The members of the Visual Studies research group approach the aesthetic aspects of all types of audio and visual media expressions from a variety of empirical and theoretical vantage points. From the contents of film and television to professional and amateur photography, the auditive qualities of video games, political newspaper cartoons, museum art and illustrations of all kinds, the members of the research group engage the adiovisual media as a loose collective of researchers.

The research group for visual studies is a loose collaborative unit that primarily functions as a meeting place for discussing and exploring common research interests in the field of audiovisual communication. The group holds sporadic meetings where members present their work to the rest of the group. Occasionally the group also arranges seminars with invited international speakers.

The group is home to four PhD projects - three projects under the Nomadicon umbrella and one PhD under the Democracy and the Rule of Law strategic area: Pauline Ann Hoath's project on the histories of photography, Tonje Haugland Sørensen's project on the films chronicling the Second World War in Norway, Synnøve Marie Vik's project on representations of nature in visual culture, and Rolf Halse's project on representations of Muslim characters in the TV-series "24".