Visual Culture Research Articles

“Cute saves the world!”: animal Internet Celebrities’ cute activism in the #adoptdon’tshop animal rescue campaign on social media

ABSTRACT This paper examines everyday media practices and seamless work in animal advocacy by various actors with different levels of internet celebrity status, who curate their media personas around ‘cute’ animal images, including established pet Influencers and animal internet celebrities. Through a case study of the most prominent (hashtag) campaign and movement against the pet trade industry and culture in South Korea, #AdoptDon’tShop [#사지말고입양하세요, sajimalgo-ipyanghaseyo], I explore animal internet celebrities’ media practices and immaterial labor that are understated but rigorously performed out of compassion and care for animals. Taking up scholarship on cuteness and Influencer culture, I introduce the concept of cute activism, a novel iteration of social movements adapted into visual social media cultures, pivoting on the performative potential of cuteness and its inherent competency in navigating increasingly-visualized, attention-seeking social media environments. While the instinctive affective appeal of cuteness serves as a driving force and primary modality of cute activism, effectively attracting more people to be tuned into messages, events, and ultimately movements, the very appeal may come into being as a burden for activists, inducing them into continuous immaterial labor.

A Translator's Face: Persianate Selfhood and Portraiture, 1760–1800

AbstractWithin the framework of Persianate self‐hood, this article explores the intersection between translation, Indian dress, and portraiture in India and Britain, 1760–1800. It examines the translator's lived experience and cultural output as a published scholar and Persian secretary in the East India Company. First, it considers the self‐constructed through clothing; second, it examines how the role of the EIC translator is discretely performed. The third is the role of art and the artist in visualizing a record of professional life and its relationship with material culture, and finally, how it evoked a multifarious kinship on a network of ideas unrelated to ethnicity or place. Engaging with the concept of transculturalism, it considers the global ‘family’ as a flexible and dynamic unit that empowers the movement of visual and material culture within generations. The investigation of dress and grooming reframes the imperial ‘self’, seeing dress as the primary navigator of cultural space.

Black Girls Seeing Urban Schools: Visual, Affective, and Discursive (Re)Conceptualizations of Safety

Joining the chorus of Black/Critical Race Feminist scholarship in education, this article explores how both affect and visuality inform understandings of safety for Black girls in schools. Using participatory visual ethnography, I explore how five young Black women at a Philadelphia magnet school conceptualize safety as an affective achievement of visionary school design. I argue that any attempt to address safety for Black girls in urban schools must include attention to the visual school culture and the affective dimensions of the school environment to fully account for the ways these dimensions counter or enable further physical, emotional, or spiritual harm.

Curating conflict-related sexual violence: Museological visibilities at the Imperial War Museum

While often under-researched, mis-catalogued, and obscured from public display, conflict-related sexual violence is acutely entangled in the story of conflict that the Imperial War Museum tells its visitors, beyond the dichotomous characterisation of present/absent, hidden/revealed or remembered/forgotten. This article outlines and characterises ways in which the Imperial War Museum curates conflict-related sexual violence, illustrating how this equates to gendered and gendering arbitrations on what is appropriate, representative, and moreover what counts as conflict-related sexual violence and as the material and visual culture of war. Curatorial practices are found to both reflect and actively (re)produce patterns of representation in sexual violence discourse, through a prism of visual hierarchies inherent to modern museumification and the Museum’s titular imperial legacy. Insights from this case can help guide ambitions of a more activist, feminist curatorial practice, one invested in disrupting harmful patterns and centring what is marginal.

