Re: [xmca] Fwd: Visual literacy? Surf an art museum - Lifestyle - SignOnSanDiego.com

[Jay Lemke <jaylemke@umich.edu>]

Thanks for the link, Mike. Was nice to see someone in the mass media,  
affiliated with a newspaper no less, arguing for critical visual  
literacy to protect us from advertising!

Of course that is an old idea in visual education circles, and it can  
build on the widespread folk-skepticism toward advertising.  
Unfortunately the more pernicious effects in ads are probably at  
subtler levels than what basic visual literacy skills can foreground.

"The ability to find meaning in images" is the definition of visual  
literacy used. That seems a little too basic. I think everyone finds  
meaning in images, with or without any literacy education. Maybe there  
is an implied emphasis on FIND, in the sense of digging below the  
surface/obvious, which would be better. But more recent ideas in the  
field put more emphasis on visual production relative to  
interpretation, so I'd probably go with a definition more like "the  
skills of making meaning with visual resources, for your own  
purposes", and include in that the meaning-making we do with others'  
images by way of interpretation, critique, etc.

Have you ever noticed that when anyone, docent, tourguide, or just me,  
speaks authoritatively about a painting in a museum, that many  
bystanders seem to become interested in listening? People generally  
seem to believe that art images, at least, require some professional  
interpretation or benefit from having specialist knowledge (esp.  
historical). People also seem to enjoy visual interpretation more than  
textual. Textual interpretation is seen as superfluous, even  
obstructing to enjoyment of the work. No one really reads literary  
criticism, or book reviews beyond the "it's good" part. But people are  
fascinated by the exegesis of visual works. The is one basis for the  
popularity of the DaVinci Code and similar popular works.

And there is not a word about visual interpretation skills in our  
standard curricula (meaning as practiced in schools, there are some  
nods in the official standards).

JAY.


Jay Lemke
Professor (Adjunct, 2009-2010)
Educational Studies
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
www.umich.edu/~jaylemke

Visiting Scholar
Laboratory for Comparative Human Communication
University of California -- San Diego
La Jolla, CA
USA 92093






On Dec 20, 2009, at 12:37 PM, mike cole wrote:

> The various extensions of the term, "literacy" that we have  
> witnessed in
> recent decades always leave me somewhat uncomfortable, "health  
> literacy"
> being the
> most recent addition. The article attainable below actually has an
> interesting
> definition of visual literacy and I thought others might be  
> interested (if
> you can ignore the ads!)
> mike
>
>
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