Coordinators

Prof. Dr. Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes, Prof. Dr. Emilie Sitzia and Dr. Louis Hartnoll

Description of the research programme

In an increasingly visual world, understanding the ever-changing relations between words and images and fostering visual literacy is of paramount importance. It implies a social, ethical, and political commitment.

The Word and Image ASCA group brings together art practice and humanities researchers from different disciplines and backgrounds who are interested in exploring the relationship between word and image. It focuses on researching the various relationships between word and image in art, art (history) writing, literature, popular media, books of all forms, comics and graphic novels, creative writing, etc. and their work in and impact on society and cultural imaginaries. Both “words” and “images” are taken in their broadest possible sense as including artistic production, documentary material, art writing and conceptual writing, artists’ publications, fictional or documentary narrative, poetry and publishing.

Word and image relations engage us to think about the significance of our connection with various semiotic signs and to study a variety of material that tends to fall outside the traditional boundaries of art history and theory or literary history and theory, cultural analysis, etc. Questions that the group addresses include the impact of word and images on the reader–viewer, the dynamic (power) relationships between text and images, the creative potential and educational value of this interdisciplinary dialogue, its locatedness in the institutions of art, society, literature and the book, questions of display and curating, as well as methodological questions arising from the hybrid cultural material, whose space and meanings are always unstable, shifting, asking to be re-assessed at every turn.

In their individual and joint research, members of the group approach word and image relations from diverse (inter-)disciplinary perspectives, including literary studies, art history, art, cultural analysis, media and film studies, anthropology, curatorial studies, creative writing and artistic research. A shared research emphasis is placed on experimental or non-standard forms of academic writing, methodological, theoretical and historiographical issues, display, institutions and the inherent interdisciplinarity of word and image relations.

Activities

The Word and Image group aims to foster and support individual and collective research within this vibrant and fast-changing field, whether this be (peer-reviewed journal) articles, book chapters, monographs, artistic research publications or exhibitions. The group intends to promote interdisciplinary tools for exploring these dynamic relationships and to expand the field of study.

For the academic years 2024–25 and 2025–26, the group will focus its attention on questions of ‘word, image and social dynamics’, the central theme of the 2026 International Association for Word and Image Studies conference, which will be held in Amsterdam. In anticipation of the conference, the group’s activities in the coming years will seek to underscore how word and image relations and the institutions where these relations play out determine much of how societies (individuals and groups) define themselves. This work proposes to explore how intermedial practices (inter- and/or transdisciplinary) impact on social dynamics, for example, determine the ways in which art and activism operate and intersect, and how art, literature, comics, film, digital media, theatre, etc. institute themselves in the public sphere or are entangled in power dynamics.

Word and image relations can take many forms and engage us to think about the significance of society’s connection with various semiotic signs and to study a variety of material that tends to fall outside traditional boundaries. Recognising this, in the coming years the group will aim to examine historical and contemporary case studies and methodological explorations from artistic research, art history and theory, creative writing, literary studies, cultural studies, cultural analysis, film, theatre, comic or digital media studies, political science, museum studies, art sociology, etc.

Further details on the forthcoming International Association for Word and Image Studies conference can be found here: https://www.iawis.org/international-iawis-aierti-conferences.

The Word and Image research group aims to meet on a monthly or bi-monthly basis, in a hybrid format. Dates, times and readings will be circulated in advance. If you are interested in joining, please contact: l.c.hartnoll@uva.nl.

This research group is active in the following constellations: