~~~~~~~~~

KEY HISTORIES

Week two:

In this lecture the topic was originally about key histories in visual literacy, visual literacy refers to a group of vision by seeing and at the same time developing other sensory experiences. (Debes, 1969)

Visual literacy is the ability to:

• interpret
• negotiate
• make meaning from information presented in the image shown.

  The Birth of Visual Literacy
  5,000 years ago, we started to find letters and shapes which we call Proto-Sinaitic script. These evolved over the next 3,000 years into our western alphabets i.e Greek, Roman, Latin.
  Images that are ‘read’Egyptian art was layered and created mostly with symbolism, using 2D illustrations to interpret meaning within images. They presented symbols to present visual grammar.

  Roman and Greek focused more on realism and their art was narrative as they liked storytelling. This was shown like Egyptian hieroglyphics.

  In the Christian religion, they re-emergence hidden symbolism in art. For example, they use gold as a representation of wealth and majesty.

  Islam culture rejects figures of idolatry, they do not use symbolism using people or objects. They always use beautiful patterns which can be created infinitely. This means that the pattern is always on going. Their circle grid represents Allah being infinite, having power. “Islamic aniconism is the term used to describe the absence of icons in Islamic art. Islam is centred on Unity, and Unity is not expressible in terms of any image. Thus, Islamic art as a whole aims to create an ambience which helps man to realise his primordial dignity; it therefore avoids everything that could be an ‘idol’ even in a relative and provisional manner – nothing must stand between man and the invisible presence of God – thus eliminating all the turmoil and passionate suggestions of the world and in their stead creating an order that expresses equilibrium, serenity and peace.” Aniconism, 2016. Available from: [http://www.salaam.co.uk/themeofthemonth/march02_index.php?l=9]

  

  Source

   

  Johannes Gutenberg 1439
  This man was a German printer who introduced printing to everyone, when this was introduced, everyone said ‘Art is now dead’ because they thought printing would take over.

   

INTRODUCTION

Week one:
To start the module off, we were introduced to the title of the module which is ‘visual literacy’ this included definitions and examples of what that means. The module will also include a group project with other students called ‘Change of State’ that will take up 70% of the mark, the other 30% will be the blog on WordPress.

What is visual literacy?
“Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image, extending the meaning of literacy, which commonly signifies interpretation of a written or printed text.” Wikipedia (2015) Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_literacy

“When is a sheep not a sheep?”
“When it is a work of art?”

How do we read photographs?
We read a photograph not as an image but as a text, when we read images we start thinking in a series of multiple readings i.e. the expectations, what is happening and what we bring in the image as to the image itself. (Clarke, G, 1997)

Example

source

Ceci n’est pas une pipe – René Magritte

People would say this is a this is a pipe, others would say it’s a picture of a pipe.
This example is good because it shows the audience how you look at images. People could also look at it just as a picture, it’s all about going into the image.