What is visual research?
Visual research is the process of identifying, gathering, and classifying images to support the construction, application, and understanding of visual culture. Visual research reviews both primary sources (images from the period in question) and secondary sources ("visual reference" books and databases).
This guide gathers examples of both primary and secondary sources for Set Design. For additional visual reference sources see the Historic Costume: North America and Western Europe or the Historic Costume: 20th & 21st c. America & the UK research guides.
Analyze
1. Divide your topic into categories using where, when, tone, etc. For example:
My topic: Vienna in the 18th century; a palace, interior bedroom. It’s an opera.
What: Palace interiors
Where: Vienna
When: 18th century
Tone: Luxurious
2. Get background information -- Learn more about the place, the people who lived there, historical, religious and political setting, important music, art, literature, etc.
TIP: Use Grove Art Online for quick, authoritative background information:
Capital of Austria
Wien and Danube rivers
Near the Alps & Carpathian mountains
Home to German kings, Holy Roman Emperors & Austrian emperors
Habsburg royal family made Vienna one of the most important centers of the Baroque and Rococo in northern Europe.
3. Expand your list of keywords, and add additional categories for different parts of your design:
What: Palace interiors, Household objects of the Hapsburgs, kings, etc. such as furniture, boxes, jewelry, mirrors, etc.
Where: Vienna, Austria, Danube river, Wien River, Alps, Carpathian mountains
When: 18th century, 1700s,
Tone: Luxurious, Baroque, Rococo
Who: Holy Roman Emperors, Austrian Emperors, German Kings, Habsburgs
4. Search OBIS with a combination of SUBJECT HEADINGS and KEYWORD BOOLEAN.
Note the most common call numbers and browse those sections in the book stacks.
Gather call numbers
Keep track of frequently occurring call numbers and browse those areas of the library. Art library call numbers are arranged by type of art:
N More than one (ex: painting and drawing)
NA Architecture
NB Sculpture
NC Drawing
ND Painting
NE Printmaking
NK Decorative Arts
NX Multimedia
SB Gardens, landscape architecture
TR Photography
Then subdivided by location:
NA Architecture
NA 1010 Austrian architecture
NA 1010 .V5 Austrian architecture in Vienna
Subjects and Keywords
Subjects and Keywords for finding heavily illustrated publications in all subjects. (Subjects and sub-headings can also be used in Keyword searches
| Subject Headings | Sub-headings | More Sub-headings | Keywords |
| Description and Travel | Pictorial works | Photographs | "illustrated works" |
| Interior architecture | In art | Illustrations | "exhibition catalogs" |
| Interior decoration | Exhibitions | ||
| Guidebooks |
Background sources
- Grove Art Online
The most comprehensive art encyclopedia available in English, with scholarly overviews of the architecture and artistic production of all countries, from pre-history to the early 21st c. Architecture, the "fine arts" and "decorative arts" are covered. Essays are followed by excellent bibliographies.
The Art BookCall Number: Art Library Reference, N 40 .A775 1994ISBN: 0714830321Useful for quickly sampling a wide-variety of artists from western Europe and North America, each artist has a full page color reproduction of one of their works. There is a very brief entry on the artist and cross references directing the reader to others with a similar style or approach. 500 artists from medieval to modern times are included in alphabetical order.
30,000 Years of Art by Call Number: Art Library Reference, N 5300 .A14 2007ISBN: 9780714847894Offers an original and accessible introduction to art from all cultures in a single in chronological sequence. Containing over 1000 works of art from all periods and regions in the world crossing the usual geographical and cultural boundaries of art history to celebrate the vast range of human artistry across time and space.
