Editorial

Abstract

The previous issue of Image & Text was dedicated to thematic concerns with the liminal in South African visual culture. This issue is again an open issue that features current research. In keeping with the wider ambit of the journal as a visual culture publication, the six articles reflect a diversity of disciplines or fields, and embrace a historical dimension as well as focussing on current topics. The first two articles focus expressly on the South African domain; the next two articles deal mainly with the aesthetics and ethics of visual information and the manner in which information is visualised and framed. The last two articles turn their attention to the moving image, and particularly thematic discussions of the grotesque and vampiric imagery in cinema. Although the articles appear divergent, they have many commonalities, one of which is the interrogation of the status of the visual image in terms of its ability to enchant, fascinate, edify, persuade, disgust, urge reflection, or call to action.