The Visual Cultures group is a research and advising proposition that is cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural (with main concentrations on the British and North American areas). It combines materialist, formalist and theoretical approaches of English-language arts and visual cultures from the 17th to the 21st century. It brings together researchers and doctoral candidates working on histories of art and images, critical analyses of visual works, objects, and practices, and theoretical enterprises bearing on the iconic, and our objects of study range from history painting or photography to the study of moving images (film studies and TV series studies), as well as film adaptation.
The group’s focus on English-language cultures implies that researchers pay strong attention to the interactions between image, visual practices and their theorisation, the import of traditions and artistic references proper to English-language contexts, the interaction of such traditions with contemporary creative trends, and the rich legacy and liveliness of a specific philosophical and theoretical tradition. Research topics also include comparative approaches (French/English domains, Europe/North America, West/East) and studies of the international migration of images.
Activities include projects funded by national and international CFPs, large-scale group publications and projects (such as exhibitions), partnerships and collaborations with institutions and foundations (esp. the Terra Foundation for American Art), and collaborations with LARCA’s two periodical publications (Interfaces: Image Texte Langage and on line, Arts of War and Peace Review).
