{"id":7073,"date":"2006-11-08T23:01:49","date_gmt":"2006-11-08T23:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/08\/elkins-visual-s\/"},"modified":"2006-11-08T23:01:49","modified_gmt":"2006-11-08T23:01:49","slug":"elkins-visual-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/08\/elkins-visual-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Elkins, Visual Studies<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\u23f3 Approximate reading time: <\/span> 5<\/span> mins<\/span><\/span>\n

Elkins,
\n James. Visual Studies: A Skeptical Introduction<\/i>. New York: Routledge,
\n 2003.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Elkins presents a "skeptical introduction" to the field of visual studies<\/b>,
\nan emerging discipline he estimates to be ten years old (c. 1992<\/b>). In
\naddition to presenting visual studies in the context of visual culture, cultural
\nstudies, and art history, Elkins issues a call to make visual studies more
\ndifficult<\/b>. Making it harder, he contends, will also make it more
\ninteresting<\/b>. Elkins attributes the label "visual studies" to W.J.T.
\nMitchell, whose Picture Theory<\/i> explained a "pictorial turn<\/b>."
\nPushing his argument for rigor and risk as needed changes for visual studies,
\nElkins also argues for six competencies<\/b> (c. 4). Visual studies, in
\nElkins’ view, takes root in the humanities and tends to be interdisciplinary,
\nbut it can do much more to include sciences<\/b> and non-art images<\/b>
\n(173). The "conceptual disarray<\/b>" and programmatic confusion in
\nvisual studies is cause for concern, no matter how well we understand its
\nmultiple causes. The kind of visual studies that Elkins favors for standalone
\nacademic programs assumes a vested interest in methods<\/b> (in addition to
\nhistory<\/b>) and moves beyond the common dichotomy in visual culture between
\nphotography<\/b> and avante-garde art<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Elkins explains that the high and low<\/b> designations well-known in
\nstudies of art present problems for visual studies (solutions: 45-62). The
\nmost common figures for the field are Barthes, Benjamin, Foucault, and Lacan<\/b>
\n(33). In his list of conundrums (or precepts for making visual studies
\nmore rigorous), he lists casual citation<\/b> as a concern (33, 101). In his
\ndiscussion of visual literacy (c. 4), he says that writing and pictures must be
\nkept separate, as names for different and that visual literacy<\/b> involves a
\n"reflective sense" (128). <\/p>\n

Elkins also makes the cogent point that methods<\/b> in the humanities tend
\nto seek out complexity<\/b> or, that is, prefer complexity and hybridity in
\nresearch (112).<\/p>\n

