20,000 Year Non-Linear History of The Image - Lecture Notes.

(To be read alongside the powerpoint)

•   Lascaux caves, France, first known drawings to western scholars.
• ·     Richard Long, Red Earth Circle, magiciens de la terre, accused of cultural appropriation
  ·         Connection to modern and ancient art
  ·         Rothko – Religious/emotional experience. People crying when they view his work because they are expected to. The context that the paintings are viewed in, they are viewed as images of suicide, transcending the literal flat plane of colour.
  ·         Papal altar and frescoes interior of the basilica of Francis Assisi, the art and the décor used to make people feel lesser than the Gods, displayed a potent image of power
  ·         Mona Lisa - Bogus religiosity - famous because of culture.
  ·          Marcel duchamp attack on convention (graffiti mona lisa)
  ·         Graffiti, taking art and creativity out of an elitist setting.
  ·         Banksy is being placed back into galleries – re appropriation
  ·         Puts artists on a pedestal to say that their method transcends painting and is a reflection of the deep primal urge to create art and is spiritual/a record of the psyche.
  ·         “exemplar of the free mind of the western world” – Jackson Pollock
  ·         Stalin banned avant garde work as it was not understandable to the average man, incomprehensible.
  ·         Socialist realism, propaganda?  
  ·         Images that are re-contextualised are also neutralised
  ·         Shepard Fairey re-contextualised his own image
  ·         Gillray did more than anyone to bring napoleon down
  ·         Der fuehrers face – Donald duck in Natzi land – Disney 1943 mein kampf
  ·         L’atelier populaire 1968
  ·         Sois juene at tais toi ‘be young and shut up’
  ·         Images have the power to change and rewrite history and consolidate a based view.
  ·         Constable 1821 depicted an image of tranquillity in a time of rioting and unrest
  ·         Art commissioned to display wealth and power
  ·         Advertising shows a perfect world in which we can attain via consumption making us feel incomplete without said product.
  ·         Gang rape as a form of advertising – dolce and gabbanna
  ·         Exploiting a misogynistic sexuality
  ·         United colours of Benetton Oliviero Toscani
  ·         Exploiting the death of one for personal gain or trying to reach out to humanity?
  ·         Mortem photography – Victorian post – cheated death.

Visual Literacy Lecture Notes

Visual literacy lecture notes

• The ability to construct meaning from visual images and type, interpreting images of the present past and a range of cultures producing images that effectively communicate a message to an audience and the ability to interpret, negotiate and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image.

• Based on the idea that images can be read.

• The only thing needed if for an agreement between a group of people that one thing stands for another.

• To make the visual communication effective an understanding of the meanings of the images is needed so that the audience sees the right thing.

• Images with multiple meanings can be put into context by the use of other images.

• Colour can also give context images with multiple meanings 

• Colour form and format can be manipulated to change meaning 

• Being visually literate requires an awareness of the relationship between visual syntax and visual semantics 

• Visual syntax refers to the pictorial structure and visual organisation of elements It represents the basic building blocks of an image that affect the way we 'read' it.

• These elements include: framing - format - scale - colour - font - stroke - weight - shape - composition - layout - motion - light - rhythm -  space - depth - texture - text - words - tone - shade - line - mark - direction - editing - manipulation - simplification - emphasis layering - hierarchy etc

• The semantics of an image refers way an image fits into a cultural process of communication. It includes the relationship between form and meaning and the way meaning is created through:

• These elements include: cultural references - social ideals - religious beliefs - political ideas - historical structures - iconic forms - social interaction - individual experience - recognised symbols - established signs etc

• Semiotics is the study of signs and sign processes (semiosis), indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication.

• Semiotics is closely related to the field of linguistics, which studies the structure and meaning of language.

• Semiotics also studies non-linguistic sign systems, visual language and visual literacy

• Visual elements of semiotics include: symbol, sign, signifier, metaphor, metonym, synecdoche. 

• A metonym is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept. For instance, "Westminster", a borough of London in the United Kingdom, could be used as a metonym for its government.

• (A synecdoche (meaning "simultaneous understanding") is a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something refers to the whole of something, or vice versa.

Image comparison

Compare and contrast the images.



The font in the image advertising ‘The Uncle Sam’s range’ is in the foreground of the image, therefore it is one of the first things you notice.  The obnoxious yellow and large bold angular typeface reflects America’s attitude at the time. The smaller more ornate type on the table reading ‘Uncle Sam’s little dinner party’ is almost a patronising statement because the world is at the dinner table inferring that it is far from a little dinner party and America are in fact capable of feeding the world.  Think the aim of this ad is to celebrate 100 years of independence from Britain by showing how wealthy and capable they are. Many aspects of this image reflect the pretentiousness of America at this time. The first being the stars and stripes that decorate almost everything in the room from the clothes, to the carpet and curtains. The way Uncle Sam is sitting is very casual and cocky also, in this image England is represented as a woman. The general attitude at this time was that men were of a higher status than woman so to have England presented as a woman was to take a dog at England’s power and authority. The image also contains a receipt with a list of stereotypical foods from a variety of countries; this suggests that we should be grateful or in the rest of the world owes something to America for the food it imports or exports. It should be noted that in the mage there is a young slave preparing the food and Africa is the largest continent on the globe and has been given a face. This says something about America’s attitude towards. Perhaps this is trying to say that Africa should be grateful for colonialism. The second set of images depict two different scenes, the first image titled ‘East –African transport – old style’ shows a very traditional view of Africa. What looks like a tribe are travelling through thick grass, and wearing traditional clothing. In the second image ‘East-African transport-new style’ there is a white man in the foreground, placed higher than the other people in the image, but this image contains roads, boats, cars and the people are no longer wearing traditional jewellery and are instead dressed very neutrally and appear to be working for the white man in the foreground. This contrast between the two images suggest that colonialism has been an improvement to their life. They now have efficient ways to travel,  roads and appear t have jobs. I think these images have been used to paint a very biased image of what was happening at the time and is probably very different to the reality of the situation. Slavery had been abolished long before either of these images were made however, they still depict black men working for white men, and image that was probably accepted as normal and the way it should be as the audience for these images was most definitely the west. Whilst in the first image a woman is being served dinner at the table, both of these images enforce our stereotype of gender roles. In the first image the guests are being served by a woman and in the second set of images, woman are quite proudly walking front in centre carrying goods however in the ‘new style’ image, woman are no longer present and men are the ones doing the work.