Visual Culture

The project in this research area offers students with an interest in visual culture the opportunity to study the relationship of literature to the visible world and visual arts.

Intended audience

Research projects in this subject stream are open to students from all disciplines.

Previous knowledge

No previous knowledge or background is necessary, but students should be capable and enthusiastic readers of literary texts in English, be curious about the nature of our visual apprehension of the world, and have a keen interest in the interdisciplinary relationships of the arts.

Assessment

A Visual Culture Portfolio comprising of written exercises (the inclusion of short c.10-minute films as part of the critical engagement is optional): 100% of the total.

Research Topics

The specific focus of your research project will be determined and confirmed with guidance from your supervisor, but is potentially open to considering any visual artist, art movement, photographer, film-maker, dance, theatre, visual media, etc, which you particularly wish to explore, whether in painting, collage, architecture, installation, contemporary film, photography, dance, performance, television or online media. For an introduction to the critical field, please read one of the following: The Visual Culture Reader (third edition, 2013), edited by Victor Mirzoeff; John Berger's Ways of Seeing (1972); W. J. T. Mitchell's What Do Pictures Want? (2005); Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida (1980); bell hooks' 'The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators' (1992) and Laura Mulvey's 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' (1975). 

Prefer to follow a research idea of your own?

Take a look at the Open Stream.