graphical production online and visual literacy a presentation by david gillis

visual codification online: structure

visual codification online: symbols

visual codification online: style

The growing influence of graphic design

• Stats Canada: economic contribution of culture outpacing economy; specialized design services up 14.4% 1999-2001; 6.9% 2001-2002

• Bureau of Labor Statistics: graphic design field expected to grow faster than national avg.

• California occupational guide: growth rates of 34% for commercial artists, 96% for desktop publishing specialists, and 45% growth for multimedia artists and animators between 1998 and 2008

visual thinking as a service: XPLANE

• (c.f. Florida, 2002)

• Economic: accounts for 1/3 US GDP

• Social: “derives identity from members’ roles as purveyors of creativity”

• Think no-collar workplace; bo-bos (simultaneously bohemian and bourgeois)

the creative class and graphic design

the creative class, graphic design and you

• “The creative class is the norm-setting class of our time.”

• “The final element of the social structure of creativity...is a supportive social milieu that is open to all forms of creativity...This milieu provides the underlying eco-system or habitat in which the multidimensional forms of creativity take root and flourish...It also facilitates cross-fertilization between and among these forms.”

visual productivity on the web

• Hundreds of online exhibits displayed weekly on design portals like surfstation.lu, k10k.net, newstoday.com

• k10k receives 100-150 thousand hits per day

• Mixture of professional/personal work on display

• Example...

visual productivity on the web

• Question: what sort of theory can account for this phenomenon?

visual literacy

• Work manifests both idiosyncrasy and coherence; appears to be driven by individual interest as well as a collective consciousness.

• Each individual piece is (at least, tacitly) part of a larger project

• Creative forms represent a mode of discourse where the medium is the message

visual literacy as a condition

visual semiotic

visual language

visual literacy

• meaning-making substrate• representational resources

• communicative technology• stabilized form & function

• receptive/interpretive framework• encultured knowledge and its social implications

visual literacy is a condition...

• whereby traditional communicative technologies and forms are reconfigured and reshaped;

• it is a communal, rather than an institutional phenomenon;

• and it entails the re-codification of imagery and renders visual forms conspicuous once again to our culture

concerning orality and literacy

• Aboriginal art in oral cultures characterized by structural, stylistic, and symbolic conventions.

• Takes advantage of representational affordances in visual modes of expression.

• Effective mode for conveying narrative, ceremonial, cultural meanings.

concerning orality and literacy

• McLuhan: “The phonetic alphabet fell like a bombshell, installing sight at the head of the hierarchy of senses. Literacy propelled man from the tribe, gave him an eye for an ear...”

• Innis: “The written language was made into an instrument responsive to the demands of the oral tradition. Introduction of the alphabet meant a concern with sound rather than sight or with the ear rather than the eye”

questions?