Visual Worlds

As many observers have noted, the world is becoming increasingly visually mediated, with the rise of computers and the internet being central factors in the emergence of new tools and conventions. Exploring the social structure of visuality, this volume contains a collection of essays by internationally renowned artists and scholars from a variety of fields (including art history, literary theory and criticism, cultural studies, film and television studies, intellectual history and sociology). It was conceived to address a bold query: how is our experience and understanding of vision and visual form changing under pressure from the various social, economic and cultural factors that are linked under the term 'globalization'.

The essays overlap in their considerations of the tensions between cultures and worlds, political life, everyday social experience, and war. The resulting conversation that develops between the chapters touches on points from many visual worlds, and provides a unique opportunity for considering the changing character of visual experience today.

This book will attract readers from a wide range of academic disciplines and will especially be valuable as a textbook for graduate and undergraduate courses in visual culture and cultural studies.

As many observers have noted, the world is becoming increasingly visually mediated, with the rise of computers and the internet being central factors in the emergence of new tools and conventions. Exploring the social structure of visuality, this volume contains a collection of essays by internationally renowned artists and scholars from a variety of fields (including art history, literary theory and criticism, cultural studies, film and television studies, intellectual history and sociology). It was conceived to address a bold query: how is our experience and understanding of vision and visual form changing under pressure from the various social, economic and cultural factors that are linked under the term 'globalization'.

The essays overlap in their considerations of the tensions between cultures and worlds, political life, everyday social experience, and war. The resulting conversation that develops between the chapters touches on points from many visual worlds, and provides a unique opportunity for considering the changing character of visual experience today.

This book will attract readers from a wide range of academic disciplines and will especially be valuable as a textbook for graduate and undergraduate courses in visual culture and cultural studies.

Marshall Battani is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Grand Valley State University, Michigan.

Lisa Tamiris Becker is Director of the CU Art Galleries and the Colorado Collection, University of Colorado at Boulder.

Lauren Berlant is Professor of English at the University of Chicago.

Andrea Fraser, an artist, lives in New York City.

The GALA Committee is a collaborative artist/activist/product design team comprised primarily of students and faculty from the University of Georgia and CalArts; its members are listed at the conclusion of chapter 7.

Jennifer Gonzales is Assistant Professor of Art History, University of California - Santa Cruz.

John R. Hall is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for History, Society, and Culture, University of California - Davis.

Darnell Hunt is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for African American Studies, University of California - Los Angeles.

Martin Jay is Professor of History at the University of California - Berkeley.

Max Kauffmann is affiliated with RTMark.

Mary Kelly is Professor of Art at the University of California - Los Angeles.

Allan Sekula is a photographer based in Los Angeles.

Gregory Sholette is an artist, writer, and Chair of the Master of Arts in Arts Administration Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Jon Simons is Lecturer in Critical Theory, Postgraduate School of Critical Theory and Cultural Studies, University of Nottingham.

Lenore Stanley is affiliated with RTMark.

Blake Stimson is Assistant Professor of Art History and Co-Director of the Critical Theory Program at the University of California - Davis.

Anneke Voorhees is Curatorial Assistant, Modern & Contemporary Art, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University.

Robin Wagner-Pacifici is Professor of Sociology at Swarthmore College.