My research is based on an investigation of visual culture, the public and the city, with specific reference to Dublin. It examines how visual culture influences our ways of thinking and our perceptions of the urban environment, how it creates identities and represents social and political values. The key topics or main elements being discussed on this journey through Dublin are the construction of personhood, ideas of collective history that relate to individual histories, notions of home and place, disappearing images and the construction of memory. All these issues revolve around processes of building, destroying, removing and naming.
In reference to the works of Adorno, who argued that it is necessary to look at the waste products and blind spots of any history, in order to give an adequate picture of human behaviour, my work circles around the multi-layered meanings of monuments as well as around landmarks that may be present only for a fleeting duration before being wiped out, painted over or removed otherwise. The emphasis lies on bridging phrases and words written in public space with notions of journey, city and philosophical thought. The research is based on an analysis of walking and seeing the city, criss-crossing the boundaries of social study, cultural geography and visual culture.
I argue that the interpretation of the Official as well as the Un-Official (referring to the multiplicity of voices that the city consists of) will result in a more in-depth understanding of visual culture, helping one to gain a larger comprehension of identity, underlying beauty as well as damages in our society. With this work I hope to create a meaningful ground for discussion and improvement concerning cultural theory relating to an urban space like Dublin. If we are to interpret what local culture is and how globalisation manifests itself in urban environments, we need to deal with its visual culture and a modification of approach that will lead to a greater understanding of space and its dwellers.