Table of Contents
Researching with Visual Materials: A Brief Survey Towards a
Critical Visual Methodology How to Use this Book 'The Good Eye':
Looking at Pictures Using Compositional Interpretation Content
Analysis and Cutltural Analytics: Finding Patterns in What You See
Semiology: Laying Bare the Prejudices Beneath the Smooth Surface of
the Visible Psychoanalysis: Visual Culture, Visual Pleasure, Visual
Disruption Discourse Analysis I: Text, Intertextuality and Context
Discourse Analysis II: Institutions and Ways of Seeing To Audience
Studies and Beyond: Ethnographies of Audiences, Fans and Users
Digital Methods: Digital Images, Digitally Analysed Making Images
as Research Data: Photo-documentation and Photo-elicitation Using
Images to Disseminate Research Findings: The Circulation and
Audiencing Research Ethics and Visual Materials Visual
Methodologies: A Review
About the Author
My research interests lie broadly within the field of visual
culture. I'm interested in visuality as a kind of practice, done by
human subjects in collaboration with different kinds of objects and
technologies. One long-term project, which resulted in a book from
Ashgate Press in 2010, looked at family photos. I approached family
snaps by thinking of them as objects embedded in a wide range of
practices. I interviewed women with young children about their
photos, and also looked at the politics and ethics of family snaps
moving into more public arenas of display when the people they
picture are the victims of violence. The book explores the
different 'politics of sentiment' in which family snaps participate
in both their domestic spaces in the public space of the
contemporary mass media. Other work is extending my interest in
subjectivities, space and visual practices by exploring experiences
of designed urban spaces. I completed an ESRC-funded project on
this theme with Dr Monica Degen at Brunel University in 2009, in
which we compared how people experienced two rather different town
centres: Milton Keynes and Bedford. Monica Degen, Clare Melhuish
and I started a new ESRC-funded project in the autumn of 2011.
'Architectural atmospheres, branding and the social: the role of
digital visualizing technologies in contemporary architectural
practice' was a two-year ethnographic study of how digital
visualizing technologies are being used by architects in a number
of architects' studio in London. I'm also interested in more
innovative ways to produce social science research, especially
using visual materials. I was involved in organising the ESRC
Seminar Series 'Visual Dialogues: New Agendas in Inequalities
Research' (2010-2012). Please visit the 'Visual Dialogues: New
Agendas in Inequalities Research' for more details. I'm also a
member of the OpenSpace Research Centre.
Reviews
Gillian Rose has provided a welcome overview of the state of the
field. Visual Methodologies succeeds both as an introductory text,
certain to be widely adopted in the classroom, and as a
sophisticated refresher course for those who have followed the
rapid maturation of this remarkable interdisciplinary discourse.
Added material on the latest advances in digital technology brings
this latest edition to the cutting edge of visual culture
studies.
-- Martin Jay
Visual Methodologies is an indispensable resource for
anyone working with visual materials. It offers practical guidance
and expert theoretical orientation on how to approach, think about,
and interpret visual culture, ranging from archival photography and
documentary film to websites and social media. An important aspect
of this book is the attention paid to audiences and viewing
publics, as well as to the ethical demands of visual research. In
this new edition, Gillian Rose brings the book fully up to date
with contemporary developments in media arts and digital culture,
and explores the new possibilities for visual research made
possible by developments in software and data analytics. Whether
you are new to studying visual culture or a seasoned expert seeking
to refine your approach, Visual Methodologies has you
covered.
-- Christoph Lindner
An indispensible book for teaching and understanding methods in
visual culture. Clear, comprehensive, and lucid, it makes
accessible the how, why, and what of different methodological
approaches in ways that elucidate paths to better research and
argument.
The constantly changing terrain of visual culture today makes many
demands on scholarly and theoretical approaches, and this Fourth
Edition does not disappoint, with updated concepts and an
explanation of digital methods. As an introduction of methods in
cultural studies, communication, and visual culture research, this
book is unparalleled. Essential reading for anyone writing an MA
thesis of doctoral dissertation. -- Marita Sturken
An essential book for all students, researchers and academics
interested in visual culture. The book has always had an
interdisciplinary research, making it an adaptable, meaningful
text. With this new edition, the application of visual
methodologies is made even more vital given its coverage of digital
technologies and our expanded engagement with the image through
complex and nuanced visualization of everything online. This
extends not only our daily perception of the visual, but creates
new ground through which to understand ourselves and our
relationship to others.
Visual Methodologies treats the
emergence of this with passion, providing a theoretical and
methodological framework that is accessible, engaging and exciting.
