In the following study, we will pursue the question of which collective ideas and resulting practices about food, and more specifically eating behavior and its effect on people, on their physical and spiritual health, can be gleaned from a consideration of a few selected sources. We ask through which visual conventions such notions are constructed and represented, carried on, and conveyed. The analysis of both historical and contemporary material, all of which originates from a European context, aims at investigating a few remarkable points of intersection: while economic considerations clearly always played an important role, our case studies also document the targeted use of visual material to regulate society with regard to physical health, and this with a very strong moral component. The chosen diachronic approach traces a continuity or the resumption of certain lines of argumentation and thus – we postulate – the ongoing presence, in different media, of specific normative tendencies and aspirations concerning practices of eating (and drinking) in the European cultural space.
The relationship between food consumption and body mass as a communicative and normative practice.
As a result, the analysis and interpretation of visual material – we believe – should be understood as a process that, much like the content of the material itself, is embedded in certain economic, social, and cultural contexts.
It is our view that this type of visual discourse can offer an interesting inroad into understanding how certain ideas about food, eating, and health were and are formed, circulated, and transmitted. The purpose of our study is to investigate how such notions become manifest in visual representations throughout history and across cultures.
We will examine a variety of images from different media: illustrated books, magazines as well as film. Based on a selection of case studies we will seek to detect recurring patterns or underlying themes with regard to the ways ideas about food, nutrition, and health have been presented visually since the 19th century until today.
We hope that by doing so we can contribute to a better understanding of how collective ideas about food are expressed through visual conventions and gain insights into their implications for current debates on nutrition and health.
