While Visual Culture Studies have been an established research field in Anglo-American countries for years, research approaches to visuality and culture in this country are distributed across various disciplines. Therefore, the dual title should be understood as an attempt to address central questions of Visual Culture Studies and to connect them with the approaches of local cultural studies research. The introduction focuses on the question of the cultural shaping of the eye. This encompasses a range of topics, from the historical aspects of seeing to media and epistemological upheavals, as well as intercultural dynamics, including postcolonialism. Other themes include visibility and surveillance in public spaces, gender-specific identity formation, and dynamics of desire.