/r/VisCulture
A subreddit for the intersecting disciplines of art, aesthetics, philosophy, politics, film theory, cultural studies, and psychoanalysis
Visual Culture is the space of study for the intersecting lines of cultural theory, political economy, psychoanalysis, aesthetics, art history, critical theory and media theory. Visual study is an interdisciplinary approach to media, film, television and any other medium containing a visual component.
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/r/VisCulture
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What animation films tell us about Afghanistan
22:17 UTC
I am looking for a profound Book about Pictures...
Greetings, fellow r/VisCulture dwellers!
First and foremost, let's cross our fingers and hope I haven't accidentally misplaced this post! :S
Currently, I find myself in the pursuit of a literary gem, one to bestow upon my teenage nephew, whose fascination with the visual realm knows no bounds. He's taken quite a shine to the art of photography (thanks, social media :S) and the captivating world of graphic design (courtesy of his school curriculum). What I'm in search of is a book that peels back the layers of visual imagery, not just skimming the surface like the plethora of content saturating our social feeds. I'm yearning for something that delves into the topic with profound contemplation.
In my possession, there rests an aged Spanish tome that traverses the landscape of visual imagery. Alas, it appears a touch too intricate for his budding intellect (not to mention, he doesn't parlez-vous español). This literary relic explores domains such as:
"La Imagen es un texto" (The Image is a text), dissecting intricate concepts like "Image structures," "The textual surface in photography," "Expression and Visual Content," and pondering "Is there a journey of the gaze?"
"El lector en la imagen" (The reader in the image), featuring sections that unravel "The image, communication, the reader," "The strategy of the Author and the Reader," "The Recipient as an active subject," and the intriguing "The Observer and cognitive space."
"Análisis de la imagen informativa" (Analysis of the informative image), embarking on an exploration of realms like "press photography," "The image on television," "Television image and information structure," "Symbols and visual effects," and the timeless debate of "Written text versus visual text in information."
In essence, I'm in pursuit of a book that traverses similar territories but packages it in a manner palatable to a young adolescent. It needn't necessarily be cloaked in academic robes; instead, I'm in search of a read that ignites curiosity and prompts deep reflection.
Your recommendations and insights, dear community, are warmly welcomed and highly anticipated...
With heartfelt thanks in advance for your invaluable guidance!
07:38 UTC
Immanuel Kant's Critique of Judgment (1790) — An online discussion group starting September 27, meetings every Wednesday, open to everyone
03:09 UTC
Wonder Is a Horizon
01:05 UTC
"What is Art?" by Leo Tolstoy, on the Value of Art — An online reading group discussion on Tuesday March 14, free and open to everyone
05:15 UTC
so pure & pink a pussycat: sex sculpture & scandal at the world's fair
18:39 UTC
Chantal Akerman's "Jeanne Dielman" (1975), the "Greatest Film of All Time" in Sight and Sound's new survey of 1,639 critics and experts — An online film group discussion on Monday December 19, open to everyone to join
13:20 UTC
Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera (1929): Form vs. Content in a Modernist Documentary — An online group discussion of the classic film on Wednesday October 12, open to everyone to join
15:37 UTC
Photography and Digital Culture
Hello, I was reading the book "The Photographic Image in Digital Culture" by Martin Lister (1995) and I'm now trying to find a more recent book on the same topic. This one deals with the advent of technology and the computer in the 1980s and the place of photography in visual culture. I'm looking for something that would include photography and social media! I'm open to any suggestions.
Hoping someone can help me out!
10:10 UTC
Nolan v/s Tarkovsky: Different Explorations Of Time In Film
22:08 UTC
Ingmar Bergman's Persona (1966) — An online group discussion of the film on Friday September 23, open to everyone to join
02:16 UTC
alt-right aesthetics & the legacies of art history (1.2)
05:25 UTC
the alt-right, aesthetics, & the gay art historian who started it all.
