming more important because students now have much greater access to the means of producing, viewing and manipulating images. Using a framework adapted from Foucault and taking a myth-making position, this paper puts forward six propositions as means of explaining how images in the classroom might be read. Theory relating to this emerging literacy is further explained through reference to three dominant classroom narratives. It is argued that the interesting elements of an image are often those that link the classroom metanarratives to wider, hegemonic concerns. Interesting research directions are proposed throughout the paper. The visual has risen steadily in importance in our culture. The presence of visual images has progressed from the high art of the painting through various media such as still photographs, broadcast free and pay television, VHS video, video games, digital versatile disc (DVD) and Blue Ray® until it is now a commonplace attribute of popular culture. This progression has been inexorable. The increasing availability of various technologies has led to a similar increased presence of the visual in schools.
    [Show full text]
  • The “Bollywoodization” of Popular Indian Visual Culture: a Critical Perspective
    tripleC 12(1): 277-285, 2014 http://www.triple-c.at The “Bollywoodization” of Popular Indian Visual Culture: A Critical Perspective Keval J. Kumar Adjunct Professor, Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad, India. kevalku- [email protected] Abstract: The roots of popular visual culture of contemporary India can be traced to the mythological films produced by D. G. Phalke during the decades of the ‘silent’ era from 1912 to 1934. The era of the “talkies” of the 1930s ushered in the “singing’” or musical genre, which together with Phalke’s visual style remains the hallmark of Bollywood cinema. The history of Indian cinema is replete with films made in other genres and styles (e. g., social realism, satires, comedies, fantasy, horror, or stunt) in the numerous languages of the country. However, it is the popular Hindi cinema (now generally termed Bollywood) that has dominated national Indian cinema and its audiovisual culture. It has hegemonized the entire film industry as well as other popular technology-based art forms including the press, radio, television, music, advertising, the worldwide web, the social media, and telecommunica- tions media. The form and substance of these modern art forms, while adapting to the demands of the new media technologies, continued to be rooted in the visual arts and practices of folk and classical traditions of earlier times. Keywords: Visual Culture, Hegemony, Visual Style, Indian Cinema, Indian Television, Indian Advertising 1. Introduction Infinite diversity, plurality and multiplicity are the primary features that mark popular Indian visual culture. This culture has come about through centuries of absorption, integration and acculturation, as the subcontinent evolved at its own leisurely pace engaging with invaders, settlers and colonialists who brought with them audio and visual cultures of their own.
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of Visual Culture
    Journal of Visual Culture http://vcu.sagepub.com Visual essentialism and the object of visual culture Mieke Bal Journal of Visual Culture 2003; 2; 5 The online version of this article can be found at: http://vcu.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/2/1/5 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for Journal of Visual Culture can be found at: Email Alerts: http://vcu.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://vcu.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Downloaded from http://vcu.sagepub.com at SIMON FRASER UNIV on August 13, 2007 © 2003 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. journal of visual culture Visual essentialism and the object of visual culture Mieke Bal Abstract The double question whether visual culture studies is a discipline or an interdisciplinary movement, and which methods are most suited to practice in this field, can only be addressed by way of the object. This article probes the difficulty of defining or delimiting the object of study without the reassuring and widespread visual essentialism that, in the end, can only be tautological. Key words art ● interdisciplinarity ● literature ● methodology ● museums ● popular culture ● visual culture Here and there, programs of study that carry the name ‘visual culture’ are emerging, but to my knowledge no departments. Is this because ‘visual culture’ is an (interdisciplinary) field? To call ‘visual culture’ a field is to treat it like religion: religion is the field, theology its dogmatic intellectual circumscription, and ‘religious studies’, or better, ‘religion studies’, the academic discipline.
    [Show full text]