Visual Culture and Art Museums: A Continuum from the Ordinary

Abstract

Abstract It can be useful to understand the role of visual imagery in our lives in terms of its placement along a continuum, from the ordinary images in everyday life to fine-art images on view in the controlled setting of the art museum. This continuum is developed here from an existing model of the life cycle of museum objects to describe the changing roles of objects as they change settings and as viewers change their relationships to them. This line of thinking about the nature of everyday and museum objects is an outcome of visual culture studies, and also suggests some ways to use everyday imagery in teaching about museum objects as well as using museum objects to enrich our experience with the ordinary. The argument is illustrated by reference to art-education students’ comparisons of objects found at different points along the continuum.

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