Key papers in Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Pofolia’s corpus holds 74 papers from the Visual Arts and Performing Arts subfield (2012–2025). The list below starts with the most cited.
Most cited
Ranked by citation count. Because citations accumulate over time, this list naturally leans towards work published a few years ago; for where the field is now, see “recently added”.
The Location of Culture
2012 · FWCI 941.92 · 14,225 citations
This abstract outlines a book or collection of essays exploring the complex relationship between culture, identity, and colonialism, particularly through the lens of postcolonial theory.
Playing and Reality
2012 · FWCI 285.79 · 5,634 citations
This work explores the origins of imaginative living and cultural experience, focusing on what enables individuals to live creatively and find life meaningful.
Social Construction of Reality
The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society · 2020 · 4,756 citations
This entry outlines the development of the sociology of knowledge, emphasizing that reality is socially constructed and that this field analyzes how knowledge becomes socially recognized truth.
Artificial hells: participatory art and the politics of spectatorship
Choice Reviews Online · 2013 · 1,831 citations
This book offers the first historical and theoretical overview of socially engaged participatory art, critically examining its claims for emancipation and questioning the turn to ethical criteria over artistic ones.
Theatre of the oppressed
2020 · FWCI 312.62 · 1,506 citations
This chapter proposes using theatre to empower the oppressed, transforming passive spectators into active participants who can discover new concepts and express themselves through a new language.
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
2018 · FWCI 1425.46 · 1,277 citations
Mechanical reproduction, unlike manual imitation, fundamentally alters the authority and authenticity of a work of art, a shift first seen with woodcuts and later amplified by photography and sound reproduction.
Dispossession: The Performative in the Political
Medical Entomology and Zoology · 2013 · FWCI 92.70 · 1,083 citations
This work explores the concept of 'dispossession' not as a simple loss, but as a performative act deeply embedded within political structures and human experience.
New Materialism: Interviews & Cartographies
Open Humanities Press eBooks · 2012 · FWCI 15.53 · 1,072 citations
This book offers the first comprehensive monograph on "new materialism," a significant 21st-century intellectual trend.
Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing
2013 · 1,049 citations
This book explores how 3D printing, combined with the internet, low-cost electronics, and advanced materials, is driving technological and social innovation across various sectors.
O espectador emancipado
Urdimento · 2018 · FWCI 1185.69 · 886 citations · Open access
Contemporary theater should actively foster new ways for audiences to share experiences, promote equal relationships, and reawaken the spectator's joy in learning.
Reading Images
2020 · FWCI 116.94 · 757 citations
This updated textbook provides a systematic framework for understanding how visual elements in images communicate meaning, drawing on diverse examples from art to digital media.
“I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess”: Becoming-Intersectional in Assemblage Theory
philoSOPHIA · 2012 · FWCI 93.41 · 741 citations
This paper argues for a frictional, rather than oppositional, relationship between intersectionality and assemblage theory, suggesting that their combined use can offer a more nuanced understanding of identity and politics.
Performance: A Critical Introduction
2017 · FWCI 67.83 · 730 citations
Marvin Carlson's "Performance: A Critical Introduction" has been updated to its third edition, offering a comprehensive guide to understanding performance as a theatrical activity.
Space, Time, and Perversion
2018 · FWCI 45.27 · 665 citations
This work argues that feminist and cultural analysis have stripped bodies of their specificity, leading to a need for radical reconsideration of bodies and their relationship to transgression.
New Materialism: Interviews & Cartographies
2012 · FWCI 402.05 · 657 citations
This book offers the first comprehensive exploration of "new materialism," a significant 21st-century intellectual movement.
Modern Architecture
2024 · 641 citations
This revised edition of a classic survey updates the history of 20th-century architecture and its origins.
Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything
2018 · FWCI 815.20 · 622 citations
Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) proposes that objects, regardless of their nature (real, fictional, human, non-human), are mutually autonomous and that reality is not solely defined by human perception.
Ekphrasis, Imagination and Persuasion in Ancient Rhetorical Theory and Practice
2016 · FWCI 85.33 · 601 citations
This study re-examines ekphrasis, the ancient art of vivid description through words, by linking rhetorical theory with ancient concepts of imagination, emotion, and language.
Crafting Qualitative Research: Working in the Postpositivist Traditions
2015 · FWCI 114.51 · 562 citations
This book, "Crafting Qualitative Research," addresses a gap in management research education by providing a comprehensive guide to diverse qualitative research traditions and their applications.
To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism
Journal of Design History · 2013 · Q1 · FWCI 221.88 · 555 citations
This book review critiques the concept of 'technological solutionism,' arguing that the belief in technology as a universal fix for complex problems is a flawed and potentially harmful ideology.
Recently added
The Performance Studies Reader
2025 · FWCI 60.09 · 384 citations
This collection compiles foundational texts from key thinkers in Performance Studies, covering its core concepts and historical development.
Modern Architecture
2024 · 641 citations
This revised edition of a classic survey updates the history of 20th-century architecture and its origins.
Os movimentos sociais e a cultura
RCMOS - Revista Científica Multidisciplinar O Saber · 2021 · FWCI 194.19 · 397 citations · Open access
This qualitative, interdisciplinary study analyzes the origins, development, and cultural significance of the Hip-Hop and feminist movements, highlighting their role in contemporary social struggles and discourse mobilization.
When Was Modernism: Essays on Contemporary Cultural Practice in India
Medical Entomology and Zoology · 2020 · FWCI 22.71 · 216 citations
This volume explores the concept of modernity in Indian cultural practice through a collection of essays.
Reading Images
2020 · FWCI 116.94 · 757 citations
This updated textbook provides a systematic framework for understanding how visual elements in images communicate meaning, drawing on diverse examples from art to digital media.
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