Two of the key theoretical shifts over the past two decades of critical work have been the 'visual turn' and the 'material turn'. This book argues that these hitherto distinct fields should be understood as in continual dialogue and co-constitution and focuses on reconceptualising the visual as an embodied, material, and often politically-charged realm. This edited volume elaborates this conceptual argument through a series of contemporary case studies, drawn from the disciplines of Architecture, Sociology, Media Studies, Geography and Cultural Studies. The case studies included are paired around four themes: consumption, translation, practice and ethics. As well as exploring the bringing together of visuality and materiality studies, the contributors raise questions of social identity and social critique, and also focus on the ethics of material visualities.
'This is a most welcome and stimulating volume which extends our thinking on both materiality and visuality. It does so by addressing the processual qualities of the co-constitution of these categories through a series of eclectic essays - on walls, steel, algae and windows - explored through concepts such as time, inattention, ethics and security. It productively extends the debate empirically, methodologically and theoretically and brings into question the very categories of visuality and materiality and the ways in which they might be reformulated.' Elizabeth Edwards, De Montfort University, UK 'Richly researched and wide ranging, this compelling volume reveals the visual world as a matter of experience and imagination, physical substance and cultural concern. Focusing on a remarkable variety of sites and materials, from windows and walls to aluminium and algae, in a range of geographical settings, contributors deploy a diversity of scholarly perspectives to explore the fabric of visuality in sometimes unexpected places.' Stephen Daniels, University of Nottingham, UK