21:02 UTC
Russian Philosophy
Hello guys. I am Russian student and would be grateful if you'll describe me : How do you understand fights between slavic movement and the western movement in Russia(reasons and so on). I would like to know how is preparing it in English, USA universities ( I need it for research work). Thank you.
08:36 UTC
The association of beauty with conservatism (postmodernism vs. aesthetics)
I was skimming over a book called"The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays of Postmodern Culture" and realized there was a huge rift between philosophers of aesthetics and art critics who came out of the contemporary/postmodern art scene like Rosalind Krauss. It seems the propagation of the idealization of beauty is associated with conservative/idealogical stances in the art world. Likewise many modern art students I know have expressed that they find the philosophy of art/aesthetics passé. Can anyone expand upon this? I'm curious how beauty and the search for it has come to be associated with reactionary politics.
04:30 UTC
A rhizomatic overview of the media environment post-youtube
10:49 UTC
Audience tribes
Definition: A group of people who have viewed a particular show or podcast as audience members and have the fluency if that show Vs others who happen to have not.
18:51 UTC
Closed eyes accidentally, thematically, and symbolically, the vulnerability, the reflexivity, the paranoia and the meta-communication.
Here is a thread for anything relating to closed eyes in visual culture.
They can crop up, accidentally by reflex:
When a camera flash startles the reflex response to close, when being photographed, when tired, crossed eyes or esotropia can also happen when tired, or having stared at a fixed distance for too long before a photo, like staring at the computer at work all day e.t.c.
or deliberately: when being used as a gestural facial expression in various contexts to mean various things, or when used thematically or symbolically, even to signal agreement or resolvement.
They could be used thematically, as meta-communication or to symbolise:
Non-perception or lack of fluency or awareness on something both individual and group, emotional, philosophical, conceptual, spiritual or psychological tiredness, intellectual critique, other forms of situational or interpersonal critique, perhaps willing a change to happen in some way, either internally or externally, psychologically or practically, in their own life or for someone else. Possibly they could be used to signal the non-perception of narcissitic personality disorder in the social field due to non-perception being a feature of that disorder, or psychopathy eg: non perception of sympathy or something similar. It could even be symbolic for other neuro-disabilities like autism as it can involve a lot of non-perception as the mirror neurons have to be activated sort of manually by the autistic person, and life to learn from the context around them properly. I myself didn't percieve hypergraphy in the world until age 30! so non perception can absolutely happen to people.
Here are some examples used thematically or symbolically e.t.c:
2012: M83 - Moonchild (Official video) - YouTube
BBC Two - Late Licence, Series 1, Episode 5
There was a bit of closed eyes symbolism somewhere during this episode of a local comedy show originally aired in late 2015, I only saw it myself when it was rerun in early 2016 (about February).
A couple of the tigerbelly podcast had closed eye or crossed eye poses for more innocuous and sort of vaguely thematic usages of this facial expression:
there was a famous artwork of photography of various people with their eyes closed a lot like the m83 "moonchild" video.
There was a political campaign flyer on homelessness that had one of the political parties in northern Ireland on it, where one of them had their eyes closed in about 2016-17 if anyone has a copy of that flyer, I think it might have been either people before profit or the alliance party, it was a ginger guy with his eyes closed. (I had a copy somewhere, if I find it I will upload. I myself have only intersected with homelessness when an older relative 15 years my senior was in temporary housing between council houses one time for about a month, I helped him look for flats for most of that month and then had to work a night shift, so didn't get to help him move in (but a freind of his from his generation did help him with the actual move, I had helped him move house 3-4 times before that, (once with help from his dad who was over 70, and passed away possibly later that year) as he was an alcoholic and needed a bit of help, however I had to go no contact for my health but he was re-housed and was fine, he actually was temporarily house in the exact place that the politicians from northern Ireland were posing outside of, the homeless temporary accomodation place on university street).
we have to close our eyes or have the proper glasses of course for a solar eclipse like the one in 2017:
Sky News - US prepares for Great American Eclipse | Facebook
When Day Became Night: A special report on the solar eclipse - YouTube
Editorial | 'Oliver Cheshire' D'SCENE Magazine #1 by Neil O'Keeffe - FASHIONIGHTS
The above image from a design magazine "DSCENE" with Oliver Cheshire photographed by Neil O'Keeffe (I thought this was a "gay" magazine back at that time, but didn't realise it maybe isn't and is possibly just about design, i'm heterosexual myself but had a few gay freinds over the years, all great and lovely lads! nice people.)
