Visual Culture - Essay Example

Running head: Seeing Culture: Vision, Visuality and the Senses Seeing Culture: Vision, Visuality and the Senses [Writer’s Name] [Institution’s Name] Seeing Culture: Vision, Visuality and the Senses Question 1) What does it mean to ‘read the visual’? What dominant regimes of visuality can you identify in two visual texts and what discourses do they relate? How do factors such as genre and intertextuality operate in the texts you have chosen to study? What other forms of mediation do you bring to your interpretation of the texts? Visual culture has become an in-depth study of the various ‘visual practices’ which we can see being followed in culture itself today. This attainment of discipline status of visual studies has brought about the concept of visuality. Visuality would then mean an analytical approach and treatment of various visual data as complete texts themselves. This newfound approach to dealing with visual material leads to an analysis of artistic text that requires a close reading approach. According to Mora & Smith, “visual culture encourages reflection on the difference between art and non art, visual and verbal signs, and the ratios between different sensory and semiotic modes.” (2006, p.152) This highlights a key factor in studying and analysing visuality. The sensory usage is not simply restricted to vision and optics but also bring along with them a sense of physical kinetics. As some art truly tries to obtain a verisimilitude, visuality must then seek out those key features which work to incorporate not only vision but tactility, audio, and gustatory features. When we speak of regimes in visual art, a comprehensive understanding can be best outlined according to Shapiro’s definition: “A visual regime would simply be an arrangement under which there are privileged hegemonic ways in which spectacles or displays are organized according to a set of typically implicit standards so as to privilege some sights and perspectives over others and eyes are habituated to expect these visions and not others.” (2003, p.201) Thus regimes are not arbitrary but outlined implementations in visual art. These regimes in visual art have always come and gone. Politics have always played an important role and hence produced much art in that particular parameter. And as all regimes have their own agendas and manifestoes of what to promote and not, they have produced their own finely tuned visions of visual artistic masterpiece. According to Mitchell, “vision and visual images are expressions of power relations in which the spectator dominates the visual object and images and their producers exert power over viewers. This commonplace power fallacy is shared by opponents and proponents of visual culture who worry about the complicity of visual media with regimes of spectacle and surveillance, the use of advertising, propaganda, and snooping to control mass populations and erode democratic institutions.” (2002, p.172) Mitchell’s view, at this point suffices to inform us that visual texts sufficiently engage in power struggles. Whether specific regimes are intentionally implemented or not in relation to visual creativity and works, they are most definitely to be found in criticism relating to and surrounding powerful visual works. In further relation to implicit standards, the mode of discourse which each visual text contains or links itself with does not need to be limited to certain number and can be as wide ranging as imaginable or interpretable. We can take the simple metaphor of a discourse being a coloured glass through which one can look through at a certain visual medium. Each discourse is its own coloured glass and therefore each discourse presents a differently coloured perspective. No text can be studied in complete isolation therefore a large number of discourses can be applied to various and seemingly numerous visual texts. Subsequent meaning can be derived from these discourses. It is a two way analytical process and as a text can be seen through various discourses, a text can in turn promote various discourses as well. A visual text can thus clearly express intended meaning through the usage and adherence to specific a discourse. Discourses are wide and range from the literary to the street affairs of thugs. What may be found in a visual text may or may not conform to its regime. Thus an attempt made to categorize or analyse systematically and comprehensively the makeup of a visual text, namely, the semiotics, sensory perceptions, ideologies, regimes, and discourse usages in a specific visual text gives us a sense of what it means to ‘read the visual’. Pertaining to Text One, the following has been provided by the artist as a description of the visual image: “Each panel contains a unique voice audio sample and visual text that is activated when viewers walk through each panel.” Keeping this description in mind, we can identify a number of regimes being implemented in this image. The regime of virtual simulation is most apparent. The graphics and three- dimensional focus on human simulation as well as three dimensional perceptions (as are visible from the appearance of walls through intersecting lines). This further brings us to the spatial discourse which this text applies. Spatially, the dimensions of the text are enhanced and provide a three dimensional template to work with. The positioning of the virtual people is varied throughout the text in order to highlight filled versus non-filled portions of the