THE VIRUS IN SIGHT: VISUAL CULTURE IN THE FACE OF PANDEMICS IN THE 20TH CENTURY
2020-06-09
The great metaphor of epidemics and pandemics is one that summarizes them as “the invisible enemy.” However, the one that we have had to live through, the COVID-19, like others, beyond our fears and concerns, we see them through visual stories. Therefore, it is not so invisible to the human eye. Every day throughout history, the stalking of pandemics has been felt by means of the symptoms that we see in infected people. In recent years, by the way, the imagery generated by television, the internet, cinema, photography, social networks, and other more popular media, such as graffiti and meme, has widened our pupils.
Although the COVID-19 outbreak is the basis for this special issue of VISUALreview. International Visual Culture Review / Revista Internacional de Cultura Visual, referring to Volume 8, Number 1, and which is expected to launch in the spring of 2021, we intend to address, in a broader sense the role of epidemics and pandemics during the 20th century, from the following approaches:
Although the COVID-19 outbreak is the basis for this special issue of VISUALreview. International Visual Culture Review / Revista Internacional de Cultura Visual, referring to Volume 8, Number 1, and which is expected to launch in the spring of 2021, we intend to address, in a broader sense the role of epidemics and pandemics during the 20th century, from the following approaches:
- The cultural construction of epidemics and pandemics
- Processes of significance of the epidemics and pandemics through the media and visual culture
- Artistic practices that address the exclusion of those infected
- Artistic strategies to mediate epidemics and pandemics.
