How to think about what it means to look and see: a guide for
navigating the complexities of visual culture.
The visual surrounds us, some of it invited, most of it not. In this
visual environment, everything we see--color, the moon, a skyscraper, a
stop sign, a political poster, rising sea levels, a photograph of Kim
Kardashian West--somehow becomes legible, normalized, accessible. How
does this happen? How do we live and move in our visual environments?
This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series offers a guide
for navigating the complexities of visual culture, outlining strategies
for thinking about what it means to look and see--and what is at stake
in doing so.
Visual culture has always been inscribed by the dominant and by
domination. This book suggests how we might weaponize the visual for
positive, unifying change. Drawing on both historical and contemporary
examples--from Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party and Beyoncé and Jay-Z
at the Louvre to the first images of a black hole--Alexis Boylan
considers how we engage with and are manipulated by what we see. She
begins with what what is visual culture, and what questions, ideas,
and quandaries animate our approach to the visual? She continues with
where where are we allowed to see it, and where do we stand when we
look? Then, who whose bodies have been present or absent from visual
culture, and who is allowed to see it? And, finally, when is the
visual detached from time? When do we see what we need to see?
