Visual Literacy AAD4002
Module Review
Visual Literacy will enable you to: Produce experimental visual outcomes that demonstrate your understanding of the elements and principles of creative output Present outcomes that demonstrate your understanding of the unique properties of visual literacies in the creative industries Reflect and articulate a range of approaches to visual literacies in the context of your specialist practice Work effectively as a member of a creative team Undertake a critique of your own work for this module
Indicative content: The meaning and definition of visual literacy Theories of representation and meaning (culture, iconography, semiotics, reading images) Authorship The creative industry environment Understanding audiences Validation of solutions to real world issues (social, technical, economic, political) The use of computers in the development of visual literacy Teamworking Critical reflection
Assignments 1 Group Project [70%] 2 Individual Critique [30%]
Group Project (70%) - ‘Change of State’ Each subject group (Animation/Illustration, Graphic Design, Photography) will be further divided into smaller project groups. You will work collectively towards a common output The title for the brief is ‘Change of State’ and your task will be to produce a body of work, or works, that reflect the themes covered in this module The exact nature of the group project will be negotiated in class, but typical outputs could be a gallery piece or campaign
Individual critique (30%)
FoxTalbot Oak Tree in Winter at Lacock Abbey 1840s
You will participate in an online blog (operational details will be provided in class) Each week, tutors will post a research task or prompt that you will respond to in your blog. You will also post your work here and be expected to comment on others’ blogs, demonstrating reflective practice At the end of the module, you will submit a reflective summary of your online activity and submit this via Turnitin
How do we read images? When we look at an image, we engage in a series of complex readings, which relate as much to the expectations and assumptions that we bring to the image as to the image [ed] itself
(Clarke, G, 1997)
Analysing Another way in which we are made aware of significant aspects of an object is through analysis When practiced by highly articulate people with detailed knowledge of one or more ideological approaches (Marxist, psychoanalytical, semiological etc), it can become very complex using specialised vocabulary Any analysis based upon a single ideology cannot claim to be impartial - it is always a particular point of view
Lucas Cranach (1472-1553)
There are always alternative analyses to compare it with
Signifier Signified There is no mention of an apple in the Bible Fruit is mentioned, but not apples, so was it an orange or a fig that tempted Eve? The apple is the ‘signifier’ and the fruit is used to signify temptation (the ‘signified’) Whilst any fruit could have been used, the well-established connection in our minds between the appearance of an apple and temptation makes the communication successful However, there are numerous relationships that can exist between signifier and signified
Roland Barthes 1915-1980
Roland Barthes Whereas Saussure saw linguistics as forming one part of semiology, Barthes turned this idea upside down and suggested that semiology, the science of signs, was in fact one part of linguistics What Barthes did was to consider the part played by the reader in the exchange between themselves and the content He identified structural relationships in the component of a sign His ideas centre on two different levels of signification: DENOTATION and CONNOTATION
Crow, D (2003) Visible Signs, Switzerland: AVA Publishing
Roland Barthes The denotative means the literal meaning, operating at the most basic of levels - a simple act of recognition Beyond the moment of recognition, the viewer moves into a second level - the ‘connotative’ aspects of the elements contained within Connotation is the meaning of the image ‘proper’ - a series of languages or codes reflecting an underlying process of signification within a culture
Roland Barthes Panzani
(Clarke, G, 1997)
Ingredients Barthes suggests that we can read the Panzani ad as a ‘myth’ by linking its completed message This is a picture of pasta, a tin, a sachet, tomatoes etc ... It has the cultural theme of ‘Italianicity’ At the level of myth or meta-language, it becomes a message about the ‘essential meaning of Italian-ness as a national culture
Iconography Panofsky’s iconology - three levels of meaning (strata) A man lifts his hat in greeting
Iconography At the first level, factually, he lifts his hat and replaces it We can interpret this expressively, sensing that it is a friendly gesture We use our experience of everyday life
Iconography At the second level, we understand that when someone lifts their hat, it means more than physically lifting it It is a form of communication that we understand: it is a sign of politeness Panofsky explains that this is different from the first level because we have previously to know what the action means in order to understand it Someone from an entirely different culture would understand the first level, but not the second
Iconography At the third level, Panofsky says we can tell something about the man’s personality along with his national, social, educational and cultural background from the fact that he raised his hat in a greeting
Anonymous 1940
He may not be aware of communicating these things; he may not deliberately have intended to reveal so much of himself in a single gesture, but it communicates all the same
J W Turner 1755-1851 Aerial Perspective
Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519 The Last Supper
Four types
Aerial perspective Perspective of receding planes Perspective of scale Linear perspective
M C Escher 1878-1972 Waterfall
Ernest Hass 1966 The Cross - Linear Perspective
Paul Hill 1970 Perspective of Scale
Walker Evans 1936 Gas Station, Reedsville, West Virginia - Receding Planes
Ando Hiroshige 1857 Cat Looking at Fields at Asakusa - Receding Planes
Chris Marker (1962) La Jetée
La Jetée: the opening line
This is the story of a man marked by an image from his childhood
Chris Marker (1962) La Jetée
Canaletto (c1738) Linear Perspective
Un Chien Andalou Luis Bu単uel & Salvador Dali 1929