Perspective Of Visual Studies Research Articles

The Rider by Chloé Zhao (2017): a poethnic invitation to the world of rodeo

The Rider is an interesting example for those who seek to decrypt the construction and dissemination of certain preconceptions, or to build links between the daily actions of a people and its identity heritage. Placing the film at the heart of US culture today from the perspective of visual studies makes it easier to understand the minor place attributed to American Indian sport. The technical prowess of young Brady Blackburn leads into an accolade of an ancestral practice and criticism of a North American society that is unable, or unwilling, to truly integrate its minorities. Going against the flow of Hollywood movie directors and the tendency for their sport films to feature a clichéd heroic figure who responds in part to the needs of the general public, Chloé Zhao explores deep into American Indian singularity through a truly initiatory narrative.

PHENOMENOLOGY AND THE PROBLEM OF VISUALITY. PART 2

The article aims to analyze the postphenomenological project as well as the conceptual apparatus (new from the perspective of visual studies) of its philosophy in the person of M.Henry and, to a lesser extent, J.-L.Marion. In the philosophy of M.Henry, the originality of presence is connected with the pathotic theory of life. In terms of visuality, it is presented as an invisibility included in the original field of pres-ence. It is expressed in the philosopher’s theory as a counter-intentional pathetic-affective ability of the sense of vision preceding the act «I see». However, Henry’s theory is not without contradictions. A spe-cial moment is the tautological formulation of subjectivity, which contradicts the movement of life as self-growth. The article shows that the development of redundancy and asymmetric relations between the I and the Other in the philosophy of J.-L.Marion appears to be a way out of the contradictions of Henry’s theory. In visuality, it is manifested in the conceptualization of saturated phenomena (icon, idol, picture, etc.). However, the philosopher’s concept is also problematic. This is indicated by such philosophers as J. Derrida, M.Hénaff, and others. In conclusion, it is suggested that the consideration of the postphenome-nological development of philosophy, despite its incompleteness,represents a reserve both in developing a theory within the «visual turn»and beyond its limits, leading to an expansion of the conceptualization of the subject of vision.

Stacy L. Kamehiro

Stacy L. Kamehiro

Turning Points

AbstractThis dialogue is part of a cross‐platform collaboration with Visible Language, the oldest peer‐reviewed design journal. Animated by questions about visual methods, genre, form, and analysis—how they differ or converge between design and anthropology, what each field has to offer the other—it contextualizes current issues in academic journal publishing from the perspective of visual studies, social science, and design, fields that do not drive contemporary transformations in journal publishing. It considers the academic journal as a form, editorial labor and politics, reaching audiences beyond the paywall, and measuring the value of scholarship, journals, and visual research.

Lights of disenchantment: a study of Max Weber’s thesis on the ‘disenchantment of the world’ from the perspective of visual studies

At the end of 1917, during a conference at Munich University, the German sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920) made a bold announcement: ‘The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the “disenchantment of the world”.’ In this article, I provide an interpretation of the notion of ‘disenchantment of the world.’ Subsequently, I present visual material that might further illuminate Weber’s idea. In the third part, I strictly concentrate my attention on one argument suggested by Weber: in ‘disenchanted’ societies ‘mysterious incalculable forces do not come into play anymore.’ Through two exemplary sculptures by the Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1884), I continue my visual excursus on the ‘disenchantment’ thesis by connecting Weber’s account on the intellectualisation of religious world-views with the autonomisation of the aesthetic sphere. The overall ambition of this article lies in providing an introductory account to an important intellectual problem and historical process through visual and textual analysis.

Imagem, consumo e presença

O artigo parte das reflexões de Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht a respeito das Materialidades da Comunicação para propor uma análise da emergência de um regime visual e novas políticas de consumo nos anos 1950 e 1960 no Brasil pautado em um paradigma cultural estadunidense. O texto insere-se em uma perspectiva de Estudos Visuais e procura demonstrar que a profusão de imagens no período em questão, longe de produzir uma “perda do mundo hermeneuticamente induzida”, é produtora de presença. Em outras palavras, para proporcionar uma análise histórica específica, buscar-se-á compreender como a linguagem imagética, para além de ser um domínio exclusivo da cultura de sentido, como pretendem alguns, produz efeitos estéticos tangíveis aos corpos, e, portanto, produz presença.

