Informal introduction to visual studies. Not updated or revised; for more extensive material see www.jameselkins.com

1. Five minutes on visual studies
(For transfer student orientation, 2010)

2. Mickey Smith’s photographs of bound journals

3. What is visual studies?
Mickey Smith’s photographs of bound journals

4. What is visual studies?
A five-minute introduction
Mickey Smith’s photographs of bound journals

7. A pictorial tour of images,
starting with art history and
widening outward…

11. Art history, aesthetics,
art criticism, art theory

12. Art history, aesthetics,
art criticism, art theory
Apulu of Veii, c. 510 BCE, Rome, Museo nazionale

13. Art history, aesthetics,
art criticism, art theory

14. Art history, aesthetics,
art criticism, art theory
Metal lamp with Jupiter on the handle. 1st c. BCE. Chicago.

15. Art history, aesthetics,
art criticism, art theory
Zhao Mengfu, Autumn Colors in the Qiao and Hua Mountains, detail. Taipei.

16. Visual studies, film studies,
image studies, Bildwissenschaft

17. Visual studies, film studies,
image studies, Bildwissenschaft

18. Visual studies, film studies,
image studies, Bildwissenschaft
Jean Genet, Un Chant d’amour

19. Visual studies, film studies,
image studies, Bildwissenschaft
The Million Dollar Homepage, as of November 2007

20. Visual studies, film studies,
image studies, Bildwissenschaft

21. Visual studies + visual
communications, design,
advertising
13
Two examples of ”the return” of black in advertising. Main: opening screen for Panasonic flatscreen website, 2007; Inset: from a blog on Japanese consumer goods, 2007: black cotton buds

22. Visual studies + visual
communications, design,
advertising
13
Two examples of ”the return” of black in advertising. Main: opening screen for Panasonic flatscreen website, 2007; Inset: from a blog on Japanese consumer goods, 2007: black cotton buds

23. Visual studies + visual
communications, design,
advertising
13
Two examples of ”the return” of black in advertising. Main: opening screen for Panasonic flatscreen website, 2007; Inset: from a blog on Japanese consumer goods, 2007: black cotton buds

24. Visual studies + visual
communications, design,
advertising
Kurt Schwitters, Die neue Gestaltung in der Typographie, c. 1930

25. Visual studies + visual
communications, design,
advertising
The “morphology of PowerPoint 2000,” from “Ontological Excavation: Microsoft PowerPoint 2000,” www.cc.gatech.edu/home/idris/Research/PowerPoint_Excavation_Overview.htm

26. Visual studies + visual
communications, design,
advertising
The “morphology of PowerPoint 2000,” from “Ontological Excavation: Microsoft PowerPoint 2000,” www.cc.gatech.edu/home/idris/Research/PowerPoint_Excavation_Overview.htm

27. Visual practices in the university:
chemical engineering, law, food science, medicine, civil engineering,
archaeology, anthropology, geology, classics, languages, restorative dentistry,
astronomy, particle physics, low-temperature physics, biochemistry, biology,
sociology, economics, philosophy, nanotechnology, computer science…

28. Visual practices in the university:
chemical engineering, law, food science, medicine, civil engineering,
archaeology, anthropology, geology, classics, languages, restorative dentistry,
astronomy, particle physics, low-temperature physics, biochemistry, biology,
sociology, economics, philosophy, nanotechnology, computer science…

29. Visual practices in the university:
chemical engineering, law, food science, medicine, civil engineering,
archaeology, anthropology, geology, classics, languages, restorative dentistry,
astronomy, particle physics, low-temperature physics, biochemistry, biology,
sociology, economics, philosophy, nanotechnology, computer science…
Demonstration of phase-contrast X-Rays (Monash University)

30. Text
Visual practices in the university:
chemical engineering, law, food science, medicine, civil engineering,
archaeology, anthropology, geology, classics, languages, restorative dentistry,
astronomy, particle physics, low-temperature physics, biochemistry, biology,
sociology, economics, philosophy, nanotechnology, computer science…
Klaus Engel, Isosurfaces of convection flow in the Earth’s crust

31. Visual practices in the university:
chemical engineering, law, food science, medicine, civil engineering,
archaeology, anthropology, geology, classics, languages, restorative dentistry,
astronomy, particle physics, low-temperature physics, biochemistry, biology,
sociology, economics, philosophy, nanotechnology, computer science…
Lake Vostok, various sources

32. Lake Vostok, various sources

33. Visual practices in the university:
chemical engineering, law, food science, medicine, civil engineering,
archaeology, anthropology, geology, classics, languages, restorative dentistry,
astronomy, particle physics, low-temperature physics, biochemistry, biology,
sociology, economics, philosophy, nanotechnology, computer science…
Lake Vostok, various sources

34. Visual practices outside the university:
business, commerce
20

35. Visual practices outside the university:
business, commerce
20

36. Visual practices outside the university:
business, commerce
Demonstration of Luxury Blue from Noodler’s Ink, a pigment that outlasts its paper

37. Theories of vision, visuality, sight,
looking, glimpsing, staring, gazing, in
cognitive science, neurophysiology,
psychoanalysis…
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/7735/cloverfieldhighreseyesft1.jpg

38. Theories of vision, visuality, sight,
looking, glimpsing, staring, gazing, in
cognitive science, neurophysiology,
psychoanalysis…
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/7735/cloverfieldhighreseyesft1.jpg

39. Viral ad for Firefox browser (c. 2006)

40. Viral ad for Firefox browser (c. 2006)

41. Visual studies is currently spreading around the world:
Viral ad for Firefox browser (c. 2006)

42. Visual studies is currently spreading around the world:
it is strong in the US (Cornell University, Duke
University, Rochester, Irvine),
Viral ad for Firefox browser (c. 2006)

43. Visual studies is currently spreading around the world:
it is strong in the US (Cornell University, Duke
University, Rochester, Irvine),
Canada, the UK, Japan, Australia, New Zealand,
Viral ad for Firefox browser (c. 2006)

44. Visual studies is currently spreading around the world:
it is strong in the US (Cornell University, Duke
University, Rochester, Irvine),
Canada, the UK, Japan, Australia, New Zealand,
and it is spreading in Latin America (Mexico, Argen-
tina, Brazil), south Asia (Baroda, Delhi, Tehran), south-
east Asia (Hong Kong, Taiwan), and South Africa
Viral ad for Firefox browser (c. 2006)

45. Visual studies is currently spreading around the world:
it is strong in the US (Cornell University, Duke
University, Rochester, Irvine),
Canada, the UK, Japan, Australia, New Zealand,
and it is spreading in Latin America (Mexico, Argen-
tina, Brazil), south Asia (Baroda, Delhi, Tehran), south-
east Asia (Hong Kong, Taiwan), and South Africa
At SAIC Visual and Critical Studies is especially
strongly oriented toward production.
Viral ad for Firefox browser (c. 2006)

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