ABSTRACT
Some of the most interesting aspects of the visual may be discovered by following Christine Hines expectation that qualities of digital and physical objects emergent in contexts of practice. Furthermore, the visual can be found in forms that place it in many different categories as surfaces, tools, interfaces, things, texts and even finding a place within a cultural logic of puzzles, intrigues and revelations. Indeed, one of the common sites of much visual work in the age of computerization is the operator behind the console and keyboard, who declares to the investigator that they are actually not doing anything worth observing. Recent developments around the use of networks and information visualization, among other interfaces, mean that the visual is involved in witnessing in forms that are not primarily optical. Feminist critiques of visuality are also especially useful exemplars to tease out the political and ethical dimensions of the visual and powerful antidotes to visual romanticism and its holistic claims.
