Visual culture studies (VCS), while developing from the field of art history and cultural studies, refers to an approach to the critical examination of not only works of art in the narrow sense but also popular visual media, crafts and design, advertising posters, comics, and other objects that are generally described as visual.

The history of design, be it architecture, products, or graphics, is still usually mentioned alongside the names of the famous, talented designers who created them. However, most artificial objects that are abundant in everyday life do not reveal the names of the designers. How do visually appealing artifacts attract attention, convey messages, and arouse desire? VCS examines how design and relevant objects have been constructed in the context of society and history and what ideologies lie behind it, without privileging the author or the designer.

The emergence of VCS, particularly in Anglophone countries, can be traced to the 1990s. However, according to Walker and Chaplin, the authors of Visual Culture: An Introduction (1997), its origins go back further to the cultural shift in the humanities in the 1960s. In this period, there was a growing movement in theoretical approaches, such as the Frankfurt School and Structuralism, to critically examine the politics of culture using psychoanalysis and semiotics as tools. Influenced by such trends, the transformation of art history and the development of cultural studies strongly influenced the subsequent formation of VCS in the second half of the 20th century.

In the UK, during this period, the diversification of artistic practice and the maturation of consumer society brought to light the limitations of conventional art history education based on the history of painting and sculpture, and attempts to overcome these limitations emerged both within and outside relevant educational and research institutions. As a result, for example, the New Art History approach, led by T. J. Clarke, G. Pollock, and N. Bryson, among others, began to examine the social and political contexts in which artworks of the past were situated. In 1972, the BBC broadcast John Berger’s television program, “Ways of Seeing,” which presented an analysis of visual culture, including not only works of art but also photography, advertising and design. His book published under the same title as an accompaniment to the series is still considered a classic work in VCS.

The influence of cultural studies, which emerged in the UK around this time, cannot be overlooked. This refers to a sociological approach to analyzing television, music, fashion, etc., applying the ideological critique of Marxism to a wide range of cultural phenomena in reaction to the conservative political trends of the time. Cultural studies was spearheaded in the 1960s by the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, with its then director, Stuart Hall, as a central figure. It seeks to expose how issues of race, gender, and class are embedded in the cultural practices around us.

While these descriptions are centered in the UK, there have also been significant influences on visual (culture) studies through the critical theories of Walter Benjamin and others, the archaeological methodology of Michel Foucault, and the structuralist cultural criticism promoted by Roland Barthes. In the US and Canada, notable developments were seen in media theory, led by the work of Marshall McLuhan, as well as in art and film criticism based on the journal October, especially the work of Jonathan Crary, who examined the formation of the visual in modern times by connecting art history and science history (also referred to as Visual Studies in contrast to the above tendency). Regardless of the emphases, it is evident that V(C)S was formed against the background of the maturation of consumer society and its political and social context, in which feminism, psychoanalysis, post-colonialism, and film and photography theory streamed into the (self-)critical demands of art and culture.

Concerning design, it is worth noting that Walker and Chaplin, co-authors of the book mentioned above, are specialists in the history of design and architecture respectively. Chapter 5 of Visual Culture: An Introduction, “Production Distribution and Consumption Model,” dismissed the author-viewer model of conventional art theory, and discussed the issues of ideology and resources behind production activities, desires induced by shopping and other purchasing activities, the role of the audience in raves and others. Walker also pointed out the problem of auteurism in the field of design from the stage of his earlier work, Design History and the History of Design (1989), and advocated a methodology that interweaves theory and analysis in a balanced way through the various discourses mentioned thus far. In the same period, Adrian Forty’s Objects of Desire (1986) also critically analyzed the social value of everyday equipment in kitchens and offices, rather than the production process by designers, and developed an approach close to later visual culture studies (Both of these approaches can be described as “material studies,” which could be related to recent trends in anthropology).

Thus, the field of design functioned as a catalyst in the formation of VCS, which attempted to connect and integrate high/popular culture. Inheriting the character of design history/theory, it should be stressed again that VCS is an approach dedicated to the critical analysis and description of concrete objects while incorporating philosophical thinking. In the history of photography and film, the recent works of Geoffrey Batchen and Tom Gunning, who specialize in the analysis of cultural cases that have been relegated to the margins of “orthodox” history (also known as “vernacular,” that is, a specific culture rooted in each land and people) have become a driving force in this field. Furthermore, arguments on image science (Vilém Flusser) and media philosophy (Friedrich Kittler), which have been developed in the German context, and new media theory and software studies (Lev Manovich), which focus on the transition after digital technology, as well as studies of manga and animation that are active in Japan and abroad, have also been contributing to the constant expansion and renewal of the subject of VCS and its approaches.

(MASUDA Nobuhiro)

Related Classes

• Design Futures Course, Design Aesthetics

References

• John Berger (1972) Ways of Seeing Based on the BBC Television Series, Penguin Publishing Group.
• John A. Walker and Sarah Chaplin (1997), Visual Culture: An Introduction, Manchester University Press.
• Hal Foster ed. (1988), Vision and Visuality, Bay Press.