About the division
The Communication and Culture divison interprets the 2025 conference theme – Imagining livable futures – as an opportunity to address and problematize the visual as a playful tool in anticipatory projections of the future in contrast to the intrinsic belatedness of e.g. photojournalistic renderings of the here and now.
Submissions that address the conference theme focusing on the visual as it intersects with creativity and imagination are particularly welcomed.
The politics of visual communication and the visual in mediated and cultural processes, may be particularly poignant at this historical moment of multiple global crises, including war and conflict, forced migration, climate change, and the economic, political and social effects of these. Anticipatory visual renderings may be addressed for example in connection with visual ethics, the post-truth condition, AI, verification and credibility in visual communication processes and practices, but also in terms of playfulness, creativity and innovative storytelling for constructive solutions.
We welcome empirical research and critical engagement with visual storytelling, innovative creative practices, and in particular encourage contributions that consider how visual-communication processes may address and engage the imagination and visual agency.
Furthermore, given the aim to contribute to the development of theory and method, we invite theoretical papers and contributions engaging with and developing methods for visual analyses, including workshops and panels. While papers, abstracts, panels, workshops and practice-based presentations addressing the conference theme are encouraged, other proposals are welcome as long as an investigation of—or through—the visual is the primary focus.
The Visual Communication and Culture division started as a TWG in 2017 and achieved division status in 2024. With its interdisciplinary approach, the division brings together expertise in visual communication that, through exchange and discussion of research, may inform future scholarship in various disciplines by foregrounding visual communication processes and practices. A broad spectrum of theoretical, methodological and practical approaches to the visual are possible and encouraged, in areas including but not limited to, multimedia, photojournalism and documentary storytelling, television, social media, advertising, visual design, data visualizations, visual literacy and education, and visual aspects of political communication. Full papers, long abstracts, panel presentations and workshops are accepted.