Strategic coupling of administrative rationality and cultural imaginaries in municipal amalgamations

Municipal amalgamations are widely applied interventions for enhancing policy delivery in a political-economic context of devolution, austerity, and decentralization of welfare states. This paper studies how public stakeholders in the Netherlands walked the tightrope between ‘hard’ political-administrative logic and ‘soft’ cultural-historical discourse to justify, institutionalize, and legitimize municipal amalgamations. It uses a theoretical approach that combines literature on the rescaling of state governance and cultural political economy. Based on a discourse analysis of amalgamation reports, the paper traces the constructed political-economic and cultural imaginaries of the 26 municipal amalgamations that took place in the country between 2018 and 2023. Imaginaries underpinning the Dutch decentralization discourse were purely political-administrative in content, both regarding the necessity to act and the solutions (i.e., municipal amalgamations). Alternative, relational forms of spatial decision-making were covered by an imaginary of inefficiency and limited democratic control. Cultural imaginaries were locally mobilized to retain the top-down political-administrative logic, and to allow the municipalities to position themselves in between the citizens and the state. The amalgamation reports reflected a sometimes-difficult discursive negotiation between administrative efficiency and culture, future and past, vigour and softness, and external and internal visibility of the new municipalities. The paper concludes that the spaces of territorially bounded ways of policymaking, including municipal mergers, are intrinsically relational, jointly material-discursive/symbolic, and fluid (i.e., process-based). The cultural political economy framework provides a useful interpretative framework for debates on politics of scale, state rescaling, and (re)territorialization.

Electric Eyes

In 1977, U.S. Border Patrol Pilot George Watson praised the latest addition to the agency’s fleet in a photo-essay for INS Reporter. “A new dimension in enforcement capability began with the Hughes 500 helicopter,” he vowed. To illustrate the fruits of modernization, Watson included aerial shots of an arrest in the San Ysidro desert. “Before,” he explained, “aliens” would “sweep across” the border. Now, “Fox Trot’s light in the sky is bad news. Migrants hit the deck. They cannot escape.” Less than a decade later, the magazine admitted that, for the first time, one million “illegals” had been apprehended in a single year. Despite the slew of surveillance technologies at its disposal—helicopters, infrared scopes, night-vision goggles, low-light television systems, and “electric eye” ground sensors—the Border Patrol was outmatched. This article mines interviews, memoirs, promotional materials, and archival photographs from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) History Office and Library to flesh out the intimate links between visuality, surveillance, border policing, and xenophobic nationalism. Amid hysteria over unauthorized migration in the wake of the Bracero Program (1942–1964), the Border Patrol began to represent sovereignty on the U.S.–Mexico line as a visual project. It resurrected rudimentary tools (e.g. sign cutting) and adopted increasingly sophisticated optical devices. To advertise its vigilance, the agency turned to the camera. Via publicity and commemorative projects, the Border Patrol crafted an institutional iconography that showcased its prescient, scientific oversight even as it displayed the U.S.–Mexico boundary’s persistent insecurity. Throughout, it positioned the undocumented as invasive enemies. Ultimately, the Border Patrol leaned on a visual culture that glorified surveillance to justify the state’s sovereign right to police mobility. Insidiously, it fueled xenophobia by othering Mexican migrants. And it reimagined the U.S.–Mexico border as the site of a forever war: a perpetually vulnerable zone where perfected observation was a required—but never finished—pursuit.

On the Dynamism of Paintings Through the Distribution of Edge Directions

The digitization of artworks has recently offered new computational perspectives on the study of art history. While much of the focus has been on classifying styles or identifying objects, the analysis of more abstract concepts, such as the perception of motion or dynamism in still images, remains largely unexplored. Semioticians and artists have long explored the representation of dynamism in still images, but they often did so through theoretical frameworks or visual techniques, without a quantitative approach to measuring it. This paper proposes a method for computing and comparing the dynamism of paintings through edge detection. Our approach is based on the idea that the dynamism of a painting can be quantified by analyzing the edges in the image, whose distribution can be used to identify patterns and trends across artists and movements. We demonstrate the applicability of our method in three key areas: studying the temporal evolution of dynamism across different artistic styles, as well as within the works of a single artist (Wassily Kandinsky), visualizing and clustering a large database of abstract paintings through PixPlot, and retrieving similarly dynamic images. We show that the dynamism of a painting can be effectively quantified and visualized using edge detection techniques, providing new insights into the study of visual culture.