Anyone have any other interesting imagery with closed eye or crossed eyes from 2015-18, in mainstream culture post links here!
12:35 UTC
Other u.k millenial shows from our early youth, where is television culturally now?
The Girlie Show (British TV programme) - Wikipedia
This Morning with Richard Not Judy - Wikipedia
Shooting Stars (British TV series) - Wikipedia
Bang, Bang, It's Reeves and Mortimer - Wikipedia
(i watched a bit of red dwarf in 2017 on youtube to try to recap what my chilldhood was about in terms of the media, and also to try to understand more about the adults back then, what were their ideas about life, what were they trying to get across philosophically, what could I understand about their theory of mind now?)
I used to have:
The Huge Book of Hell: Amazon.co.uk: Groening, Matt: Books
Teachers (British TV series) - Wikipedia
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace - Wikipedia
Absolutely Fabulous - Wikipedia
Absolutely (TV series) - Wikipedia
The High Life (British TV series) - Wikipedia
Monty Python's Flying Circus - Wikipedia
The Armstrong & Miller Show - Wikipedia
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Wikipedia
The Adam and Joe Show - Wikipedia
Some of us saw this on VHS: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (TV series) - Wikipedia
In my adult years the news became the main televison show that i watched after about 23 or something, and the wright stuff was o.k, also this morning was somewhat relaxing at times, saturday kitchen was o.k but to me as a viewer personally, seemed to have a wobbly period between the end up 2015-2017, so did sunday brunch, with a bit more pregnant pauses on that one and the odd sort of "cringe-arts" or "martial-cringe-arts" of conversational dynamics seemed to be being practiced and explored on that one, once again to my perception as a viewer. The local news and then one show was on bbc1 in the early evening while preparing meals for a while between about 2014-2017.
The internet was the main form of media, it was a window into a global media landscape of youtube:
Paul Joseph Watson - Wikipedia (Really usefully coined the term "Virtue signalling", "Are they just virtue signalling?").
These guys are more on the sort of
Various other podcasts existed:
The Joe Rogan Experience - Wikipedia
On the more liberal side of things, sort of, this was pretty mainstream from 2011-2017 for millenials, and many of his guests also had successful podcasts:
Your Mom's House - Wikipedia with Tom Segura and Christine Pazsitsky
Bert Kreischer - Wikipedia (bertcast)
Various celebrities have been on the Rogan show including: Graham Hancock, Brian Cox, Elon Musk, Neil De Grasse Tyson, Dave Chapelle, Demi Lovato, Tom Green, Bill Burr, Matthew Mc Conaghy, Miley Cyrus, Rob Lowe, Edward Norton, Robert Downey Jr, Russel brand, Eddie Izzard, Mcauly culkin, Henry Rollins and many more,
and many regulars;
The artist David Choe was also a guest a number of times and had his own podcast this led to spinoffs: tigerbelly and "the stevee weebee show", it was a bit like the Howard Stern show:
Steve Lee Loves Drew Barrymore (DVDASA#091) - YouTube
TigerBelly (TV Series 2015– ) - IMDb
also here some more well known podcasts to the millenial generation:
WTF with Marc Maron - Wikipedia
The Howard Stern Show - YouTube
Opie and Anthony - Wikipedia (is pretty well known, I never really listened to much of this one myself but I looked into it for a while).
Also of course:
The Louis theroux documentaries generally, "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan, Michael Moore - Wikipedia Fahrenheit 9/11 - Wikipedia ,
Super Size Me - Wikipedia , and many more. If anyone can think of more shows that were significant to the millenial generation, let me know in the comments.
15:37 UTC