Welcome to Visiting Researcher Dr Pilar Irala Hortal

During my stay at Sheffield University between May 1^st and August 31st 2016, I will be working on a research project entitled “Visual Culture and Rhetorical Communication”. The aim of the project is to examine the relationship between photography and visual rhetoric.

Diego Ibarra, 2013

The evolution of the communication strategies in the XXIst century has developed new narrative and rhetoric formulas especially in the field of visual culture, where the linguistic system could have –or have in fact- a rhetoric communication transformation. This is possible due to the development of the audiovisual communication and to our continuous exposure to visual messages.

Diego Ibarra, 2013

We need to deepen the codification of this new communicational strategies and study not only how this rhetoric works in visual pieces, but the pieces themselves.

The main goal is to find, or to develop if needed, a reading system to decode and analyse the rhetoric elements present in our contemporary visual culture, focusing on documentary photography.

As secondary goals:

• Find if is there a specific branch of documentary photography that uses aesthetic and rhetoric tools in order to achieve deeper and more effective expression and social persuasion 
• Determine if there is a paradigm shift in social communication and visual culture

If you have any questions about the project, please get in touch.
 

Estancia de investigación realizada al amparo del Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte en el marco del Programa Estatal de Promoción del Talento y su Empleabilidad en I+D+i, Subprograma Estatal de Movilidad, del Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2013-2016

Research stay financed by the Spanish Government; Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, and the National Program for Promoting the Research and Development Talent and Employability; National Subprogram of Mobility of the National Scientific Research, Technique and Innovation Plan 2013-2016
 

Visual methods: Comics

Day Workshop, 5 November 2015, ICOSS, University of Sheffield

 Participants are introduced to various approaches to researching comics. We look at how comics can be used to carry out research, and then how they are used to communicate research findings. We consider how comics provide ways of critical thinking and explaining complex ideas to diverse audiences. We also look at ways of actually doing research on and with comics as communicative objects that intersect with different cultural contexts. There is a strong practical element throughout: everyone will make comics to explore these aspects.

The day is divided between presentations from comics researchers and practical drawing exercises/workshops. Each section focuses on specific approaches to doing research through or with comics. Participants will be encouraged to critically reflect on these methods and will leave with a broad understanding of possible approaches to working with comics. It should be fun and thoughtful!

For more details see the workshop flyer.
To book a place, please sign up here.

 
All participants are asked to read a short journal article and be prepared to discuss it: MunaAl-Jawad’s 2013 paper 'Comics are Research: Graphic Narratives as a New Way ofSeeing Clinical Practice' from Journal ofMedical Humanities

CVS Members' Success Stories from 2014-5

There have been a number of high profile success stories involving projects by Centre for Visual Studies members over the year. Some of the highlights include:

• Clare Griffiths (Department of History) was awarded a research support grant from the Paul Mellon Centre to support archival work on her new book project - a study of the wood engraver Clare Leighton. She has also been awarded a visiting scholarship at the Yale Center for British Art, and a visiting fellowship at the Huntington Library - which she will be taking up in 2016.
  
• Susan Hogan (Therapeutic Practice, University of Derby) was named winner of the Annual International Award for Excellence in The Arts and Society Annual Review in May 2015, for the essay on visual methods entitled, ‘Interrogating Women’s Experience of Ageing’.
  
• Lorna Warren (Sociological Studies) achieved second prize in the category for Outstanding Impact in Society in the Economic and Social Research Council's Impact Awards for the project, Look At Me! Images of Women and Ageing. You can read more here, as well as watching an ESRC commissioned video about the project and its impact: http://www.esrc.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/celebrating-impact-prize/prize-winners-2014.aspx
  
• Peter Winter's (Department of Sociological Studies) proposal to the University to purchase video analysis software 'Studiocode' was approved. Studiocode and its Coda software is a novel way of 'live-coding' raw audio-visual data for quantitative and qualitative analysis. Peter's PhD research focuses on the processes that medical and radiography students find useful or relevant when learning to interpret X-rays. Studiocode will be used during Peter's PhD and in other video-related projects.
  
