Multidisciplinary Theory in Visual Art Studies

Visual studies, often also referred to as visual culture, is a field of research with at least three decades of history, disagreement and debate. Whilst generally acknowledged to have grown out of a desire to expand the remit of disciplines such as art history, by incorporating theoretical innovations from film, media and cultural studies, the range of areas to which such studies can both relate and contribute are wide. Writing as one of the editorial team for a special issue of the journal Visual Studies in 2021, Derek Conrad Murray summed up the field, its history and position as follows: “Without a doubt, Visual Studies has developed into a vibrant multi-disciplinary field of study, one that spans the social sciences, arts, and humanities. As interrelated intellectual arenas, visual studies and visual culture tend to view images as central to the formation of meaning in the social world.” However, as Murray and many respondents were also quick to point out, visual studies is not without its problems. These include both the consequences of dismantling disciplinary boundaries and the need to further broaden the field, both geographically and intellectually. The dynamism brought by such difficulties can be creatively productive, however, as this chapter aims to demonstrate by turning to examples of art practice which feed into and feed from such theoretical approaches. An important precedent for this work is the 1985 exhibition Les Immatériaux: a sensorial mix of art, science and technology it activated philosophical questions as multidisciplinary theory in practice. The sensorial range of this exhibition links directly to the example of contemporary art practice which opens the chapter: Otobong Nkanga’s use of performance, song and site to trace transcultural commodity exchange, presenting its findings via a live-streamed performance.