Pagans: The Visual Culture of Pagan Myths, Legends and Rituals by Ethan Doyle White (review)

Pagans: The Visual Culture of Pagan Myths, Legends and Rituals by Ethan Doyle White (review)

Mythologizing the Lwa Demanbre

Abstract The importance of demanbre, the sacred plot of family land in Haiti, is undisputed, but the development of demanbre from land to lwa (an elevated Vodou spirit) has not yet been explored. Building upon the integrative approaches of Karen McCarthy Brown and Colin (Joan) Dayan, this study aims to demonstrate the cultural imagination of the Haitian people, not only through the recounting of history but through the interpretational probabilities, ambiguities, and complexities inherent in the Vodou worldview. In cases such as this, where the Haitian peasantry left behind no written records, it is necessary to use alternative means to ensure their voices are heard. It is with great respect for the seminal works of Brown and Dayan that I expand upon the possibility of mythologizing the origin of the lwa Demanbre, using an interdepartmental approach that combines history, anthropology, and the study of myth.

Phillip Troutman. Review of "Hidden in Plain Sight: Concealing Enslavement in American Visual Culture" by Rachel Stephens.

Phillip Troutman. Review of "Hidden in Plain Sight: Concealing Enslavement in American Visual Culture" by Rachel Stephens.

‘Stop the Death Transports!’ Holocaust and slavery references in an Israeli campaign against animal live transports

ABSTRACT Animal rights organisations worldwide fight against live shipments of meat animals. The main Israeli NGOs leading the fight are Animals-Now, Israel against Live Shipments, and Let the Animals Live. Their visual rhetoric highlights the cruelty of these shipments. Combined with written messages, photographs of animal suffering appeal to viewers’ emotions and conscience. This article examined ‘Stop the Death Transports!’ – The most extensive campaign led by these NGOs, together with Animals Australia, in 2016. It analysed the campaign poster from the approaches of photography semiotics and visual contextual analysis, informed by theories of visual culture and animal ethics. The campaign represents an intermediate approach between the hardcore and softcore approaches, using visual and verbal references to the Holocaust and slavery. However, though the use of the Holocaust is highly charged for local Jewish viewers thus contributing to the understanding of the immorality of consuming meat, it may in fact assuage their conscience by shifting the moral burden from the meat eaters to the transporters.

PENGARUH SENI KALIGRAFI DALAM MENUMBUHKAN KEMANDIRIAN FINANSIAL BAGI MAHASISWA

The art of calligraphy plays a significant role in fostering financial independence among students. Through intensive practice and meticulous attention to detail, this art form strengthens skills such as precision, patience, and creativity, crucial for personal financial management. This article explores how calligraphy can serve as an effective educational tool to enhance students' understanding of the importance of discipline, planning, and financial stewardship. Implementing calligraphy practices within higher education enriches visual culture and positively influences students' attitudes toward financial autonomy and responsibility. The method used in this research is qualitative, where the researcher collected data through online interviews and observations with informants. Additionally, the researcher referenced various theories from literature reviews such as scientific journals, books, and reliable information. The research findings indicate that the marketing strategy employed towards the informants involved online marketing strategies, including platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Through these strategies, they experienced increased sales. Furthermore, the informants implemented changes in product quality and sales services to ensure customer comfort and loyalty.

