Monday, 12 March 2012

The Visual Literacy Toolbox: Learning to Read Images


Online Activities


Activity Plans

Use and adapt these materials as needed but please cite the contributing faculty member, teaching graduate student or instructor.
  • Visual Elements Used by Artists: Faith Ringgold Assignment
    downloads: word file, pdf file
    Kimberlee Staking, Department of Women's Studies, University of Maryland
  • Media Analysis Assignmentdownloads: word file, pdf file
    Kimberlee Staking, Department of Women's Studies, University of Maryland
  • Literary Visualization
    downloads: word file, pdf file
    Matthew Kirschenbaum, Department of English, University of Maryland
  • Learning to "See" and to "Describe"
    downloads: word file, pdf file
    Elsa Barkley Brown, Departments of Women's Studies and History, University of Maryland
  • Visual Images: Seeing Everything in the Picture 
    downloads: word file, pdf file
    Elsa Barkley Brown, Departments of Women's Studies and History, University of Maryland
  • Visual Literacy and Photoshop 
    downloads: word file, pdf file
    Nikki A. Stewart, PhD candidate, Department of Women's Studies, University of Maryland
  • Rhetorical Appeals in the Visual Realm
    downloads:word file, pdf file
    Linda Marci, Department of English, University of Maryland
  • Juxtaposition Exercise
    downloads: pdf file
    Andrea Goldman, Department of History, University of Maryland
  • Gender Rules Quiz
    downloads: pdf file, powerpoint file
    Jo Paoletti, Department of American Studies, University of Maryland
  • Mental Pictures
    downloads: word file, pdf file
    Shawn Parry-Giles, Department of Communication, University of Maryland
  • Visuals in the News
    downloads: word file, pdf file
    Shawn Parry-Giles, Department of Communication, University of Maryland
  • Exhibition on Childhood and Alley Life in Washington, D.C.
    downloads: word file, pdf file
    Kelly Quinn, Sojourner Truth Visiting Professor of Urban Planning, University of Michigan
  • Material Culture Writing Assigment
    dowloads: word file, pdf file
    Kelly Quinn, Sojourner Truth Visiting Professor of Urban Planning, University of Michigan 


The Basics of Visual Literacy

Images contain information and ideas, and visual literacy allows the viewer to gather the information and ideas contained in an image, and place them in context.
FORM
Form refers to the organizational arrangement of the visual elements or the formal qualities of the image. This includes the graphic composition or images (eg shapes, lines, colors, etc) and such things as camera placement, editing and point of view.
A Quick tutorial and review of the range of formal elements used to create images or objects of analysis can be found at:
The set of questions below considers key design elements individually before posing questions to help students understand how they relate to one another.  
  1. COLOR
What is color? Briefly, color is the perceptual phenomena of visible light.
What are its characteristics?
Any given color is described by three general characteristics:
  • Hue: The 'name' of a color - its particular spectrum of visible light
  • Saturation: The amount of gray tones present in the manifestation of the color
  • Value Contrast: The degree of tonality (light/dark) present in the manifestation of the color
For more information, see Color Basics:http://www.worqx.com/color/color_basics.htm
  1. LINE AND SHAPE
Lines join together the smallest of design elements, dots, to direct the construction and placement of objects within an image.   Whether lines construct a recognizable visual element or an abstract visual element, they do so by outlining and forming shapes.   Even the most abstract of shapes has a relationship to some geometrical quality.   As our mind and our vision work together to decode the use of lines and shapes within an image, we seek to understand their relationship to the geometrical building blocks we perceive in our world around us - squares, rectangles, ovals, circles and so on.   Line can also be used independently of shape to suggest or create motion and movement within an image.   To read more about the utility of line and shape in visual design, consult the Online Visual Literacy Project [http://www.pomona.edu/Academics/courserelated/classprojects/Visual-lit/intro/intro.html ].   To experience the way in which line and shape can be used to create both abstract and concrete details in an image, select the link to the descriptive teaching module entitled "All Art is Abstract"http://www.arthistory-archaeology.umd.edu/resources/teaching.html .
III. SPACE
IV. INTEGRATION OF DESIGN ELEMENTS
V. PUTTING IT TOGETHER
The pictorial elements, such as color, line, shape, space and texture, used in designing an image are only one part of the text we read as we explore an image.   Many other elements come into play.   As you think about the image you are exploring, consider whether you think the formal design elements or the thematic relationship of the objects within the image become the focal point of the image for you.   As you do so, think through the following questions:
CONTENT
Content refers to the sensory, subjective, psychological or emotional properties in response to an image. emotional. Content includes:
- the emotional or intellectual message, and
- the expression, essential meaning, siginificance or aesthetic value of an image.
In exploring an image, were your initial observations based on facts, figures, or other information found within the image itself. Does your observation of the image lead you to tell a story about the image. If so, you may wish to explore questions about image content.
CONTEXT
Context refers to the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc. This could include when a work of art was made, where, how and for what purpose. This could include historical information on the artist or issues or things the artist references.
Did you raise questions about who produced the image, how it has been utilized, where it has appeared? If so, then you may wish to further explore questions of the context of an image.

