What is Visual Culture?

Abstract

This chapter must begin the task of introducing and defining the notion of visual culture. It will do this by looking first at the idea of the visual and then at the idea of the cultural. Various definitions of the visual, ranging from the very broad (everything that can be seen, for example) to the very narrow (fine art, or paintings, for example), will be considered. The strengths and weaknesses of each definition for the analysis and explanation of visual culture will be clearly explained. A range of definitions of the cultural, from the elitist to the democratic and from the ‘unilinear’ to the ‘multilinear’, will also be considered. Again, the strengths and weaknesses of these definitions for the analysis and explanation of visual culture will be explained.