Today in class we expanded our knowledge of the term "visual literacy". When asked by our professor what that term means we had some trouble explaining the definition. After egging us on for a little bit the professor finally explained that visual literacy is reading images, visual interpretations, story telling, and making sense out of what we see. He then asked who read a book over the summer and only two students raised their hands; however, after asking how many students saw a movie over the summer everyone raised their hands. He explained that in todays culture watching movies are more appealing than reading books. The preference of watching films allows us to understand the idea of visual literacy. In the design world, this is very important. Understanding images and what they portray is a vital skill needed in the world of design. One must know what he is representing through images and how the viewer will respond. He then brought up the famous quote, "a pictures worth a thousand words" and brought up the fact that one still picture from a film communicates hundreds of pages of description in a book.
The professor explained, "if you control the picture you control the story and the person". He then displayed several pictures on the screen and asked us to describe the facts of what we saw, then to explain what we think is going on in the picture, and lastly how it makes us feel. This was a great exercise because it allowed us to get a better understanding of visual literacy and also allowed us to see that different people will have various responses to the same picture. All in all, today I got a great understanding of visual literacy and I will consider the images I put out there in my future works and what they portray.
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| One of the pictures shown in class |
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