Approaches To Understanding Visual Culture
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Overview
"What is it that happens when we understand something?" Malcolm Barnard relates the understanding of visual culture to the traditions of natural and social science and applies the theme of scientific understanding to the principal approaches to understanding art and design. Formalist, Marxist, gender-based, semiological, hermeneutic, and expressionist approaches to visual culture are clearly explained, through a wide variety of examples from fashion, architecture, film, fine art, and comics.
Synopsis
"What is it that happens when we understand something?" Malcolm Barnard relates the understanding of visual culture to the traditions of natural and social science and applies the theme of scientific understanding to the principal approaches to understanding art and design. Formalist, Marxist, gender-based, semiological, hermeneutic, and expressionist approaches to visual culture are clearly explained, through a wide variety of examples from fashion, architecture, film, fine art, and comics.
Booknews
Barnard (U. of Darby, UK) examines a broad range of images<-- >including package design, paintings, typography, architecture, body art, automotive design, and textiles<-->in discussing the different ways that visual culture may be understood. His b&w-illustrated text describes and analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of several methods that have been proposed, such as stylistic, formal, expressionist, Marxist, feminist, iconographical, and semiological approaches. It also considers the nature of understanding, interpretation, and explanation, asking philosophical questions such as: "How do we know when we have successfully explained a piece of visual culture?" Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)