IMAGES announces a call for submissions for its second issue

The proposed theme of the second issue is After visual (studies) turn: What happened to pictorial representation?

Everybody who was at least partially involved in discussions concerning the current state of affairs around and inside visual (culture) studies over the past two decades is very much aware of the fact that since the beginning of the nineties the humanities have witnessed a huge proliferation of knowledge in the domain of the visual: the pictorial and iconic turn have paved the way for more institutional approaches subsequently known as visual culture, visual studies, image science, Bildwissenschaft and others. The excitement provoked by the new epistemological practices started to spread throughout American and later European academic institutions, which has lead to new university departments and study programs, including those at master’s and doctoral levels. However, the impression is that the metatheoretical debates over the new forms of study, especially regarding the purpose and objectives of the scholarly discipline of visual (culture) studies, have somehow neglected the subject matter of the discipline(s) itself. We may generally say that visual studies, having evolved from art history and film studies during the last a little less than twenty years, has gradually abandoned its initial core in art and the media in the narrow sense to start a life of its own.

Therefore, we welcome contributions that would address the following questions:

Is the result of this emancipation of visual studies a new discipline that is more capable of dealing with visual phenomena?
How can the discipline of visual studies make a step further from metatheoretical discussions about the discipline itself to become more aware of the content and meaning of its objects of study?
If the realm of the visual proliferates much faster than our scholarly knowledge, how can visual studies cope with that?
Have our language and discourse about art and the media become more precise over time and better equipped to grasp all the changes in multimedia and communication technologies that have occurred?
Can we claim that contemporary pictorial representations (including all visual art forms, film, television, computer games, etc.) show a greater awareness of the surrounding theories? In other words, can a highly specialized visual theory have an impact on what happens in visual practice?

We accept general theoretical discussions, historical approaches, as well as case studies on particular topics.

The second issue of IMAGES will also take into consideration any other articles that deal with the state of affairs in visual studies and image science in general, as well as articles that discuss the relationship between art, the media and theory within humanities in the broadest sense.

The length of submitted articles should be between 25000 and 50000 characters including spaces.

All submitted articles will go through a reviewing process and should follow the publication style described under “Information for Authors”.

Articles should be sent to: images@visual-studies.com

Deadline for submissions is December 15th, 2013. The second issue will be online by April 15th, 2014.