Synopses & Reviews
"What is it that happens when we understand something?" Malcolm Barnard relates the understanding of visual culture to the traditions of natural and social science and applies the theme of scientific understanding to the principal approaches to understanding art and design. Formalist, Marxist, gender-based, semiological, hermeneutic, and expressionist approaches to visual culture are clearly explained, through a wide variety of examples from fashion, architecture, film, fine art, and comics.
About the Author
Malcolm Barnard is Senior Lecturer in the School of Art and Design at the University of Derby, where he teaches the history and theory of art and design. He holds a BA in Philosophy and Sociology and a PhD in Philosophy from the universities of York and Warwick, and his publications include
Fashion as Communication and Art, Design and Visual Culture: An Introduction. Table of Contents
Introduction * Understanding Visual Culture * Explanation and Understanding: Visual Culture and Social * Science * Interpretation and the Individual * Expression and Communication * Feminism: Personal and Political * Marxism and the Social History of Visual Culture * Semiology, Iconology and Iconography * Form and Style * Conclusion * Bibliography