Comparative dimensions of COVID-19 visual health literacy: social media news imagery in Germany and China

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted governments worldwide to utilise social media news platforms for disseminating critical public health information and safety protocols. Visual aids, including photographs, videos, charts, and infographics, played a key role in conveying health-related messages. However, there are variations in visual communication practices across countries, influenced by local health communication habits and cultural contexts. This study examines these variations in the visual health discourse that emerged in China and Germany during the pandemic, focusing on metaphorical mapping as a central analytical tool. We introduce the concept of “visual dataset fingerprints,” outlining the distinct composition of public health visuals on eight social news media platforms in Germany and China. Our descriptive analysis encompasses over 3700 digital visual media posts related to COVID-19, shared by leading national news media accounts in German, English, and Mandarin on microblogs in 2022. As a preliminary outcome of our study, we observe differences in image use based on the analysis of 1678 media posts by four Chinese outlets and 1329 media posts by four German outlets. These differences may reflect variations in how public opinion, perceptions, and attitudes toward COVID-19 policies are shaped across languages and cultures. Through its comparative visual analysis, our pilot study offers the potential for a new research approach to global healthcare communication in social news media and digital visual cultures.

Becoming Yoga Bodies of Instagram: Women’s Agency, Platform Negotiations and Everyday Activism

Women’s yoga bodies have been overutilised in mainstream media through their stereotypical representation aligned with the market forces. Previous studies have shown the domination of similar visuals in yoga spaces on Instagram, following the algorithmic platform structures. Avoiding the dichotomy of subject–object bodies, this article brings out women participants’ living experiences of becoming yoga bodies on Instagram and their practices countering the dominant visual culture related to yoga bodies. The article argues that women use ‘everyday activism’ on Instagram to formulate their yoga body experiences. These findings are based on in-depth interviews with 17 women yoga practitioners active on Instagram. The analysis reveals the emergence of three main themes contributing to the ‘becoming of yoga bodies on Instagram’, namely (a) reclaiming the space through increased visibility, (b) training gazes towards women’s yoga bodies and (c) breaking the yoga body stereotype.

The Femme Fatale in Text and Image: Analyzing Gender, Power, and Representation in Rudyard Kipling’s “The Vampire” and Philip Burne-Jones’s Painting

This paper examines the connection between Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The Vampire” (1897) and Philip Burne-Jones’s painting of the same title, focusing on their portrayal of femininity and the interaction between text and image. Kipling’s poem, often viewed as a response to Burne-Jones’s depiction of actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell, presents a warning about the destructive allure of female beauty, highlighting themes of male disillusionment and betrayal. Burne-Jones’s painting emphasizes the femme fatale figure, portraying a sexually dominant woman overpowering a helpless man. Both works suggest that beauty conceals danger, leading to male ruin. Using Foucauldian and feminist frameworks, the paper critiques the politics of representation, arguing that the portrayal of women often reflects patriarchal anxieties, reducing them to passive objects in male-dominated visual culture. Critics like Linda Nochlin and Griselda Pollock are cited to challenge these depictions. The paper concludes that the female vampire theme reflects cultural fantasies rather than truths about femininity, contributing to ongoing discussions on how art and literature shape gender perceptions.

History, Memory and Memorabilia: Kamala Dasgupta and the Politics of Remembering Revolutionary Bengal

ABSTRACT This paper examines the interplay between memory, history, nationalism, and visual cultures by focussing on a framed photograph of a revolver gifted to Kamala Dasgupta’s family by the Calcutta (Now Kolkata) police after Indian independence. Once used in an attempted assassination during the anti-colonial struggle, the revolver has become an anomaly in the nation’s collective memory – a ‘floating signifier’ with an unfixed meaning. Analysing the photograph as a media spectacle and a symbol within national myths, I argue that it disrupts linear narratives of progress that dominate nationalist historiography. The article shows how Kamala’s act of procuring the revolver has been overshadowed by her comrade Bina Das’s violent act. Drawing on theories of the spectacle, national temporality, and subaltern studies, I illustrate the selective commemoration of revolutionary violence in India. The research in this paper demonstrates how precarious and subaltern histories such as Kamala’s can destabilise established national narratives and pluralise temporal orders of the nation.