  
  

Values of Art Conference - 20-21 June, University of Sheffield

The Department of Philosophy, in collaboration with the Department of Music, and the Crick Centre, Department of Politics are hosting a two day event on the values of art. We will discuss issues such as the relationship between intrinsic and instrumental values of art, the nature of arts participation, and the state support of the arts in the UK. Our speakers come from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, and we will be seeking ways to collaboratively address the issues facing the arts today.

The programme is available here.

The conference is free to attend. However, please email Tom Cochrane to register.

Visual Studies - Visual Methods workshop

A selection of photos from the Visual Studies - Visual Methods workshop held on Monday 8 July at the University of Sheffield. Thanks to all the presenters and attendees for making the day a great success!

For more information about the workshop, please read the report on the day here.

New Publications from Centre Members

The Centre for Visual Studies is pleased to announce two new publications:

New monograph

Julia Banwell, Teresa Margolles and the Aesthetics of Death (2015, University of Wales Press): The book explores aspects of the work of the Mexican contemporary neo-conceptual artist Teresa Margolles from theoretical perspectives including trauma and memory, the philosophy of death, and the spectatorship of death and the corpse, against the backdrop of Mexico's long and rich history of depicting and visualising death.

A book launch will be held on Thursday 25 June at Blackwells on Mappin Street, at 5.30pm. There will be refreshments and we will adjourn to a nearby bar afterwards. All are welcome to come and join in the festivities!

New book chapter

Matthew Cheeseman 'Popular music and the breast' in Cultural Encyclopaedia of the Breast, ed. by Smith, M. (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014): Boobs. Tits. Hooters. Knockers. Jugs. Breasts. We celebrate them; we revile them. They nourish us; they kill us. And regardless of what we call them, breasts have fascinated us since prehistoric times. This A-to-Z encyclopedia explores the historical magnitude and cultural significance of the breast over time and around the world.

Paul Garrison (Photographer) and Virginia Clark (Model) sleeve art for Harry Revel & Leslie Baxter & Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman (1947)‎ Music Out Of The Moon: Music Unusual Featuring The Theremin, Capitol Criterion CC-47, 3 x 10" 78 RPM Shellac Disc Album, United States: Capitol Records.

A record of all recent publications by Centre members will be maintained on the Publications tab. 

Visual Studies - Visual Methods: A Half-Day Workshop: Monday, 8th June 2015 (12:00 am - 4:30 pm)

Monday, 8th June 2015 (12:00 am - 4:30 pm)
Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences (ICOSS), University of Sheffield

Organisers:
Dr Lorna Warren (Department of Sociological Studies)
Professor Susie Reid (School of Russian and Slavonic Studies)

This White Rose workshop is co-hosted by Sheffield Centre for Visual Studies and is aimed at doctoral students at all stages of research who share interests in the visual/visual approaches in applied research. The half-day will include sessions which focus on the visual as topic, method, data and the presentation of data and/or findings. Speakers are all from the University of Sheffield and include:

• Prof Gwilym Pryce (Sheffield Methods Institute): “Visualising data and methods: aims, issues, and lessons learnt”
• Dr Dylan Yamada-Rice (School of Education): “Visual technologies and well-being: designing videogames for hospitalised children”
• Dr Matthew Cheeseman (School of English): “Using comics for patient care: a graphic medicine case study”
• Dr Megan Freeth (Department of Psychology): "Using eye-tracking to understand attention capture in the visual environment"
• Prof Helen Kennedy (Department of Sociological Studies): “Seeing data: how do people engage with visualisations and what does this mean for academics?”

The full program is available here.
Attendance at the workshop is free but places are limited. Please register here.

For further information contact Lorna Warren