-- Dr Adrienne Evans
Through its previous editions
Visual Methodologies has
undoubtedly become a profoundly influential text. Through a series
of telling and careful revisions it has been significantly updated
in response to changing visual cultures. This edition refreshes and
reinvigorates what was already a lively, revealing and vital text.
Not least, this updated edition responds directly to changes in
digital cultures and the new possibilities of visual engagement and
communication. It is the ideal guide to teaching and researching
with visual methods. -- Dr David Beer
Gillian Rose has done it again. This indispensable guide to visual
methodologies improves with each edition. Extensively updated and
revised, there is a new emphasis here on the circulation of images
through varied technologies and the potential for digital methods
to reveal patterns in the movements, translations and social value
of such images. The reader comes away not only with practical
knowledge for designing research questions and methods, but
crucially with an enhanced understanding of the theoretical
foundations and ethical considerations which underpin the most
valuable and insightful visual analyses. This is not simply a 'how
to' methods book. -- Dr Katy Parry
For the last 15 years, Rose's
Visual Methodologies has
been an exceptionally influential and invaluable text for those
wishing to engage with visual research methods, with each new
edition evolving and building upon the strengths of the previous.
This fourth edition is no exception. With an expanded coverage of
new media, Rose's revised work encompasses a comprehensive and
detailed overview of imaginative approaches and engagements with
visual materials that are readily accessible for undergraduate and
postgraduate researchers. Moreover, this new edition effectively
addresses many of those pressing questions often asked by student
researchers, not only in terms of the practical aspects of using
critical visual methods, but also in relation to the dissemination
of research through visual techniques. In short, this fourth
edition represents a welcome expansion of an already definitive
introductory text on critical visual methods. -- James Robinson
Remains the authoritative introductory text on the methods of
visual research. Conveying the richness and excitement of visual
culture research, Rose expertly navigates across a range of
methodologies, explaining in detail their particular usefulness and
limitations through practical examples. For anyone already familiar
with
Visual Methodologies, this fourth edition offers a
significant reworking of previous content. This includes a
discussion of digital methods for online imagery and expansion of
digital media examples, the production and use of images for
research dissemination and, most significantly, the inclusion of
the cite of circulation within the framework that Rose presents for
the analysis of visual culture. As such, Rose demonstrates the
evolving nature of visual research and its methods, and reminds us
of the passion involved in its study. A must buy for students and
scholars alike. -- Julie Doyle
One and half decade after its first edition,
Visual
Methodologies continues to position itself as a key reading
for anyone who is looking for a solid, accessible and systematic
introduction to the increasingly popular but complex domain of
image analysis and visual culture research. Gillian Rose deserves
much praise for her sustained and highly successful efforts to keep
this core text in critical visual analysis as fresh and relevant as
ever. This fourth edition includes discussions about the newest
visual and digital technologies and their interrelated practices.
But the author also thoroughly revisited and refined the book's
overall structure to better guide the uninitiated reader through
this kaleidoscopic and somewhat confused area of study. -- Luc
Pauwels
Clear, comprehensive, theoretically informed, and now fully updated
and revised,
Visual Methodologies is an excellent guide to
the rapidly growing field of visual research. -- Theo van
Leeuwen
There is simply no better resource or inspiration for conducting,
analyzing, and disseminating visual research than Gillian Rose's
Visual Methodologies. Her theoretical clarity about visual
culture and power relations is seamlessly woven into her discussion
and evaluation of a wide range of research methods. The breadth,
depth, and detail of the exemplary research upon which she draws to
elucidate the different approaches increases with each revised
volume, and the 4 Edition is no exception. Rose has given us a
comprehensive, wise, and rigorous guide for doing visual research
that will invigorate the field and its practitioners. -- Professor
Wendy Luttrell
There is now increasing use of visual methods in
empirically-grounded research. This increased use may be
attributable to new and accessible technologies for visualisation.
It may also, Rose and others have argued, reflect increased
awareness of the appropriateness of visual methods as a means of
documenting and representing the social world.
The methodological insights provided by researchers' experiences of
applying visual methods are brought together in Rose's compendium.
This book is aimed at a wide readership: from new undergraduates,
to postgraduate researchers and academics across both humanities
and social science. It can be used as an introduction, a refresher,
or for more in-depth debate.
Written in an accessible style, following a theoretical
introduction and useful navigation section, each of the following
eight chapters follows a common format. Different methodologies
used to interpret visual culture are set out with examples,
theoretical underpinnings, elaboration of the method, issues for
discussion, critique, and finally a summary and further
reading.
-- Rosemary Lamport * SRA Research Matters *
