Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

Film and the Visual Arts are expansive and interdisciplinary fields, but with limited resources and areas for reaching wider audiences and peer reviewed publication. While there are a number of terms to describe the creation of visual projects such as: fan vidding, digital storytelling, remix and curation, I argue the visual essay is best described as a medium. Building from Neil Postman, I demonstrate how contemporary society has entered an era of digital immediacy which influences the ways people perceive and understand media across digital platforms. I propose digital immediacy urges us to create a new academic space within digital culture, and by expanding on McLuhan’s concept of technology as extensions, I describe how the visual essay as a medium can act as a technology that communicates messages via platforms (YouTube, Vimeo) and interfaces (smartphones, tablets). This paper outlines pedagogical and scholarly methods and approaches for combining Cultural Studies with media editing practices to create a new space for visual essays as a form of academic and public discourse. I discuss the potential for visual essays as a new method of communication, through the selection and sampling of media and the application and examination of critical theory and culture through digital texts. In an era of digital immediacy, developing a new methodology for media and art will generate news ways to create social awareness in regard to cultural, social, and political topics.