Ten conundrums (program notes for making visual studies more difficult,
\ninteresting):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Case of the Calvin Klein Suit: In What Sense is Visual Culture
    \n Marxist<\/b>? (66)
    \n Marx; problem of unveiling as a desirable end.<\/li>\n
  2. The Case of the Poor Schoolteacher: When Visual Studies Is Self-Evident<\/b>
    \n (71)
    \n Adorno’s "hidden meanings," "how hidden are the hidden meanings scholarship
    \n uncovers?" (73).<\/li>\n
  3. The Case of the Ill-Conceived Essay<\/b> on 9\/11: When Visual Studies Is
    \n Not Helpful (76)
    \n Limits of visual studies; Elkins didn’t write an essay on 9-11 after much
    \n consideration (77).<\/li>\n
  4. The Case of the Neglected Crystal: Visual Culture and Non-Art Images<\/b>
    \n (83)<\/li>\n
  5. The Case of the Ghost of C.P. Snow: Taking Science<\/b> Seriously (87)<\/li>\n
  6. The Case of the Benjamin Footnote<\/b>: Issues Involved in Citing<\/b>
    \n Benjamin, Foucault, and Warburg (94)<\/li>\n
  7. The Case of the Unclaimed Inheritance: Seeing Deeper History <\/b>of the
    \n Discipline (102)<\/li>\n
  8. The Case of the Mexican Soap Opera: Visual and Nonvisual in Film and
    \n Media Studies<\/b> (106)<\/li>\n
  9. The Case of the New Guinea Bird-watcher: Can Visual Studies Be Truly
    \n Multicultural<\/b>? (110)<\/li>\n
  10. The Case of the Writing Itself: The Challenges of Writing<\/b>
    \n Ambitiously (120)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Six competencies:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Art History as a Kind of Visual Literacy (140)<\/li>\n
    2. Non-Western Visual Competencies (147)<\/li>\n
    3. Unrecoverable Visual Literacies (152)<\/li>\n
    4. Visual Literacies that Involves Making Images (157)<\/li>\n
    5. Visual Literacies in the Sciences (159)<\/li>\n
    6. Special Effects and Digital Images (177)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Key terms: visual studies, visual culture, cultural studies (1), Mitchell’s
      \npictorial turn (5), image studies (7), non-art images (12), art history (21),
      \ntransdisciplinary (28), core competencies (30 and c. 4), canon of visual culture
      \n(34), methodology (37), gaze (38), media (42), collapse and single visuality
      \n(43), informational images (45), aestheticism danger (48), high art’s project of
      \nnegation (50), commercial culture (50), high-low problem (45-62), wild writing
      \nand wild theory (65), VS is too easy (65), program notes (66), Adorno’s "hidden
      \nmeaning" (71), stupefaction (73), graphic design and ideographic writing (84),
      \nunconsciousness (92), Foucault’s "bureaucratic eye" (99), hybridity (113),
      \nvisual literacy (125), flaneur (129), postocular theory (133), Hirsch’s cultural
      \nliteracy as asterisked knowledge (138), Fourier transform (161), tags (172),
      \ngraphics (180), Euclidean geometry and logic (192), studium and punctum (193),
      \nuncertainty (200).<\/p>\n

      "It is exactly that apparently unconstricted, unanthropological interest
      \nin vision<\/b> that I think needs to be risked if the field [of visual studies]
      \nis to move beyond its niche in the humanities" (7).<\/p>\n

      "Visual studies growing from mathematized theories of communication<\/b> is
      \nvery different from visual studies in North America, where visual communications
      \ntends to be a more varied and less semiotically informed practice that includes
      \ndesign studies and graphic design<\/b>" (10).<\/p>\n

      "In my experience, visual studies grows wild<\/b> in studio art
      \ndepartments and art schools<\/b>, where it is a standard accompaniment of studies
      \nin postmodernism<\/b>" (14).<\/p>\n

      "Visual studies emerges from these books as a set of overlapping concerns
      \nunited by a lack<\/i> of interest<\/b> in several subjects–older
      \ncultures, formalism, and canonical works of art<\/b>" (17).<\/p>\n

      "Or to put it more soberly, from an art-historical standpoint<\/b>, visual
      \nculture can appear lacking<\/b> in historical awareness<\/b>, transfixed by
      \na simplified notion of visuality<\/b>, careless about the differences between
      \nmedia, insouciant about questions of value, and sloppy in its eclectic choice of
      \nobjects and methods" (23).<\/p>\n

      "What matters here is that the decision to emphasize a general
      \nmethodological approach<\/b> has two practical consequences, neither of them very
      \ndesirable: it means that visual culture looks increasingly like an ordinary
      \ndiscipline<\/b>, specializing in television, advertising, and other popular
      \nimagery; and it means that visual culture courses attract students who are
      \ninterested mainly in popular art<\/b> of the last fifty years" (42).<\/p>\n

      "When I propose that visual studies needs to become more difficult<\/b>,
      \npart of what I have in mind is a balance<\/b>; the texts would have more
      \nlasting interest, for example, if the innovative subject matter were balanced by
      \ntheoretical or ideological innovation" (63).<\/p>\n

      "Sometimes the images are there just because the writers are invested in
      \nthem<\/b>, not because images are needed to make the arguments work<\/b>" (83).<\/p>\n

