Visual Culture

Special Issue of Interdisciplinary Science Reviews on 'Computational Picturing'

by Annamaria Carusi

Guest edited by Annamaria Carusi, Aud Sissel Hoel and Timothy Webmoor

Visual tools and instruments have been a focal point of historical, social and cognitive studies of science for quite... more Visual tools and instruments have been a focal point of historical, social and cognitive studies of science for quite some time, and even more so with the onset of the digital era. Profound questions about the nature of scientific knowledge are posed by the plethora of digital images and computational visualizations to be found in scientific domains. Currently, we are seeing the emergence of a new generation of computational and digital tools which are fast becoming entrenched in all research domains across science, social science and the humanities, and which are even constitutive of new cross-cutting domains. It remains unclear which distinctions become important now that the predominant form of picturing is computational or in what specific ways this makes a difference.
This special issue consists of a collection of papers that address different aspects of the methodological and theoretical questions raised by computational forms of picturing.

Displaying in/the Peninsula: Museums as creators of a visual identity

by Pamela Erskine-Loftus

Abstract for forthcoming Gulf Research Meeting at the University of Cambridge, July 2012.

Three Artists, Three Cities, Three Continents: Weng Fen, Hema Upadhyay and Bodys Isek Kingelez

by Mark Haywood

Paper given at Contemp Art 12, Minar Sinan Fine Art University,, April 2012.

Published in Duyan (ed.) 'New Questions on Contemporary Arts' (DAKAR, Istanbul, 2012)

Three Artists, Three Cities, Three Continents:
Weng Fen, Hema Upadhyay and Bodys Isek Kingelez

more Three Artists, Three Cities, Three Continents:
Weng Fen, Hema Upadhyay and Bodys Isek Kingelez


Since the millennium there have been several international curatorial surveys that have used cities as comparative exemplars. These have included Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis, the opening exhibition of London’s Tate Modern in 2001, Design Cities 1851-2008 at Istanbul Modern and, earlier this year, the Pompidou Centre’s Paris-Delhi-Bombay.

In February 2008 the United Nations’ Revision of World Urbanization Prospects predicted that by the end of that year, for the first time in human history, more than half the world’s population would be living in urban, rather than rural locations. Hania Zlotnik, Director of the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), which prepared the report, noted that, ‘Although Asia and Africa are the least urbanized areas, they account for most of the urban population of the world.’  It is frequently predicted that the archetypal city of the twenty-first century will be the non-Western (or southern hemisphere) megalopolis.

In light of these events and trends the paper compares the work of three contemporary artists from China, India and Africa, each of whom has made large installations based on burgeoning of local megacities. The artists surveyed are Weng Fen (China), Hema Upadhyay (India) and Bodys Isek Kingelez (Democratic Republic of the Congo). It is argued that despite obvious similarities of subject and format, the three artists’ works actually reflect widely differing local perspectives, concerns and futures. 

The Word/Image Dualism Revisited: Towards an Iconic Conception of Visual Culture

by Dominik Bartmanski

published in Journal of Sociology, 2012

Is there any difference between the widely discussed ‘pictorial turn’ and the emerging ‘iconic turn’? If so, does it... more Is there any difference between the widely discussed ‘pictorial turn’ and the emerging ‘iconic turn’? If so, does it matter? The answers to these questions are positive if we look at the problem from a cultural sociological point of view. It has been observed that the concept of the ‘iconic turn’, coined by a German philosopher Gottfried Boehm, may capture more effectively the sense of life attributed to visual objects than W.J.T. Mitchell’s famous ‘pictorial turn’. This article endorses this conjecture and provides a theoretical context for its justification. It thus contributes to the emerging debate about the paradigm shift in studies of visual culture.

"Shadow-lands": A Topological Glossary (v1.1)

by Gavin Keeney

Draft 05/20/12

Post-mortem of the exhibition "'Shadow-lands': The Suffering Image", Dennys Lascelles Gallery, Deakin... more Post-mortem of the exhibition "'Shadow-lands': The Suffering Image", Dennys Lascelles Gallery, Deakin University, Waterfront Campus, Geelong, Victoria, Australia, April 18 through May 18, 2012.

See also "Fifth (Final) Circular" (05/22/12):

http://cornell.academia.edu/agencex/Talks/79406/_Shadow-lands_The_Suffering_Image

Inverted Gaze And Altered Erotic Spectacle

by Soumya Mukherjee

Church Space in Byzantium

by Sotiria Kordi

by Sotiria Kordi

Being a social space, the church building is a social product. This term however, does not refer to a collective... more Being a social space, the church building is a social product. This term however, does not refer to a collective product, created through a type of collective, anonymous productive procedure, but rather to a product created by certain individuals in order for it to be used, lived, and consumed by a community.

