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 art 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.

Rudolf Arnheim was a German born art theorist and perceptional psychologist. In his book Visual Thinking (1969), Arnheim challenges the differences between thinking versus perceiving and intellect versus intuition. In it Arnheim critiques the assumption that language goes before perception and that words are the stepping stones of thinking. Sensory knowledge, for Arnheim, allows for the possibility of language, since the only access to reality we have is through our senses. Visual perception is what allows us to have a true understanding of experience. Arnheim also argues that perception is strongly identified with thinking, and that artistic expression is another way of reasoning. (Wikipedia)

Describing where RA comes from and how he argues

Describing basic ideas of queer theory

Making the connection between the two

Applying it to my work