Abstract

Because of the attention devoted to the visual from a wide variety of disciplines, many of which use different approaches and techniques, visual research is often considered a place of turbulence and incoherence. As Smith et al. write, the field of visual communication ‘is scattered and fragmented’ (2005: xi). The term ‘indiscipline,’ proposed by Mitchell (1995) to describe inter-, cross-, and transdisciplinary work that is at the ‘inner and outer boundaries of disciplines,’ is therefore an accurate description of the visual research field. Although well-established disciplines such as art history, design history, and visual anthropology have established theoretical canons and methods, they too have entered conversations about the growth of visual research.