Who Are We?
Created out of an innovative cluster hire in 2002, the Center for Visual Culture and Performance Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison supports curricular innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration from faculty and students in the field of visual cultures. We sponsor a yearlong speaker series on topics of general and critical interest and invite members of the community and the university to meet speakers, participate in events and workshops, and disseminate their own research and artistic production in and beyond the campus community. For students, we offer a PhD Minor and a Graduate Certificate in Visual Culture. Join us in exploring the multiple visual cultures around us and around the world.
What Is Visual Culture?
Visual Culture Studies is an interdisciplinary approach to the interpretation of a wide range of visual and artistic practices from the point of view of their embeddedness in the social world. Methodologically, it draws upon cultural studies, queer studies, media and performance studies, material culture studies, sociology, race theory, and more to provide a robust understanding of vision and visuality in and across cultures.
Why Study Visual Cultures?
Our everyday activities and workplaces are visually saturated environments, including films, television, video games, and social media. We communicate visually when we cross cultural boundaries; think, for example, of the graphics devised for international signage. Knowledge is often communicated visually: scientists chart brain activity, economists graph fiscal trends, geographers map territory, and detectives photograph evidence. Digital cultures and new media as information distribution systems have made visual design indispensable in every field of study. The visual also gives us access to the past and its persistent legacies in the present. The earliest recorded communications, for example, are pictorial. Drawing on courses across the arts and humanities and the university as a whole, visual culture studies teaches critical viewing to prepare students for life in our visually complex world. While cultural analysis and academic criticism are significant outcomes of this field, it also has practical applications in design, communications, cultural management, economics, ethical deliberation, social policy, and scientific research.