      "The further you go into the fascinating hinterland of image practices<\/b>–and
      \nit is a direction I love to go in, and that I wish more scholars would take–the
      \nless there is to say<\/b> about social construction<\/b>, commodification<\/b>,
      \nand the making of the viewing subject,<\/b> and the less hope there is of also
      \nbeing able to talk about political history, patronage, contemporary literature,
      \nor the host of subjects that can make art history and visual culture so
      \nabsorbing" (85).<\/p>\n

      "If there is an analytical limit to these interests, it is the assumption
      \nthat the demonstration of what I am calling hybridity<\/b> is itself
      \nsufficient; the idea is to work upward from known states and dichotomies that
      \nare taken to be relatively pure toward an interesting and complex impure
      \nstate<\/b>" (113).<\/p>\n

      "Departments<\/b> such as the one I teach in offer many opportunities to
      \ndiscuss the meaning of digital<\/b> images, cyberspace<\/b>, and the
      \nInternet<\/b>, but they do not require competence<\/b> in any particular
      \nprograms or assume that knowledge in their teaching<\/b>" (179).<\/p>\n

      "My emphasis in this book has been on the reactive side<\/b> for two
      \nreasons. First, in universities–my principal concern in this book–the
      \nconfluence of disciplines includes only a minority of critical practices<\/b>
      \nthat are intended to affect the state of affairs outside of academic
      \ndiscourse<\/b>. Second, an overconfident activism<\/b> based on an
      \nunderinterrogated discourse is a recipe for uninteresting work<\/b>. What
      \nmatters is uncertainty<\/i><\/b> in ‘what history, whose history, history to
      \nwhat purpose,’ and for me that uncertainty is deepest in the theoretical ground
      \non which the field is built" (200).<\/p>\n

