What visual literacy is not! Jamie Steane Head of Visual Communication & Interactive Media Design jamie.steane@northumbria.ac.uk Emma Jefferies Centre for Design Research, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK emma.jefferies@northumbria.ac.uk
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
Overview
1. Introduction
2. A Visual Experiment
3. Influences on Seeing
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
4. Discussion
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
1. Introduction
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
What is visual literacy?
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
What are visual skills?
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
Is visual literacy is a gift?
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
As a designer do you have a more enhanced visually literacy? (Than the general public)
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
2. A Visual Experiment • These questions have informed a visual experiment study which asks:
• In the emergent digital age do design students need a more enhanced visually literacy?
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
1
2
Visual discrimination
3
4
Visual Association
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
From Decoding to Encoding‌
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
Findings… • There were two significant findings that inform us of ‘What visual literacy is not’:
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
No significant difference between visual association and discrimination skills In the overall population however there were slight variations between contrast, scale and colour
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
Finding 1 No significant difference between visual association and discrimination skills in the overall population however there were slight variations between contrast, scale and colour Assessment of visual skills
Standard Deviation (SD) Contrast (SD)
Scale (SD)
Colour (SD)
Digital
Paper
Digital
Paper
Digital
Paper
Visual discrimination
1.093
1.409
1.888
1.711
1.695
1.869
Visual association
1.772
1.707
1.406
1.423
1.805
2.050
Table: Entire population (SD): paper and digital results
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
No significant difference between the visual levels in design practitioners, students and the general public‌
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
Finding 2 • No significant difference between the visual levels in design practitioners, students and the general public • Questions the Visual Experiment’s initial assumptions about visual literacy. This finding would suggest: • Visual Literacy has no fixed visual knowledge • There are no fixed levels of visual skills i.e. as we grow as designers we don’t develop a more enhanced visual literacy
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
3. Influences in terms of ‘seeing’
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
It is not the digital environment that was the influencing factor on design students visual development‌ ‌it is the contexts and situations in which a visual is applied.
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
3. Influences in terms of ‘seeing’ • •
What does this mean for how we develop student visually? 3 areas to inform our understanding are: 1. ‘Fixed’ 2. ‘Cross-disciplinary’ 3. ‘Assessable’
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
Fixed • • •
Visual language is not fixed, but changes in a social context Street (1984) shifts from a single literacy to literacies of social practices Therefore are there are no fixed levels of visual skills just different social contexts requiring different social practices
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
Cross-disciplinary •
•
Consider finding 2: Graphic Design and New Media practitioners did not have a higher visual literacy skill base than design students… Development of visual literacy requires strategies to aid design students’ ‘appropriate use’ for their practices. Street, (2001) suggests: – “We need to ‘start where the people are’, with what they already do, and help them to transform their own lives in their own ways for their own purposes rather than to impose our literacy for our own purposes on them, in the process ignoring or despising their existing patterns of literacy and development practices”
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
Cross-disciplinary • • •
What does ‘Cross-disciplinary’ mean for how design students develop visually? Each design discipline uses alternative visual skills and processes (e.g. types of sketch work) which are appropriate for the media and solution To aid students’ visual development in a design discipline requires: – Observe which process enable and limit students to ‘critically engaged’, to question their work – Develop Strategies to support ‘critical engagement’ to enable student transform their learning.
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
Assessable • The process of questioning your own work is personal journey, so how do you assess it? • If you take a ‘snapshot’ of design students visual knowledge would shown an inaccurate picture for two reasons: – Assesses ‘what’ students know rather than ‘how’ they know – Fosters student recognition but not perception
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
Assessable • What does ‘Assessable’ mean for how design students develop visually? • Encourage students to question and critically engage involves self-assessment of their visual practices and their learning
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
Mrs. Hudson
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
Doctor Watson
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
Sherlock Holmes
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
4. Discussion and Summary • No fixed skill set. Teaching of visual knowledge alone, will not help design students’ visual practices • Must recognise that visual literacy is not ‘Fixed’, ‘Crossdisciplinary’ or ‘Assessable’ • Visual literacy can be fostered through methods which aid student to self-assessment their visual practices • Design educators need to adopt new pedagogic strategies to foster self-assessment in their students visual practices • In summary, as design educators, we too need to question how we understand, to develop a mature generation of designers, whatever their discipline Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane
Questions? For more information visit: www.emmajefferies.com
Thursday, 12 July 2007 What Visual Literacy is not!
By Emma Jefferies & Jamie Steane