Additional Resources

Learning Objective

What do you want your students to be able to do? What do you want your students to focus on? What are you hoping they can get out of using images?
Intro | Abstraction |Framing & Gaze |Interpretation |Translation |Construction |Application
  • ABSTRACTIONThe concept of Abstraction is challenging but fundamental to all art and visual imagery. These execises, questions and additional resources will help students gain a better understanding of the relationship between abstraction and representation in visual images.
  • FRAMING and GAZEThe choices that are made when any image is constructed greatly impacts the viewer's experience. These execises, questions and additional resources will provide skills that enable students to read images with greater understanding.
  • INTERPRETATION 
    These exercises, questions, and additional resources will help students learn how to describe, interpret, and/or compare images.
  • TRANSLATION 
    These exercises, questions, and additional resources will help students learn about the multiple relationships between images and text. Strategies focus on the cognitive processes involved in translating between words and image.
  • CONSTRUCTION These exercises, questions, and additional resources will help students learn how negotiate to the constructed nature of images. Strategies act students to engage visual and multimedia compositions, mediated communication, historical knowledge, and social norms.
  • APPLICATION 
    These exercises, questions, and additional resources will help students learn how to use images to understand and apply theories and key concepts in your field.

Bank of Questions

Questions on ............................. FORM | CONTENT | CONTEXT | FRAME | GAZE
Questions on FORM
  1. Which of the following formal elements most strongly captures your attention when viewing this image: color, line, shape, texture, space, etc? Describe how or why.
  2. Describe the use of color by exploring how it is present or absent in the image you are exploring. You can do so by considering the following questions.   Jot down your impressions along with supportive details as you analyze the image carefully.   NOTE:   While we perceive the color present in a photograph to be 'captured' naturally from nature or the natural environment, color can in fact be manipulated in the development of the photographic image.   Moreover, if the image under consideration is not a photograph, color has been at least or even more selectively chosen.   Think carefully then about the choices of color in the composition of the image you are analyzing. 
    1. What colors do you see?   Are their multiple manifestations of any particular color along the visual spectrum?   Try to distinguish them by their hues (e. g. pink, red, brick) as well as by their degrees of saturation [link tohttp://www.pomona.edu/Academics/courserelated/classprojects/Visual- lit/saturation/Saturation.HTML ] and value contrasts , that is their light/dark tonal elements.   To explore the choice of color in the production of an image, view the following descriptive module explaining Color Theory : http://www.arthistory-archaeology.umd.edu/resources/teaching.html .
    2. How do you think the use of color impacts the way in which you experience the image?   On a scale of 1 to 10, note how important the use of color is to you in your interaction with the image and explain why you gave it that numerical rank.   What elements of the image are more or less important than color in your estimation? Does the use of color evoke any emotion in your response to the image?   If so, how would you describe that emotion?
  3. Consider the use of line and shape in the image you are exploring by answering the following questions.
    1. What shapes are present in the image (used either in constructing the objects or the background of the image)?   What shapes are most frequently employed or repeated?
    2. How is line used to create these shapes?   How and when are the lines or they shapes used in dynamic ways to suggest movement?   How and when are they used in static ways that do not imply active motion?
    3. Does the use of line contribute to an illusory three dimensional space in the image?   Does line exist in two dimensional relationships?  
    4. What is the relationship between line and the sensations of texture in the image?   How do line and shape create textural impressions?
    5. How does line/shape combine to create patterns in the image?   What patterns are created?   How do any perceived patterns (including color patterns) owe their design effectiveness to the use of line and shape?  
    6. Is the use of line and shape in the image a more or less powerful visual experience than the use of color in the image?   On a scale of 1 to 10, note how important the use of line and shape are to you in your interaction with the image and explain why you gave it that numerical rank.   Does the use of line or shape evoke any emotion in your response to the image?   If so, how would you describe that emotion?
  4. How is space used in the image?
    1. Does the space seem cluttered, busy, open, white, empty, colorful?  
    2. What compositional designs are incorporated into the use of space?   What types of angles or exterior lighting sources are present or implied?   (If the image is a photograph, consider the selection and use of camera angles.)
    3. On a scale of 1 to 10, note how important the use of space is to you in your interaction with the image and explain why you gave it that numerical rank.   Does the use of space evoke any emotion in your response to the image?   If so, how would you describe that emotion?
  5. How do the elements of color, line, shape, texture, space and so on work together to contribute to the design of the image?   Consider their interactions:
    1. How are these elements arranged and/or balanced together within the image?
    2. Are any of the design elements dominant?   What elements are less dominant?   What would change about the image if you were to change the relationship of the design elements to one another to make another element dominant?   How would your response to the image be altered?
    3. Imagine how you might change the image by varying one of the design elements discussed above.   What element would you vary and how?
    4. What emotion(s) do the combined design elements create for you as you explore this image?   What memories or associations are called up for you by the way in which the design elements are used?   Do you think another viewer might interpret the use of design elements differently?   Why or why not?   Might individual or socio-cultural memories or experiences affect one's response to the design elements?   Why or why not?
  6. How do the pictorial elements, such as color, line, shape, space and texture, relate to the thematic elements of the image?
    1. Is there any written material or use of symbol in the image?   If so, how does it relate to the pictorial elements described above?
    2. In your judgment, what is the function of the image?   How do the formal elements, both pictorial and symbolic, support this function?
    3. Of what significance is the medium (oil, cartoon, photograph, map etc.) in thinking about the formal elements and/or the function of the image?   How would they be altered if the image were to be reproduced in another medium (i.e., an oil painting or a map is photographed)?   How does one explore an image differently is it is a reproduction of an artifact or the artifact itself?
    4. What is the size of the image?   If the image is a reproduction, how is it altered from its original size?   How does this affect one's response to it?  
    5. How do all the formal elements, pictorial as well as textual and symbolic, contribute to your emotional response or intellectual understanding of the image?  
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