FOR THURS., SEPT. 3RD MEET IN EHLY 119! Before Class Do research for timeline and/or group-assigned tasks. Begin reading assignments due next Tues. In Class Work on timelines: o o o Look at samples. Issues and questions: technology, research, groups. Finalize topics and group composition, if necessary. o Visit TLMC, IYHA. o Polish up task lists, agendas. visual language and culture What is visual language? What is visual culture? Why are they important? That visual image no doubt got your attention in a pretty potent way, right?. “Visual Culture” A visual culture is one in which visual communication is the dominant mode of communication. Marshall McLuhan says that history can be defined by 3 communication cultures: • ORAL—truth is that which is spoken; tribal and community oriented. • PRINT OR ALPHABET—truth is that which is in writing; individualistic and scientific. • VISUAL—truth is that which is see; a “secondary orality”: return to the tribal and mystical, but with differences. “Visual Language” A visual language is “the integration of words, images, and shapes into a single communication unit” (Robert Horn, Visual Communication). “Words are essential to visual language. They give conceptual shape to communication and supply the capacity to name, define and classify elements and to discuss abstractions. Images are what we first think of when we think of visual language, but without an integration with words and/or shapes, images are only conventional visual art.” today images Why? Click more than ever matter Images and visual media matter in part because… They can now bring the world into our living rooms in an endless stream; have made the world much smaller than it used to be. (Conversely, small spaces are now much more worldly than they used to be.) They are heavily used by commercial advertisers in their ceaseless efforts to make us purchase consumer goods. Capitalist use of visual media plays a huge part in the “torrent” of images inundating our lives. Think about where/how you encounter images each day. Make a list of types or sources. They effect us differently—both psychologically and physiologically— from sound and print media. Ok, so how DO they affect us? What is one of the ways in which visual language has power? It can communicate holistically (you get the message in a flash, what McLuhan calls “allatonceness”). Print = one letter and one word at a time. Oral = one word at a time. But the visual is a form of “flash reason”—the power of a neon sign or image to make immediate sense, have immediate impact, a kind of thinking quite distinct from print culture’s “slow reason” or oral culture’s preference for deliberation and debate (Greg Ulmer). approach to VLC will be… • Pragmatic: you’ll learn how to “write visually” in three different media. We all need these chops increasingly in our professional and personal lives. This is a writing class. • Theoretical and Rhetorical: you’ll read visual theorists as you work on your projects to learn about the semiotics, psychology, history, and varieties of visual language, even as you are applying it yourself. I.e., you’ll be introduced to some theoretical frameworks that should help you understand the visual culture you live in and the visual work you are producing for class. This includes analyzing and thinking critically about the arguments made in images coming at you every day—indeed every hour, every…hell, nanosecond... In sum, you’ll practice “reading” visual documents. • Creative: you’ll have a great time exploring stuff you’ve probably been wanting to learn anyway. Fun Facts to Show and Tell • Most of us receive more than 80 percent of our information through our • Notice the link between the words image and imagination. “There seems to be a link between creativity and imagination—our ability to generate images in our minds, images not always representational or connected to anything in our experience.” • Likewise, there are strong links between images and our emotional and psychological conditions. Consider dreams (our psyches do all kinds of “image work” when we sleep), the drawings of children or the emotionally disturbed, or the signs adopted by volatile groups. According to Tony Schwartz, communication isn’t the sending of information from a sender to a receiver. S Info R Rather, it is the striking of a responsive chord in the mind of the receiver. That is, the sent material stirs something already in the listener or viewer. Thus, information already in our minds plays a large role in giving communication power and resonance. S Now is the time for all good people to abolish war forever. R Something which contributes to this “responsive chord” action is “intertextuality.” Intertextuality = creators of texts borrowing from previous texts, consciously or unconsciously. All works and artists are influenced by works and artists before them. All texts contain various kinds of echoes from previous texts. Much of the material stored in our minds resonates or is stirred when related material is brought to our attention. Intertextuality is a serious part of communication. is determined in part by the physiological structure of the eye. Our eyes, for example, differentiate between objects and the spaces around them. How we see However, culture also plays a huge role in how we see. For instance, in the West, we tend to see objects, not the spaces between or around them. In the East, spaces are given special attention and value. How we see In fact… in the West, seeing is granted a terrific degree of importance. Heather R. says she’s in this course because she does “a lot of looking at various things.” How is seeing important to our culture? Just consider the ways in which we use the word “see.” I.e., when you use the word “see,” what do you mean? Seeing (vision) is equated with UNDERSTANDING, REASON, and COGNITION: “I see what you’re saying.” “The light of reason.” “Let me illuminate this subject…” “I recognized him.” (re)cognition is equated with seeing and knowing) It is also traditionally equated with TRUTH: “Seeing is believing.” “The light of truth.” “I saw it with my own eyes.” It is also considered the key factor in our notions of beauty. And it is critical in how we signal who we are (it is intimately tied to personal identity and the way we understand who people are). Beret = Bow tie = Crew cut = Birkenstock sandals = Teacher wearing a Groucho mask = BUT! Is seeing the key to certainty and truth and reality? Look at these vision exercises. http://www.ndsu.edu/instruct/cinichol/357/OpticalTricks.htm All of which is to say… “seeing” is not a a matter of simply apprehending what is “there” with our eyes. “Seeing,” in fact, is always and necessarily What determines what you see when you “see”? What mediates vision? o Culture o Your physical location o Gender o Race o Occupation o “Taste cultures” o Psychology o How much coffee you had in the last hour Let’s take a quick peek at some of your self profiles… Major Project #2 2001 May 6 5:00 pm 5:32 pm & 4 secs Click here for assignment. http://www.ndsu.edu/instruct/cinichol/357/MajorProject2Timeline.docx Basic Elements of Communication and Principles of Visual Design
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