2A Look at Visual Studies.docVIP

Title: A Look at Visual Studies. Authors: Dikovitskaya, Margaret Source: Afterimage; Mar/Apr2002, Vol. 29 Issue 5, p4, 1p Document Type: Article Subject Terms: *ART *HISTORIOGRAPHY Abstract: Offers a perspective on visual studies. Information on the indicators for growth in the field of visual studies; Difference of visual culture with visual studies; Factors attributed to the emergence of visual studies in historiography. * * * A LOOK AT VISUAL STUDIES Margaret Dikovitskaya What is art? One could ask this question within art history, but traditionally the discipline, as its name presupposes, depends on the assumption that what is worthwhile should not be questioned. Visual Studies enables the questions to be asked that did not arise in traditional art history: What does art do? In the 1990s numerous introductions to and anthologies of Visual Culture appeared that spelled out a variety of conceptual perspectives (Bryson, Holly and Moxey, 1994; Jenks, 1995; Burgin, 1996; Walker and Chaplin, 1997; Barnard, 1998, 2001; Mirzoeff, 1999; Evans and Hall, 1999; Sturken and Cartwright, 2001). These publications posed the fundamental question of how to conciliate diverse theoretical positions and develop a common ground for working in the visual field. Among the most recent and important events pursuant to this goal was the conference Art History, Aesthetics, Visual Studies held at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA in May 2001. There are several additional indicators of the growth of the field of Visual Studies: two electronic forums (one was initiated by Nicholas Mirzoeff, and the other by the American Studies Association), the new Journal of Visual Culture (from SAGE Publications), a new series of books edited by Janet Wolff and Paul Duro (University of Rochester Press), and a sequel to Routledges The Visual Culture Reader. While academics are hotly debating the path of appropriate progress in professional magazines and organizatio