Remarks on certain essential problems involved in the analsyis of visual data: a case study

Abstract

This is a paper of two parts. It commences with a brief review of a small collection of exemplary studies of visual analysis. Each of the studies are to different degrees guided and shaped by a range of theoretical orientations that are simultaneously contingent for analytical directions. These studies offer an indication of how theories shape enquiry. The essential indexical and polysemic potential inherent in all visual materials is explored as a core aspect of their classification and analysis. Annual company reports are then introduced, alongside an account of their recent expansion into visual representations. In the context of this paper, company reports serve an essentially illustrative purpose. They reveal something of the range and variety of still visual representations, and indicate a general trend towards an increasing expansion of the visual domain. A provisional exploration of the likely purpose of a discretionary expansion of the visual component within company reports is fashioned and a classificatory schema developed. It is argued that all classificatory schema are contextually embedded. Systems of classification exhibit an arbitrary character, guided as they are by practical, analytical and theoretical directions and epistemological concerns. Visual images from within our corpus of data are briefly explored employing the analytical frameworks of semiotics and Goffman’s typology. This offers a glimpse at the potential of comparative analytical takes on the same body of data. It serves to indicate that what data amounts to as researchable items, how it becomes researchable, is influenced by theories. Visual materials being inherently indexical and polysemic are thus unstable and open to a range of interpretations and inclusion in a variety of classificatory and theoretical/ analytical schemas.