image. Another regime that comes into play here is the post-modern and futuristic regime. This regime requires us to focus upon the content and thought which is being presented to us. The subject matter greatly reflects post modern invention and a world which can be best described in terms of poststructuralism, the information age, media society, postindustrial society, postmodernism, postcolonialism, and perhaps even globalization if we are to take the multicoloured backdrops to represent or be substitutions for a cultural diversity and harmony. Here, the most obvious discourse is that of sociology. The text speaks to us in terms of what a future society may appear and how it may come to function. Another major regime that comes to play in this text is the regime of representation. Lash believes that ‘…symbolic signification, via the word’ is a ‘mode of signification’ and further falls under ‘regimes of representation’ (2002, p.119) The prominent words and sentences that fill up a significant part of this text tell us that this regime is being used. The phrases used are basic in nature and follow simple syntactic construction. The meaning they relay both compliment and yet control the meaning within the text. The discourse used here is that of obviously lexical semantics. The text through this approach, relies on perpetuation of meaning and intended meaning through words (loved) and sentences (one is big, one is small, etc). Considering Text Two, the image relates a story of an African girl on the brink of death due to starvation. A vulture is perched behind her in patient watchfulness, awaiting her death and his meal. The story may seem to be even sadistic but the dominant regime identifies itself as one of human experience. The girl is simply a child but facing a monumental challenge in human life; the battle with starvation. The image aspires to relate that as best as possible within the one still shot. The discourse it thus entails is that of humanistic values and social concern. The shocking experience is to be related to dispel ignorance using sharp and vivid detail. It relates to this in the manner of discourse of awareness campaigning as well. The dominant regime in this visual image seems to be that of its genre; photography. The major aim the image seems to be to project to us the significant details which allow us to form a cohesive understanding of the situation. The visual image is presented in a sharp and dull spectrum of colours. These are captured well and enhanced for us to focus on and gauge authenticity with. The photographic technicalities play an integral role in this regime and are the main source of information detail. The panorama which is provided to us establishes the story as we understand it, giving the image a setting, characters, backdrop, and a time frame. The discourse is both that of a cultural story with sharp details as well as a technical discourse. However, the technical discourse may be more appropriate for the genre. It allows the image to be understood in terms of lighting, positioning, panoramic captures, etc. Genre plays an important role in the operation of both the chosen texts. The decisive genres of both the texts entail a more narrowed out road to pursue when analysing and interpreting the visual images. The genre of both graphics deigning art as used in Text one, and photographic art in Text Two help define the visuality each of them carries. Furthermore, the genre influences the choices of discourse to be used and regimes to be implemented. Intertextuality plays a role in Text One since the image is taken from a series of artworks following the same theme by the same artist. However, the themes are the same and the images follow a series of events rather than branched out plots and so intertextual analysis maybe of assistance but it is not of any hindrance. Text Two is a lone award winning photograph and can of course, like all other texts, be interpreted through application of other textual meanings. Nevertheless, the analysis of this text is independent of any intertextual applications and is holistic and comprehensive in its own. The various mediations that an individual brings to their interpretation of any text are unique due to the differing basis on which an individual builds perception. Life experiences have a huge role to play in this regard. Personal experiences shape and mould ideas an individual may harbour and then further work to help interpret new experiences with reference to previous ones. These individual mediations play a major role in how individuals perceive texts, regardless of the apparent regimes and discourses applied in them. Another major mediation is cultural and social universes. A specific cultural grounding will lead to certain culture specific realizations and thought patterns pertaining to any stimuli, and certainly in this case, visual stimuli. Hence, this mediation may not be as rare but may be found in a certain patter throughout individuals adhering from similar cultures. References Memespelunk. (n.d.). Exhibition 4. Retrieved January 13, 2010, from http://memespelunk.org/blog/?p=109 Mitchell,W.J.T. (2002). Showing seeing: a critique of visual culture. Journal of Visual Culture, 1(2): 165-181. Morra, J., & Smith, M. (2006). Visual Culture: What is visual culture studies? Taylor & Francis. Shapiro, G. (2003). Archaeologies of vision: Foucault and Nietzsche on seeing and saying. University of Chicago Press. Lash, S. (2002). Critique of information. SAGE. Read More