What is Visual Culture | Theory to Go 2
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- čas přidán 12. 11. 2022
- What is visual culture and how does it shape our understanding of the world? In this episode of Theory to Go, we'll provide a concrete definition of the visual culture that's grounded in social science research and discuss the importance of visual culture studies for students interested in contemporary media and visual environments.
The host, Dr. Alexander K. Smith, holds an MA from Oxford University and a PhD in the anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas from the University of Paris.
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Endnotes:
[1] To be fair, Alexis Boylan is almost certainly not the first theorist to use the term visual environment and, if I had to guess, I would wager that it has made its way into cultural studies and visual anthropology through the phrase's usage in the natural sciences. Nevertheless, Boylan has a handy and accessible discussion of how she uses the terms visual environment and visual atmosphere, which I would highly recommend as an entry point to visual culture studies: Boylan, Alexis L. 2020. Visual Culture. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
If you are interested in exploring programs in visual culture studies, I'd highly recommend that you give the following a look:
My Alma mater, Oxford University, has a fabulous program: www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/gradu...
The University of California Santa Cruz, aside from having a crazy beautiful campus, also boasts a very interesting BA program in the history of art and visual culture (catalog.ucsc.edu/en/current/G..., as well as having a solid film program. Absolutely worth a look! A quick thanks to Prof. Edward Shanken for sharing UCSC's programs with me.
Penn State has a really cool, multi-disciplinary program that offers a dual-title PhD in visual culture studies and a parallel faculty determined by your sub-disciplinary focus (which is a very promising, forward-thinking approach to the field): bulletins.psu.edu/graduate/pr...
Harvard's program leans more towards film and media studies and would provide almost unparalleled networking opportunities: gsas.harvard.edu/programs-of-...
And last but not least, the University of Toronto has an exciting program in visual studies that leans more towards curation, museum studies, and physical art mediums. If that's your cup of tea, you can hardly do any better: www.sgs.utoronto.ca/programs/...
Recommended Reading (all handy resources that I would happily recommend):
Berger, John. 1972. Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin.
Boylan, Alexis L. 2020. Visual Culture. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Dikovitskaya, Margaret. 2006. Visual Culture: The Study of the Visual After the Cultural Turn. Cambridge, MA: MIT University Press.
Howells, Richard. 2011. Visual Culture. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Mirzoeff, N. 1999. An Introduction to Visual Culture. London: Routledge.
Silverman, Jonathan and Rader, Dean. 2018. The World is a Text: Writing About Visual and Popular Culture. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press.
Sturken, Marita and Cartwright, Lisa. 2018. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. San Diego: University of California.
We want to know what you think, as well! Was the video helpful? Is visual culture studies relevant to your studies or your work? Let us know how any why 👇🍻
I really appreciate these explainer videos as someone refreshing my anthropology knowledge. Glad to support you on Patreon too. Hope more people find this wonderful channel!
Thanks so much, Kayley! And thanks for your support. Really impressed by the awesome work you're doing as well!
great explanation..! thankyou so much for putting this up in such simple words and in detail.. perfect for an examination answer!
This was SO helpful to me. I truly appreciate the straightforward and simplified explanation. I'm so glad I discovered this channel today!
I'm so glad it was helpful!
Thank you for putting it into simple words ❤
You are so welcome, Yavi! Very glad it was helpful.
This is amazingly helpful for my art history seminar! Thank you!
That's awesome to hear! Makes my day. Best of luck with the seminar.
This video is very useful thank you so much for the video
Thanks so much! I'm always thrilled when our work is helpful.
Nice work! To add to your list of resources, University of California, Santa Cruz has top-notch, highly interdisciplinary and cross-cultural departments of History of Art and Visual Culture (HAVC) and Film and Digital Media (FDM) which grant both undergraduate and graduate degrees.
Thanks so much, @edwardshanken4165 ! It's much appreciated. I actually started my undergrad at UCSC about ten million years ago. I spent a few semesters at Kresge College. It was a wonderful place to live and study. I'll pop UCSC's HAVC and FDM programs on my materials in the future. Keep up the good work!