Artmaking in an age of visual culture: vision and visuality

Abstract

The increasing dominance of the visual in contemporary society has created new conditions of visuality for art making practice. Using four contemporary artists as exemplars, the article examines visuality?how we learn to see socially?as a significant factor in contemporary art making practice. The investigation reveals considerable trafficking between contemporary art making practice and systems of representation found in mass media and everyday life. The artist's ability to discern and negotiate the visuality that accompanies these various systems of representation, which include perceptual sign systems, time-based systems, fictionalized realities, and consumer display, emerge as important skills for current art making practice and instruction.