A popular presentation at a conference more than a decade ago led to a pair of NIU colleagues in the School of Art and Design to publish a book on the use of images in social science research. Visual Methods of Inquiry: Images in Research was written by Kerry Freedman, professor and past division head of art and design education in the School of Art and Design, and Richard Siegesmund, professor emeritus of art and design education in the School of Art and Design.
Freedman says the book was written primarily for social scientists. However, the authors hope that arts professionals will also find it useful. The book will be of interest to art educators as art education deals with art and the social science of education.
Freedman and Siegesmund presented a paper at the annual International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI) at the University of Illinois about a decade ago. The well attended session was about using visual research methods in the social sciences. The conference’s coordinator, Norman Denzin, who was professor of sociology, communications and cinema studies at Illinois, asked them if they could expand their topic into a workshop at the next year’s ICQI conference.
Freedman said at the time, the use of visuals in research was expanding. While anthropologists and sociologists had long used photographs in their research, she said other forms of images were beginning to be used across all kinds of fields.
“More recently, social scientists have been using other visual research methods, like collecting and interpreting art from language learners, online groups, and medical patients” she said. “We discuss over 30 methods in the book. Some have to do with photographs, some with video, some with artwork and other visual culture forms.”
While other books were appearing related to the topic, Freedman and Siegesmund continued to present their workshop to capacity crowds every year. A few years ago, Routledge, a UK-based publisher of academic books and journals focusing on the humanities, behavioral sciences, law, education and social science approached them about taking the information from their popular workshop to writing a book.
Armed with over a decade of research, the pair had more than enough for a book. They worked to find the best way to present their information.
“We wanted it to be a supplemental book for courses,” Freedman said. “Specifically for social scientists who are taking research courses, because typically those courses do not include visual research methods. They deal mostly with textual or numerical data. We argue in this book that every social scientist needs to learn how to use visual data collection and analysis. We also wanted the book to have large pages, because we included a lot images and we wanted readers to be able to see them in detail. A major reason Routledge was interested in us for this project was that the other books on visual research tend to take a semiotic approach, which focuses on ‘reading’ the image subject for meaning. For example, if an image has a horse in it, ‘reading’ the image might focus on the fact that the image represents a horse eating grass in a field. We take a visual cultural approach that does not just attend to the textual or symbolic meaning of images. We look at how the image affects makers and viewers, and how those effects are necessarily situated in memory and visual culture. We account for decisions about the elements of principles of design that make up composition, color scheme, and so on, which support meaning. The affective as well as the symbolic character of visual qualities make people want to look.”
“For example, advertisers are very savvy,” she continued. “They won’t just choose an image because it’s of a horse. They create the image in this color scheme, with this background, in this composition, to suggest a particular meaning and appeal in a specific way to convince a particular audience to buy the product. In contrast, a fine artist might intend that their horse be interpreted in different ways by different viewers.”
Representatives from Routledge told Freedman and Siegesmund that what appealed to them about the workshop, and motivated them to approach the pair about the book. “Images are not just language, they are much more than language. Images embody and suggest tacit knowledge — knowledge that cannot be spoken, or is difficult to put into words. We try to help researchers gain access to, articulate, and use this knowledge in their work.” Freedman said. “That’s what makes this book unique.”
Denzin wrote a blurb for the book, in which he said, “It is a must read. Visual research comes of age with this book. It challenges artists and inquirers to embrace uncertainty, to organize disruption, to empower resistance, to work without the guardrails of methodology to find that cliff where they fly to new horizons.”
Visual Methods of Inquiry: Images as Research is available on Amazon and from Routledge, in paperback, hardcover and as an ebook.