Dystopian Visions and the Making of Privacy Law

This article explores the role of references to dystopian literature in the context of developing privacy laws. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of a large corpus of legislative and judicial texts from Germany and the United Kingdom, I demonstrate that references to popular dystopian works of fiction like Orwell’s 1984 have animated and shaped the legal recognition of privacy. Specifically, dystopian visions are evoked as reasons that warrant the legal protection of privacy rights. I explore lawmakers’ vision of a technologically empowered totalitarian state and discuss how these connect to historical, contemporary, and hypothetical examples of unjust regimes. I argue that literary imaginations of dystopia are often themselves built on historical experience, suggesting that the aptness for social critique is, as literary critics suggest, built into dystopia as a genre. I furthermore explore how the theme of democracy is employed as a counterpoint to fears of dystopian totalitarianism. Portraying privacy invasions as harmful to democratic ideals discursively amplifies their dangerousness—and thereby works to justify regulatory intervention. My research findings prompt us to view legal norms as a cultural artifact that reflect cultural imagination and literary narratives.

Visualising human life in volumetric cities: City digital twins and other disasters

City digital twins (CDTs) are attracting considerable attention as a tool for the management of cities facing many kinds of crises. CDTs are three-dimensional, animated digital models of cities that display the big data generated by urban sensors in near-real-time. Most of the academic literature on CDTs consists of technical discussions of their design or implementation. This paper instead proposes a different context for understanding CDTs. It adopts an intersectional feminist and techno-cultural analysis of the visual form of power enacted by CDTs, as exemplary of a much wider turn in contemporary visual culture towards visualising the world digitally in three dimensions. Many critical accounts of this visual and volumetric regime are attentive to the forms of corporealised human life that emerge in relation to the picturing of various volumes. This paper examines how CDTs visibly co-constitute a number of digitally-mediated forms of human life, including its user and its human inhabitants. The paper argues that, while both the technological affordances and the cultural imaginary of CDTs perform the kind of powerful white masculinity that sees space as transparent and actionable, discussions of CDTs also persistently generate an excessive form of human life that is understood as untwinnable. The paper argues that masculinist anxieties around this excess erupt in another form of digitally-animated volumetric city facing disaster: the disaster movie. The paper thus makes an argument about the specific form of white masculinity co-constituted with CDTs and insists on the necessity of critical techno-cultural analyses of urban management technologies.

Youth Photographed: Methodologies for Visual Analysis

In this article, we propose a methodological reflection based on the work with photographs of youth published in print media in Chile during the 20th century. We use our proposal for qualitative analysis, which includes intentional work with visual culture, the creation of our own archives, and the development of tools for individual and group analysis of photographs. We propose two specific strategies for the analysis of photographs: the first is “layered analysis”, and the second is “group or panel analysis”, which allows for linking images, culture, and youth. We trust that this methodological reflection will contribute to the study of youth and stimulate debate in the field of study itself.

A Javanese Dance is A Representation of Rasa in Javanese Culture

This paper presents the concept of rasa in Javanese culture embodied in Javanese dance. The ethnographic approach in the Ethnochoreology discipline used as a step in data collection was in-depth interviews with actors (dancers, choreographers) in a society with a Javanese cultural scope. The observation step in the data collection effort was carried out using the involved observation model or participant observer, completed by data collection through literature and relevant documents. The theoretical perspective and concept used as the basis for thinking in discussing the case study of the Ela-ela dance in this paper is the concept of rasa, as put forward by Paul Stange. Namely, that rasa is a "tool" or "means" of perception, or a "function" of "whisper of heart or intuition", and rasa in Javanese dance as expressed by Katarina Indah Sulastuti, that rasa in Javanese dance is an element that is integrated with the senses in the body in a comprehensive manner which involves: the sensibility of heart vibrations, sharpness of intuition, imagination, bodily intelligence, and understanding of Javanese culture. Javanese dance, in the example of the case study, the Bedhaya Ela-ela dance is a representation of the rasa in Javanese culture, namely that the Bedhaya Ela-ela dance is a form of dance that substantially depicts the life of the Javanese people and the culture of rasa which involves issues of ethics, aesthetics, and religion in Javanese culture.