Abstract
Author(s): Blaylock, Sara | Abstract: A few weeks ago, I found myself sitting on my porch with a friend and my partner, trying to explain just what visual studies is. My friend, a historian, and my partner, who teaches in an English department, both listened patiently as I muddled through my usual preambles:It’s like art history, but with a more politicized vision… Some people approach visual studies as a means to think about perception and technologies that have literally changed vision… Others use it as a means to explain how what is made (or allowed to be) visible is a tool of consolidating and maintaining hegemonic power… Some people see it as a development of art history; others define it as a radical rupture.…I listed examples of potential objects of study. I began with the obvious: art, posters, film, advertisements, maps. I then listed more totalizing, which is to say less concrete, examples: systems of representation, discourse, the use of space, the commons. I inventoried the range of theoretical tools at my disposal: Marxism, feminism, critical race studies, indigeneity, postcolonialism, and queer theory… My historian friend nodded generously. “Yes,” she said, “people in my discipline work on these issues, as well.” My partner, more than a bit familiar with this intrigue of mine, acknowledged that his classroom and writing practice also welcome a variety of methodologies and source materials. So, what then, I proceeded to ask, is it that makes visual studies a discipline when its approach—that is to say, its methodology of interdisciplinarity—is being practiced (and seemingly welcomed) across the humanities?
Highlights
A few weeks ago, I found myself sitting on my porch with a friend and my partner, trying to explain just what visual studies is
A historian, and my partner, who teaches in an English department, both listened patiently as I muddled through my usual preambles: It’s like art history, but with a more politicized vision
Others use it as a means to explain how what is made visible is a tool of consolidating and maintaining hegemonic power. Some people see it as a development of art history; others define it as a radical rupture
Summary
A few weeks ago, I found myself sitting on my porch with a friend and my partner, trying to explain just what visual studies is. Our cast of presenters in 2018, for example, included students of fashion, filmmakers, faculty in education, women’s studies, and fine arts departments, and representatives of major museums and self-run spaces, as well as independent scholars and artists.
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