Visual Literacy Reading Notes

7/30/2019 Visual Literacy Reading Notes

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Visual literacy reading notes:

A bias toward visual information is not difficult to find in human behavior. We seek visualreinforcement of our knowledgedirectness of the info, closeness to the real experience.

Why do we seek visual reinforcement? Seeing is a direct experience and the use of visual data toreport info is the closest we can get to the true nature of reality.

When Apollo 11 landed on the moon, direct visual connection was impossible so they broadcasted avisual simulationstill preferred than a written or spoken report even though that would have been

more accurate.

The False Dichotomy: Fine and Applied Art

Human experience is primary in learning to understand and respond to the environment; visualinfo is the oldest record of human history

Most frequently cited difference between the utilitarian and the purely artistic is the measure ofmotivation toward producing the beautiful

Ruskin: Art is all one, any distinction between fine and applied art is destructive andartificial.Rafaelites: turned their backs on all machine made art, giving precedence to what is

made by hand

Morris-led Arts and Crafts group recognized impossibility of producing art withoutcraftsmanshipa fact easily forgotten in the snobbish dichotomy between fine and applied arts

Contemporary view of the visual artsnot so much about the polarities of fine and applied art,questioning subjective expression and objective functionfine arts is the creative expression;

applied arts is the response to purpose and use

Sullivans form follows function the final product is shaped by what it does Michelangelos fresco for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel balance between pure artistic

expression and utility of purpose; both fine and applied art?

applied art functional; fine art without utility--- this snobbish attitude influences artistson both sides of the fence and creates an atmosphere of alienation and confusion

Idea of a work of art modern; reinforced by the concept of the museum being the ultimatebeautiful

This attitude removes art from the mainstream, gives it an aura of being special and petty,reserves it for an elite, and so negates the true fact of how it is struck through our lives and our

world

The Impact of the Photograph

Camera has ended special talent, ability to draw, replicate env. as it appears In modern media, visual dominates; verbal augments Our language-dominated culture has moved perceptibly toward the iconic To see has come to mean understanding


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Visual literacy: to expand our ability to see means to expand our ability to understand a visualmessage, and even more crucial, to make a visual message

Vision more than just seeing or being shown; integral part of the communication processwhich encompasses all considerations of fine art, applied art, subjective expression, response to

functional purpose

Visual Knowledge and Verbal Language

Visualizing ability to form mental pictures; process of moving around in mental images inimagination is what frequently takes us to the point of breakthrough and solution

What does literacy mean in the context of language and what analogies can be drawn fromlanguage and applied to visual info?

Language means for a higher form of thinking than the visual and tactile modes Language and verbal literacy are not the same thing Spoken language evolves naturally; deep structure of language is biologically innate Verbal literacy, reading and writing, must be learned (symbols, designated sounds, alphabet-

individual and combinations, meanings, etc.)

Visual Literacy

Language of vision is so much more universal that its complexity should not be regarded as toodifficult to be worthwhile overcoming

Making and understanding visual messages is natural to a point, but effectiveness on either levelcan only achieved through study

One of the tragedies of the overwhelming potential of visual literacy at all levels of education isthe mindless, custodial-playtime function the visual arts serve in the curriculum and the similarstate that exists in the use of media, cameras, film, tv

Judgements of what is workable, appropriate, effective in visual communication have beenabandoned to whim

An Approach to Visual Literacy

There is visual syntax guidelines for constructing compositions, basic elements that can belearned and understood by all students of the visual media, and that, along with manipulative

techniques, can be used to create clear visual messagesknowledge of all these factors can lead

to clearer comprehension of visual messages

Scale

All visual elements have the capacity to modify and define each other process is the elementof scale

Scale can be established not only through the relative size of visual clues, but also throughrelationships to the field or env


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Visual results are fluid, not absolute; they are subject to so many variables of modification Measurement is an integral part of scale, but is not crucial; juxtaposition more important Most vital factor in establishment of scale measurement of man himself Golden Mean Corbus modular unit is based on the proportions of man Learning to relate size to purpose and meaning is essential in the structuring of visual messages

Dimension

In photography, perspective dominates: lens one of its prime abilities is simulation ofdimension

Real dimension dominating element in industria design, crafts, sculpture, architecture, and anyvisual material in which the total and actual volume must be dealt with

Movement

Implied than actually expressed Derives from our complete experience of movement in life Implied action is projected into static visual info both psychologically and kinesthetically persistence of vision true movement lies in the eye of the beholder through this Example: reading

o Scanningo Projection of a light into the eyeo Eye also moves in response to the unconscious process of measurement and balance

through the felt axis and left-right, top-bottom preferences

Action not only in what is seen, but also in the process of seeing Visual fast and can instantaneously express many ideas; proper understanding of their

character and workings is the basis for a language that will recognize no boundaries or barriers

The Anatomy of a Visual Message

We express and receive visual messages on three levels:o Representationally what we see and recognize from environment and experienceo Abstractly kinesthetic quality of a visual event reduced to the basic elemental visual

components, emphasizing more direct, emotional, even primitive message-making

meanso Symbolically vast world of coded symbol systems which man has created arbitrarily

and to which he has attached meaning

Representation

Photography is the most technically dependable means of representing visual reality Daguerrotype to flexible Kodak film to mass printing to film


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Argument that the artists work is cleaner and clearer because he can control and manipulate it beginning of a process of abstraction

Abstraction reduction of multiple visual factors to only the essential and most typical featureof what is being represented

Symbolism

Abstraction toward symbolism requires ultimate simplicity, reduction of visual detail to theirreducible minimum

Symbol in order to be effective, must not only be seen and recognized but also rememberedand even reproduced; minimal info

Must be simple; information-packed means of visual communication, universal in meaningAbstraction

No need for a relationship to actual symbol-making

The more representational the visual info, the more specific its reference; the more abstract,the more general and all-encompassing it is

Abstraction simplification toward a more intense and distilled meaning Design and construction of buildings abstract and possibly symbolic, but in no way

representational; meaning lies in the substructure, in the pure elemental visual forces

Abstract visual statement is profound; representational is just imitation and quite shallow interms of depth of communication; but the abstract understructure is the composition, the

design

The abstract conveys the essential meaning, cutting through the conscious to the unconscious

To be visually literate, it is necessary that the creator of the visual work be aware of these indivlevels

Each level has its own unique char but they dont conflict either Representational most effective level to utilize in the strong, direct reporting of the visual details

of the environment, both natural and made

Abstraction most useful in the process of uncommitted exploration of a problem and developmentof visible options and solutions; nature of abstraction releases the visualizer from the demands of

representing the finished final solution Symbolic can reinforce message and meaning in visual communication Process of creating a visual message series of steps from a number of rough sketches toward a

final choice and decision

Interaction between purpose and composition, between syntactical structure and visual substancemust be mutually strengthened to be visually effective anatomy of a visual message


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Verbal Language and 'Visual Literacy'

Scale, Size and Perspective and Movement

Symbolism as Abstraction and Abstraction itself (in regards to this text)

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Visual Literacy Reading Notes