From Human Dairies to Milk Riders: A Visual History of Milk Banking in New York City, 1918-2018

In 2016, a milk bank opened its doors in Hastings-On-Hudson, New York, to collect, process, and distribute human milk for premature or sick babies whose parents cannot breastfeed for a host of reasons. That same year, to facilitate the gathering of the milk from various depots and make urgent deliveries to NICUs and families, the bank forged a much buzzed about partnership with the Sirens Women’s Motorcycle Club of New York City. Based on interviews with the primary women involved as well as archival research, this essay highlights the connections between today’s milk bank and the “breast milk dair[ies]” which saw the light in Manhattan and Brooklyn one century ago. Is the newly minted bank part of the same socio-cultural lineage as its pre-war antecedents? Are the people at the forefront of milk banking (who most often identify as women), either as bank workers, transporters, or donors, treated and seen in the same way now and then? Based on feminist and visual studies perspective, we argue that as in the past, present-day milk banking relies on a form of embodied female labor that is both emancipatory and exploitative, and in that respect, can be connected to a long history of providing human milk for profit in the form of wet nursing.

Visualidad de las víctimas del conflicto armado colombiano: palabra y memoria em contravía TV

El artículo tiene por objetivo analizar cómo son figuradas las víctimas del conflito armado en Colombia. Desde el análisis visual de una edición del programa de televisión Contravía TV, dedicado a la comunidad de paz de San José de Apartadó, buscamos comprender en sus elementos estilísticos cuál es la idea de víctima sugerida en esta producción periodística. Para ello, nos basamos en la perspectiva teórica de los visual studies y las contribuciones metodológicas del estilo televisivo, pues, pensamos que las dimensiones materiales y formales del medio nos permiten tematizar cuestiones sociales y políticas propias de su contexto.

La influencia del formalismo en el cartel bolchevique

El presente estudio trata de exponer las formas de creación visual que se generan en el período que comprende la Revolución Bolchevique atendiendo al soporte propagandístico del cartel. A través de este medio de comunicación social se escoge una muestra de diferentes autores y temáticas que sintetizan las ideas esenciales que aportan sus trabajos, influidos por los principios del lenguaje formalista. El objetivo fundamental es trazar las cualidades que ofrece dicha disciplina a la aplicación del diseño de los carteles desde la perspectiva metodológica de los estudios visuales. Por otra parte, se expone cómo la base cinematográfica del montaje de atracciones se encuentra presente en la estructura retórica del diseño cuya función es manifestar el potencial ideológico de los mensajes a través de la creación artística.

Estudios visuales y estilo televisivo: porque no existen medios puramente visuales

Este artículo presenta una propuesta de análisis de productos televisuales que operan en la disyunción de las dimensiones formales y culturales de este medio. Tal propósito implica tener en consideración la complejidad de la televisión, su reconocido valor cultural y la especificidad de sus productos. Para ello, tomamos como noción teórico-metodológica central el concepto de visualidad, del modo en que es presentado por la perspectiva de los visual studies.

Nothing (‘s what) Happens on the Screen

The article attempts to map key aspects of internet critique in the context of its relation to communication capitalism. It does so however from the perspective of visual studies. In his analysis of YouTube, the author questions assumptions of the secondary nature of visual data in the internet. The article is a preliminary mapping of the field and aims to develop research questions that need to be answered from the perspective of visual studies.

Climate model simulation visualization from a visual studies perspective

AbstractThe article gives an overview on the visualization of climate model data simulation from a visual studies perspective. On one hand the question is raised of what it means culturally when global images are used to communicate scenarios of a changing climate future beyond the field of climate research itself. The product of this process is one of the most widespread ‘icons’ of climate change, the image of the blue planet that has turned red. On the other hand insights into how these visualizations are designed in the studio of a computer designer are given. The focus here is on the way in which specific visualization software shapes images of a changing global climate. The article takes as its starting point the perspective of visual and media studies, because images have become so crucial in communicating research results of climate science and convincing policy agents and the public. What is special about scientific images depicting climate change is that they have implicitly also become political images. As today various actors and recipient groups are making use of pictures depicting climate change, the article concerns climate science, media studies, computer visualization, cultural studies, and politics alike. WIREs Clim Change 2012, 3:185–193. doi: 10.1002/wcc.162This article is categorized under: Climate Models and Modeling > Knowledge Generation with Models Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Knowledge and Practice

We're from Oz: Marking Ethnic and Sexual Identity in Chicago

In 1998 the City of Chicago installed street furniture (including twenty-two twenty-three-foot-high, illuminated, rainbow-ringed pylons) designed to mark a gay neighborhood known as Boys Town. In this paper I describe the historical context for this project and the debates it occasioned in a US context where, sociologists suggest, sexual and ethnic identities are increasingly convergent. I challenge, from a visual-studies perspective, the values attached to invisibility by critics who would prefer that sexual identity remain unmarked.