Jazz and the Visual Arts: Intersections of Musical Practice, Image, and Cultural Representation

Dear Colleagues,

Jazz has long been a site of creative experimentation, not only in sound but also in its visual and material culture. From album design and typography to performance capture in photography and film, stage design, and public persona, visual representations of jazz have shaped audiences’ understanding of the music and its cultural significance. From the orchestrated sophistication of Duke Ellington to Miles Davis’ innovative visual identity and the experimental visual–musical worlds of Sun Ra, these visual artifacts both reflect and amplify musicians’ esthetic ambitions and contribute to broader narratives of African American cultural expression.

While significant studies address aspects of jazz’s visual culture, treatments remain dispersed across musicology, visual studies, media studies, and African American studies. This Special Issue aims to bring together diverse disciplinary perspectives and methodologies, providing a platform for focused case studies grounded in primary sources that explore the intersections of jazz practice and visual culture, highlighting the value of interdisciplinary and multiple-perspective approaches.

“Jazz and the Visual Arts: Intersections of Musical Practice, Image, and Cultural Representation” invites contributions focusing on specific albums, performances, visual artifacts, archival collections, or films. Submissions may draw on musicology, visual culture studies, media studies, performance studies, African American visual arts, and related disciplines. Contributions may examine, but are not limited to, the following topics: performance capture in photography or film, documentary or narrative films, stage and performance design, album and packaging design, intersections with African American visual arts, experimental and Afrofuturist visual cultures, global jazz visual expression, and two-dimensional visual arts, including painting, murals, and comics.

The Special Issue seeks to integrate dispersed treatments of jazz’s visual culture into a coherent interdisciplinary framework. By emphasizing case studies that link musical practice to visual and material representation, it showcases the richness and diversity of approaches that illuminate jazz as a cultural and esthetic phenomenon beyond sound.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–400 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor (pamiesso@ucmail.uc.edu) or to the Arts Editorial Office (arts@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editor for fit within the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

Tentative completion schedule

• Abstract Submission Deadline: 31 August 2026
• Notification of Abstract Acceptance: 30 September 2026
• Full Manuscript Deadline: 28 February 2027

Dr. Sergio Pamies
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Arts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• jazz
• visual culture
• performance capture (photography and film)
• documentary and narrative film
• stage and performance design
• album and packaging design
• african american visual arts
• musician identity
• experimental and afrofuturist jazz
• global jazz visual expression
• two-dimensional visual arts