An Introduction to Visual Culture

by Nicholas Mirzoeff

This is a wide-ranging and stimulating introduction to the history and theory of visual culture from painting to the computer and television screen. It will prove indispensable to students of art and art history as well as students of cultural studies.
Mirzoeff begins by defining what visual culture is, and explores how and why visual media - fine art, cinema, the Internet, advertising, performance, photography, television - have become so central to contemporary everyday life. He argues that the visual is replacing the linguistic as our primary means of communicating with each other and of understanding our postmodern world.
Part One of the Introduction presents a history of modern ways of seeing, including:
* the formal practices of line and colour in painting
* photographys claim to represent reality
* virtual reality, from the nineteenth century to the present.
In Part Two, Mirzoeff examines:
* the visualization of race, sexuality and human identity in culture
* gender and sexuality and questions of the gaze in visual culture
* representations of encounters with the other, from colonial narratives to Science Fiction texts such as The Thing, Independence Day, Star Trek and The X-Files
* the death of Princess Diana and the popular mourning which followed as marking the coming of age of a global visualized culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, Cultural Studies, Cultural, History, Research

292 pages, Paperback

First published July 8, 1999

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author covers a lot of well-trodden ground before getting to the bulk of the argument, but that is to be expected from a book touting itself as an "introduction." I actually docked a star for two reasons. One reason being because I felt the flow between chapters was, in most instances, lacking a cohesion that would have made this book a better whole. As it is, each chapter is ripe for plucking out and dropping onto curriculum, so that is a bonus in itself- but not necessarily a positive trait for the book as a single book.

Still, this is a very good read about a relatively undiscussed topic. The other reason I did not give it 5/5 was because portions of the text feel a bit dated and could do with an update (specifically the discussion on virtual reality), but that doesn't necessarily undermine the arguments made by the author. However, it was clear that the author (at the time of the writing) was not entirely clear about how the internet functions and certain aspects, if corrected, would change a small portion of what they were saying. But that's probably just me being nit-picky.

Like I said before- this is still a worth-while introduction and it does a very good job of bring new readers into the ideas behind visual culture.

[Kristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zajímavá knížka o dějinách vizuální kultury, která se v půlce bohužel zvrhne ve filosofování nad kolonizací Konga.

[Karla Mallma Soriano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un librazo!!!

Mirzoeff habla del surgimiento de la Cultura Visual con la muerte de la Princesa Diana, mas tambien hace una revisión a la fotografia, la imagen, el significado del color en el siglo XIX....

Hartamente recomendable!

[Alaaddin Uslu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horizon broadening

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nick Mirzoeff’s valuable charting of visual culture’s landscape draws together both a very long view incorporating ancient Greek and Arabic science, the global transformation that was the colonisation of the Americas, patterns of colonial racial and gendered power in central Africa and the development of computing technology from the early 19th century onwards. His philosophical frame is derived from Jacques Rancière’s division of ‘the sensible’ into those things that are seen and those that remain unseen, exploring the ways cultures and politics of power shape the ways we see, what we see and how we see it. His approach to visual culture as politics is therefore able to be seen as part of the statements of authority: “Move on, there’s nothing to see here” (p291) – or in the earthier language of the British police, Fido (‘Fuck it, drive on).

Consequently, this is not visual culture as a synonym for ‘art history’ or any of its off-shoots, but a visual culture that

has to claim the right to look, to see the migrant, to visualise the war, to recognise climate change. In reclaiming that look, it refuses to do the commodified labour of looking, of paying attention. It claims the right to be seen by the common as a counter to the possibility of being disappeared by governments. It claims the right to a secular viewpoint. Above all, it is the claim to a history that is not told from the point of view of the police. (p15)

That is, Mirzoeff’s visual culture is dissident, resistive and seeks to subvert the established order. The case is rich and in its repeated visits to the Kongo/Congo highlights a vibrant indigenous visual culture alongside an oppressive and violent colonial culture where the visual became a powerful for the maintenance of colonial power and for the justification of racialised and gendered hierarchies.

It is in the final four chapters that Mirzoeff shifts tone from the developmental and the historical to the contemporary analytical in discussions of forming and reforming digital worlds, of the place of photography (and claims of its death) in the contemporary visual, through an exploration of the British Royal family as markers of the tropes of celebrity and finally through a discussion of watching war. These are strong chapters, evidentially potent and theoretically sharp while wearing their theory lightly. Mirzoeff is, however, on a hiding to nothing here – the challenge with these contemporary chapters is that the issues they deal with, virtual worlds (the book close to predates Twitter) and celebrity especially, shift so fast that their shelf life is limited, so these final chapters need to be read in the context of what we knew and what was happening about 2007/8 (the book came out in 2009). This is crucial for students: they’ll need to update the information.

So, this works well as an introductory text. Its usefulness is enhanced by the concept/image insets between each chapter – the ‘keyword’ discussions of networks and of modernity are specifically useful for the stuff I do and teach. Kudos also to Routledge for printing this on high gloss paper and being will to use lots of colour images throughout, not in special inserts: this adds to the price but is well worth it.

This, then, is a valuable and important introduction to the field, a fine textbook and well complemented by Mirzoeff’s more recent and mass market How to See the World . Six years after its first appearance as this second edition, it remains a key text for the field.

[Chiara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book to be quite thought–provoking. The introduction (of the "Introduction of visual culture" a thought I stupidly find amusing) itself summarizes the book quite well and gives an overview of visual culture and of how deeply we are influenced by it. Another chapter I really appreciated was the one on virtuality, a subject I've always found interesting, and thought Mirzoeff did a good job there as well.

[Faedyl · Rating 4 out of 5]

hay que puntuar libros técnicos? y bueno... no sé definir en este caso porque el texto es muy bueno pero no sé si te entrega lo que necesitás saber al 100%. Una serie de ensayos respecto de cómo el mundo se configura a través de las imágenes que hacemos de él. La primer parte es la más técnica. Pero te deja con la sensación de "¿que sigue?". Habría que leer otros tantos para ver si este es realmente EL libro.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A general if somewhat 'messy' introduction to visual culture if only because it is sorely outdated and requires a revised edition to include more about the Internet.