CS251 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Visual Culture, Cultural Studies, Louis Althusser
Document Summary
Culture: historically it referred only to objects and practices highly esteemed by society. In cultural studies it refers to everyday practices inc those previously characterized as low as such, culture is in a constant state of change. Cultural studies: an interdisc eld that explores how culture shapes our ind. lives and social institutions. Visual culture: as an academic discipline, it studies practices of visual representation and practices of looking without drawing distinctions between high and low culture. It takes seriously the social, political and economic context within which looking takes place and helps improve our visual literacy. > social difference / politics of showing and displaying. Representation is one of the primary means through which we construct our social worlds. It is not just what is represented but how it represented that creates meaning. Representation makes use of languages and images that are structured according to formal and informal rules.