Byzantine Painting and Visual Communication

by Sotiria Kordi

When we look at an icon do we see Christ or an image of Christ? This question continuously emerges in modern... more When we look at an icon do we see Christ or an image of Christ? This question continuously emerges in modern scholarship. Issues such as presence and absence, art and worship, image and art, seem to concern modern scholars who study Byzantine painting. What is the Byzantine interpretation of the above issues and how do modern scholars perceive them?

"Seeing Immanent Difference: Lorna Simpson and the Face's Affect"

by Laurie Rodrigues

Published in _Rhizomes_, Issue 23 (April 2012).
Special Issue on Deleuze and Photography. Guest Editor, Michael Kramp.

Public Display of Affection: The Making of Marriage in the Venetian Courts before the Council of Trent (1420- 1545). In: The Erotic Cultures of Renaissance Italy, Hg. Matthews- Grieco, S. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010), 173-197.

by Cecilia Cristellon

A Visual Approach to Multiculturalism

by Jerome Krase

This is a draft of an article that appeared as “A Visual Approach to Multiculturalism,” in Beyond Multiculturalism edited by Giuliana Prato, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2009: 1-38.

There are undoubtedly many ways by which one can approach multiculturalism and its many intersections at the local,... more There are undoubtedly many ways by which one can approach multiculturalism and its many intersections at the local, national and global levels. Each different perspective on the subject adds another dimension to our understanding of this complex, and changing phenomena. Offered here is a visual approach to one of its more ubiquitous versions, ethnic diversity, as it is expressed in the appearance of vernacular landscapes. It is argued that there is something about ethnic vernacular landscapes that can be best grasped via the use of image-based research. It is also suggested that such an approach might provide some needed focus to the inter- and intra-disciplinary debates over cultural diversity in its many scientific and related ideological forms.

Visual analysis of images in brand culture

by Jonathan Schroeder

Symbols of Power in Rituals of Violence: The Personality Cult and Iconoclasm on the Soviet Empire’s Periphery (East Germany, 1945–61)

by Alexey Tikhomirov

published in: Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, Volume 13, Number 1, Winter 2012, pp. 47-88.

Film As a Source of Visual Knowledge In Informatics, Architecture and Music

by Dorota Ostrowska

"The Representation of Paintings in Music"

by William Coleman

4000 word commissioned essay for Tim Shephard and Anne Leonard, eds. The Routledge Companion to Music and Visual Culture (Forthcoming)

Fragments / Fragmanlar

by Ebru Yetiskin

Call for Papers: New Approaches to Ancient Coin Iconography

by Stefan Krmnicek

Digital Storytelling

by Tara Brabazon

Montage, The Observer, April 29, 2012

Adventures in Form and Content: an investigation into into possible methods for encouraging socio-political engagement through manipulations in visual culture.

by Peter Buwert

MRes thesis project questioning the extent to which we can separate form from content. See link for images of project.

Visual communication design is big business, and growing, as our society becomes ever more visually literate and... more Visual communication design is big business, and growing, as our society becomes ever more visually literate and demanding. However, within the fields of professional image creation, comparatively little thought is given to the designer’s responsibility for the societal impact of their manipulations of visual culture. The unspoken and often unquestioned assumption is that visual form is merely a vessel for content. Any socio-political impact on the viewer derives from the received content of the message; therefore responsibility lies with the client not with us: “Don’t shoot the messenger!” This thesis is presented as an embodied challenge to the assumed separation of form and content. One cannot exist without the other. Form is not neutral. The document set before you is an experiment in using various techniques of visual manipulation to ‘defamiliarise’ the conventional experience of reading the text of an academic thesis. In summary, the design of this thesis aims to bring the content communicated by the experience of the visual form of the document onto an equal footing with the content communicated by reading the text. In order to achieve this, techniques of reflexivity designed to draw the viewer's attention to the constructed, manipulated nature of the visual form have been employed. The aim of this experimental methodology is to encourage the active engagement of the viewer in critically considering the complete experience of the content set before them. This goal is pursued by placing obstacles and inconsistencies in the way of the viewer's effortless consumption of ‘data’, forcing them, to some extent, to engage in critical thought as to what the content is, and what their response to the subject will be. In the unique case of this project, the sphere of content is doubly reflexive as it is the document’s own very form and manifestation which is to be questioned.

Making an Art of Creativity: The Cognitive Science of Duchamp and Dada

by Phillip Prager

forthcoming in Creativity Research Journal (accepted 27th Nov. 2011)

Dada is the infant terrible of art history, an anarchic movement that is typically referred to as nihilistic,... more Dada is the infant terrible of art history, an anarchic movement that is typically referred to as nihilistic, pathological, and firmly enshrined within the modernist paradigm and the context of WWI. Through the lens of classical, romantic, and psychoanalytic notions, it certainly appears almost antithetical to creativity. Yet from a cognitive point-of-view, Dada marks a watershed in the understanding of creativity, and articulates principles of creative cognition with surprising insight and precision many decades ahead of science.