Visual

American studies, cultural studies, and related interdisciplinary fields use the word “visual” to refer to the sensory experience of sight, the cultural practices developed around viewing, and those forms of media that appeal directly or primarily to the eye. Some scholars argue that the historical emergence of a “visual culture”—an era dominated by images circulating through photography, ads and illustrations, film, television, and the internet—has replaced “print culture” (Sturken and Cartwright 2009). Others suggest that visual experiences have always been an important part of culture and examine how the strategies of producing, using, and interpreting them diverge and change. Approaches that interrogate the socially and historically constructed nature of objects and spaces designed for visual consumption alongside the practices through which they are engaged have been categorized as “visual studies.” This work is most useful and instructive when it is paired with an appreciation of the complexity and richness of visual experience.