CFP 02.12.2020

Visual Resources, issue: The Visual Culture of a Virus

Eingabeschluss : 14.02.2021

Lee Weinberg

The Visual Culture of a Virus
A Special Issue on the visual representation of covid-19

Covid-19 had crawled to become part of our everyday life for almost 6 months now. Its transformation from a regional, specific problem, into a rapidly growing global issue exposes, more than anything else, social, political and financial ruptures and ideological tendencies that are prevalent in todays ‘global village’.

Indeed, Covid-19, is the first global crisis to be thought of, informed by and managed through a web 2.0 logic. In this context, social networks and other digital media platforms have become paramount in the process of informing and instructing ways of behaving with the virus, and as a means of surviving it, both on the physical, but also on the social and spiritual level, as cultural, educational, national and interpersonal interactions, had become dependent on these platforms in times of isolation. At the same time, such platforms and media disseminated and instructed modes of behaviour, thought and feeling around the virus in its visual, contextual and political representation. The virus and its visual representation has a significant role in reinforcing statutory control through processes of shared solidarity.

The image of the virus, in this sense, had become a complex set of political and social negotiations, via platforms such as interactive maps, live-updates, numerical representations and graphs, but also, in the representation, or lack of thereof, of suffering, pain, disease, death, grief, solidarity and inevitably -- identity.

Covid-19, the physical virus, had become the medium for the growth of a culture, that itself, very relies on ‘the viral’ as a mode of communication, production and dissemination of knowledge. Images as they circulate through digital media are stripped and dressed in context, to the extent that the meaning of the image itself, becomes a convoluted landscape of possibilities.

Within this logic, other, alternative narratives, also gain momentum, to the extent of an unprecedented call for censorship on the digital space and an attack on its allowances.
Images, therefore, and their super-positioning exposes ruptures in trust. Trust here, is not only of a political agenda, but is raised in relation to the medium itself. The image becomes a double-edged sword. Curiously, as images re-surface and are re-interpreted on various platforms and in different contexts – and while their meaning is bended to serve different ideologies and political agendas - the authority and truth claim of the image - still remains.

Thinking about the visual as a culture for virality, this issue would like to explore aspects of this pandemic, and the power relations that images are complicating in such times of crisis. As we are writing this Call for Papers, we emerge from our lockdown, to occupy public spaces globally with a powerful resistance against colonialism and racism. Within this context, this topic seems to have become ever more pertinent.

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We are interested in articles that reflect on this present moment, in relation to the role and power of images as a conductor for viral spread.

We are interested in articles that take into account the complexities around the meaning of images and their use within digital platforms.

We are interested in articles that stem from a multi or interdisciplinary perspective, that offer a critical engagement with this topic.

We are interested in articles that extend contemporary theories around iconography and iconology, facing the interplay between politics and images, as they are used during crisis.

We are also interested in papers that could enlighten our understanding of pandemics from a cultural-historical perspective. Historical and comparative studies, based on visual case studies are welcome.

We acknowledge that we are in the midst of an ongoing, changing and devloping crisis and that our ability to gain a clear perspective on such matters is limited. We therefore welcome theoretical, experimental and speculative writing

Articles submitted can include any of the following topics or a relationship between them:
- Cultural / visual virology
- Viral media / Viral images
- Analysis of Visual Representations of Covid-19
- Historical and / or comparative research into the visual representations of virality / viruses / pandemics
- Images of cleanliness, images of dirt - digital dirt - digital infection
- The aesthetics of epidemics / Pandemics cultural - visual memory
- What will remain? - a visual analysis of Covid-19 media representation
- Virology and repetition: images re-used, re-circulated and re-contextualised in times of health crisis: from the use of recurring images in media and news outlets, to fake news
- Virology and conspiracy - what are the aesthetics of spreading tumors in the digital age
- Historical / comparative research into the representation and analysis of quarantine and isolation systems and their appearance
- Are we the virus? Visual representation of environmental issues and their relation to Covid-19
- Covid-19- as the epitome of ‘the global’: the aesthetics of the global and visual analysis
- Images and performances of isolation; Images and performances of quarantine

Abstract of 300-400 words to be sent to:
Dr Lee Weinberg
lee.weinbergrca.ac.uk
Dr Phaedra Shanbaum
ad5370coventry.ac.uk


Submission Deadline for abstracts EXTENDED: 14th February, 2021, 23.55 GMT
If your proposal is received after the above deadline, it may be considered for future issues.

Abstracts accepted will be notified, and authors will be required to submit their full article (4500-6000 words) and this will go through a double blinded peer review process before accepted for final publication.

Full paper submissions should be submitted through Editorial Manager as per the Instructions for Authors: https://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?show=instructions&journalCode=gvir20

Papers should adhere to the IFAs.

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Visual Resources Journal

Visual Resources is dedicated to the study of images and their use, within art, material culture, architectural history and cultural studies. Its aim is to provide readers with a critical theoretical framework for understanding images and visual information in contemporary society. The journal is published 4 times a year, and includes both a rolling publishing scheme online and a printed version.

Main themes include: visual aesthetics; visual language; art history; digital art; iconography and oncology; museum and archive studies and curating.

For more information on Visual Resources, please visit: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/gvir20/current

Quellennachweis:
CFP: Visual Resources, issue: The Visual Culture of a Virus. In: ArtHist.net, 02.12.2020. Letzter Zugriff 29.03.2024. <https://arthist.net/archive/24047>.

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