Essay Draft

VISUAL THINKING AND QUEER THEORY

With regard to my work I like to state that an image is more than just an image but it shapes our understanding of the world. Especially images of naked bodies reflect and influence the way we think about sexuality and gender which are topics that I deal with in my work. I’ve always placed importance on the viewer and his/her viewing position. I think the viewer is the active part of giving meaning to an image and I see subversive potential in this concept. The idea of perception as an active performance is a central theme in the book Visual Thinking by Rudolf Arnheim which I find very interesting because he approaches it from an angle of Gestalt psychology. With this text I would like to make a connection between his point of view and central ideas of the Queer Theory. I also would like to reflect on my work in connection to that.