      \n
      Related sources:<\/dt>\n
      Crary, Jonathan. Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle and
      \n Modern Culture<\/i>. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.<\/dd>\n
      Drucker, Johanna. "Who’s Afraid of Visual Culture?" Art Journal<\/i>
      \n 58:4 (1999): 36-47.<\/dd>\n
      Stafford, Barbara. Good Looking: Essays on the Virtue of Images<\/i>.
      \n Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1996.<\/dd>\n
      Wolff, Janet. Feminine Sentences: Essays on Women and Culture<\/i>.
      \n Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1990. (Feminist critique of flaneur)<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      \u23f3 Approximate reading time: <\/span> 5<\/span> mins<\/span><\/span>Elkins, James. Visual Studies: A Skeptical Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2003.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[176],"tags":[444,1569,742,294,1570,400,457,1186,1571,1408,405,183,424,1133,1439,520,1560,1572,285,1573,1574,218,441,1575,887,1308,1568,1531,255,1257,478,1236,1468,278,1576,635,963,1543,437,1577,417,1339,136,433,140],"class_list":["post-7073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-visuality_and_n","tag-aesthetics","tag-ambition","tag-archives","tag-art","tag-balance","tag-barthes","tag-benjamin","tag-canons","tag-competency","tag-criticism","tag-culture","tag-curriculum","tag-design","tag-desire","tag-difficulty","tag-digital","tag-ease","tag-emblem","tag-foucault","tag-gaze","tag-graphics","tag-history","tag-image","tag-interdisciplinarity","tag-interpretation","tag-introduction","tag-lacan","tag-lists","tag-literacy","tag-marx","tag-media","tag-methodology","tag-modern","tag-pedagogy","tag-photograph","tag-program","tag-science","tag-seriousness","tag-shock","tag-stupefaction","tag-theory","tag-vision","tag-visual","tag-visuality","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nElkins, Visual Studies - Earth Wide Moth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/08\/elkins-visual-s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Elkins, Visual Studies - Earth Wide Moth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u23f3 Approximate reading time: 5 minsElkins, James. Visual Studies: A Skeptical Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2003.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/08\/elkins-visual-s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Earth Wide Moth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/derek.mueller\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/derek.mueller\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-11-08T23:01:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Derek Mueller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Derek Mueller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/08\\\/elkins-visual-s\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/08\\\/elkins-visual-s\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Derek Mueller\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/66fc5e80a62f53057760790b1cfeb24b\"},\"headline\":\"Elkins, Visual Studies\",\"datePublished\":\"2006-11-08T23:01:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/08\\\/elkins-visual-s\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1261,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/66fc5e80a62f53057760790b1cfeb24b\"},\"keywords\":[\"aesthetics\",\"ambition\",\"archives\",\"art\",\"balance\",\"Barthes\",\"Benjamin\",\"canons\",\"competency\",\"criticism\",\"culture\",\"curriculum\",\"design\",\"desire\",\"difficulty\",\"digital\",\"ease\",\"emblem\",\"Foucault\",\"gaze\",\"graphics\",\"history\",\"image\",\"interdisciplinarity\",\"interpretation\",\"introduction\",\"Lacan\",\"lists\",\"literacy\",\"Marx\",\"media\",\"methodology\",\"modern\",\"pedagogy\",\"photograph\",\"program\",\"science\",\"seriousness\",\"shock\",\"stupefaction\",\"theory\",\"vision\",\"visual\",\"visuality\",\"writing\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Visuality and New Media\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/08\\\/elkins-visual-s\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/08\\\/elkins-visual-s\\\/\",\"name\":\"Elkins, Visual Studies - Earth Wide Moth\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-11-08T23:01:49+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/08\\\/elkins-visual-s\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/08\\\/elkins-visual-s\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/11\\\/08\\\/elkins-visual-s\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Elkins, Visual Studies\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Earth Wide Moth\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/66fc5e80a62f53057760790b1cfeb24b\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/66fc5e80a62f53057760790b1cfeb24b\",\"name\":\"Derek Mueller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/cropped-bmartwork.png?fit=1220%2C480\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/cropped-bmartwork.png?fit=1220%2C480\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/cropped-bmartwork.png?fit=1220%2C480\",\"width\":1220,\"height\":480,\"caption\":\"Derek Mueller\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/cropped-bmartwork.png?fit=1220%2C480\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.derekmueller.net\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/derek.mueller\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/dereknmueller\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/dnmueller\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.earthwidemoth.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/dmueller\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Elkins, Visual Studies - Earth Wide Moth","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/08\/elkins-visual-s\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Elkins, Visual Studies - Earth Wide Moth","og_description":"\u23f3 Approximate reading time: 5 minsElkins, James. Visual Studies: A Skeptical Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2003.