Visual Inquiry - Volume 12, Issue 1, 2023

Using an exploratory case study methodology and working within a theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism (SI), this study examines how meanings arise for and are modified by emergent bilingual and multilingual high school students through their engagement with objects during visual arts integration into a science lesson. I conducted the research while teaching the topic of interdependence in cellular systems, using concepts from contemporary visual arts. Findings demonstrate that meanings arise when bi/multilingual students connect their interests, beliefs and memories with objects and interact with social objects such as peers, friends, family and others. Finally, findings reveal that students modify those meanings by interacting with the objects and learning new content, new mediums, processes and skills during visual arts integration activities. The results of this study suggest that educators consider holistic engagements in visual arts that focus on using contemporary strategies, enduring ideas and engagement with content through social interaction.

The purpose of this research is to draw a scientific map and show the evolution of thematic structure of world’s graphic design. This is a scientometric study that uses quantitative and indicative methods of network analysis. To draw a scientific map of graphic design research literature, the data was extracted from the Web of Science database within a 2000–20 time period. The retrieved records were formatted using WC10.exe conversion software and then were mapped using Ravar Matrix, Ucinet, Netdraw, VOSviewer software. The findings revealed a growing trend in the number of articles published in graphic design and the most widely used subject areas in the field of graphic were identified. The field of graphic design was mapped based on the closeness centrality measure and its findings revealed that topics such as graphic sign, computer applications, molecular dynamics, computer architecture and graphics processing have the greatest impact on the map.

This article examines the growing number of art experiences and experiential artworks, and the larger role they will be playing in the field of contemporary art moving forward. Art experiences and immersive art events have begun to grow in number and popularity with the backing of innovative new technologies and the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars into this specific sector of the art market. These experiences and events allow for people from different demographics to build a relationship with art – both of the past and present – and are reimagining the ways in which art can be better accessed and enjoyed by a broader audience than traditional museums. Experiential art pushes against the antiquated definitions and restrictions of the art world to create a deeper and more personal connection with the audience – which should perhaps more aptly be referred to as participants. While not all art fans are willing to submit their bodies or minds to the will of the artist, experiential works offer an interpersonal connection that leaves the participant with the souvenir of vivid and personal connections to works of art.

Vaudeville theatre was an important visual form of popular culture and entertainment that featured such specialty acts as comedy and song and dance, as well as lectures, lantern slide shows and motion pictures with subject matter from faraway lands, and themes of American patriotism. American vaudeville began in nineteenth-century saloons as floorshows and burlesque, but it was eventually upgraded to family entertainment, which appealed to middle- and upper-class audiences, before individual theatres were subsumed by franchised theatre chains. Vaudeville theatre directors, who were known as impresarios, programmed an innovative spectrum of acts that ranged from classical music and art to folk songs, and to acrobats, which appealed to a wide range of social classes. Following the theories of Henri Lefebvre, the social space of the theatre became a conceptually dynamic space, where class distinctions blurred and audience members could then dream of life in a higher social station, or what American Mid Victorians knew as ‘self-improvement’. A conundrum emerges, however, when we see that most of the programmes were plentiful with racial, ethnic and gender stereotypes, which were entertaining to White audience members. The vertical social climb of the gilded age in the 1900s was complicated with the social relations of uneasy, decadent consumerism. Individuals driven by desire thought their ‘un-comfort’ might be remedied by entertainment, as they looked for an upswing to something better.