Visual culture

What is it? Visual culture would be the symbols and signs we encounter every day and the importance and interpretations that our collective culture places on them. Through a combined acknowledgement of shared beliefs, values and traditions certain images are given significant meanings without verbal cues; we are brought up to immediately recognize their significance. For instance, flags represent countries and a dove represents peace. However, these signs can have different meanings depending on through which culture/frame they are viewed.

Visual culture is the aspect of culture expressed in visual images.culturevisual images print images and graphic design TV and cable TV film and video in all interfaces and playback/display technologies computer interfaces and software design Internet/Web as a visual platform digital multimedia advertising in all media (a true cross-media institution) fine art and photography fashion architecture, design, and urban design

We are in a visually saturated world……….

Literacy (communicating in words by means of writing and reading) and numeracy (communicating information by means of numbers) are already well-developed achievements of the human species. The development of the visual aspect of human communications as a parallel discipline to literacy and numeracy has been referred to as graphicacy.

Types of visual language: Signs- a basic unit of meaning and refers to a concept that something indicates or signifies some meaning. Signs can contain symbols. Either way, they are meant to communicate specific meanings to a given audience.

Symbols - are more imaginative than signs, have psychological value, heighten the significance of the image portrayed and can inspire collective action.

Very similar symbols but with different meanings…

Look familiar?

Icons- stands for its object by resemblance and historically are representations of sacred people.

More icons…….

“The medium is the message.” Coined by Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian English professor and philosopher of communications theory.

What does it mean????? The content of the message is less meaningful than the mode of the communication. It is not about the message having more importance, but how over time our perceptions are altered by the introduction of the new medium in a subtle way that might take years to notice, but can have a direct influence on how that society functions.

What??? Here is an example! Crime stories that are widely disseminated via television, social media and even word of mouth to large groups of people may have the unanticipated consequence of creating a climate of fear, hence changing the way we interact with one another.

What does this have to do with art??? McLuhan said, “Art as an anti-environment is an indispensable means of perception, for environments, as such, are imperceptible. Their power to impose their ground rules on our perceptual life is so complete that there is no scope for dialogue or interface. Hence the need for art or anti-environments”. Art functions to throw us out of our accustomed environment, hence opening us up to question the ground rules!

What is the role of the visual arts in a mass-mediated visual world?