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/08\/elkins-visual-s\/","og_site_name":"Earth Wide Moth","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/derek.mueller","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/derek.mueller","article_published_time":"2006-11-08T23:01:49+00:00","author":"Derek Mueller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Derek Mueller","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/08\/elkins-visual-s\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/08\/elkins-visual-s\/"},"author":{"name":"Derek Mueller","@id":"http:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66fc5e80a62f53057760790b1cfeb24b"},"headline":"Elkins, Visual Studies","datePublished":"2006-11-08T23:01:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/08\/elkins-visual-s\/"},"wordCount":1261,"publisher":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66fc5e80a62f53057760790b1cfeb24b"},"keywords":["aesthetics","ambition","archives","art","balance","Barthes","Benjamin","canons","competency","criticism","culture","curriculum","design","desire","difficulty","digital","ease","emblem","Foucault","gaze","graphics","history","image","interdisciplinarity","interpretation","introduction","Lacan","lists","literacy","Marx","media","methodology","modern","pedagogy","photograph","program","science","seriousness","shock","stupefaction","theory","vision","visual","visuality","writing"],"articleSection":["Visuality and New Media"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/08\/elkins-visual-s\/","url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/08\/elkins-visual-s\/","name":"Elkins, Visual Studies - Earth Wide Moth","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2006-11-08T23:01:49+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/08\/elkins-visual-s\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/08\/elkins-visual-s\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/08\/elkins-visual-s\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Elkins, Visual Studies"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/#website","url":"http:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/","name":"Earth Wide Moth","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66fc5e80a62f53057760790b1cfeb24b"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"http:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66fc5e80a62f53057760790b1cfeb24b","name":"Derek Mueller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/cropped-bmartwork.png?fit=1220%2C480","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/cropped-bmartwork.png?fit=1220%2C480","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/cropped-bmartwork.png?fit=1220%2C480","width":1220,"height":480,"caption":"Derek Mueller"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/cropped-bmartwork.png?fit=1220%2C480"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.derekmueller.net\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/derek.mueller","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dereknmueller\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/dnmueller"],"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/author\/dmueller\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7tdGk-1Q5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9066,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2024\/02\/16\/is-food-studies-an-inquiry-paradigm\/","url_meta":{"origin":7073,"position":0},"title":"Is Food Studies an Inquiry Paradigm?","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"February 16, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Mid-February scatters into stolen moments as the semester's Week Five tides rise. There are classes to prepare and teach and observe, micro-interim administrative hand-offs to receive (push exchange yields soon thereafter to pull exchange), and a pair of stout reading lists for different awards and recognitions. The hours hand waves\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7069,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/05\/george-from-ana\/","url_meta":{"origin":7073,"position":1},"title":"George, “From Analysis to Design”","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"November 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"George, Diana. \"From Analysis to Design: Visual Communication in the Teaching of Writing.\" CCC 54.1 (2002): 11-39. In this oft-cited essay, Diana George accounts for the vexed relationship between composition studies and visuality or visual studies. Only in rare cases does one find imaginative curricula that engage with visuality as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Visuality and New Media"","block_context":{"text":"Visuality and New Media","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/visuality_and_n\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7076,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/11\/wysocki-impossi\/","url_meta":{"origin":7073,"position":2},"title":"Wysocki, “Impossibly Distinct”","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"November 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Wysocki, Anne. \"Impossibly Distinct: On Form\/Content and Word\/Image in Two Pieces of Computer-based Interactive Media.\" Computers and Composition 18 (2001) 137-162. \"Impossibly Distinct\" counters the commonplaces of the form\/content, information\/design, and word\/image dichotomies. By reading (phenomenologically, rather than closely) two CD-ROMs on Matisse, Wysocki suggests that we have a \"need\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Visuality and New Media"","block_context":{"text":"Visuality and New Media","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/visuality_and_n\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6432,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2005\/10\/16\/eloquent-images\/","url_meta":{"origin":7073,"position":3},"title":"Eloquent Images I","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"October 16, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Bolter - \"Critical Theory and the Challenge of New Media,\" 20-36 In this brief article, the first in Hocks and Kendrick's Eloquent Images, Jay Bolter begins with a historical overview of the image-word problem.\u00a0 He traces a larger outline of new media by propping up a series of artificial dichotomies:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reading Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Reading Notes","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/reading_notes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7300,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/02\/what-in-the-ant\/","url_meta":{"origin":7073,"position":4},"title":"What in the Antilibrary Grumbles?","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"December 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In The Object Stares Back (1996), James Elkins writes In my living room there are two large bookcases, each one eight feet tall, and they have about five hundred books between them. If I step up to a shelf and look at the books one by one, I can remember\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Things"","block_context":{"text":"Things","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/things\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7325,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/10\/elkins-the-ob\/","url_meta":{"origin":7073,"position":5},"title":"Elkins – The Object Stares Back (1996)","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"February 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"That The Object Stares Back is only part of the picture; in fact, it's the same name as one of the six chapters in Elkins's 1996 meditation on seeing. The objects that stare back include everything from stars, moth wings, radar imagery, and insects ill-fitted to our schema for recognizing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reading Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Reading Notes","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/reading_notes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}