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and the content has not been altered or updated since archiving.
Content on this site may not meet current digital accessibility standards.
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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 interestingdefinition of visual literacy and I thought others might be interested (ifyou can ignore the ads!) mike [image: SignOnSanDiego.com] <http://www.sosd.com> * Please note, the sender's email address has not been verified. You have received the following link from mcole@ucsd.edu:Click the following to access the sent link: Visual literacy?Surf an art museum - Lifestyle -SignOnSanDiego.com<http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=1481902992 >* [image: SAVE THISlink]<http://www.savethis.clickability.com/st/saveThisPopupApp?clickMap=saveFromET&partnerID=86541&etMailToID=1481902992 >[image:FORWARD THIS link]<http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=forward&etMailToID=1481902992&partnerID=86541 > Get your EMAIL THIS Browser Button and use it to email contentfrom any Web site. Clickhere<http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=browserButtons >formore information.<http://oas.uniontrib.com/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.ads/www.uniontrib.com/clickability@TopRight > *This article can also be accessed if you copy and paste the entireaddress below into your web browser.http://www.sdunion.com/news/2009/dec/20/visual-literacy-surf-art- museum_______________________________________________ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
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