VISUAL LITERACY FINAL

manifest content

what is shown; objects recognized by most; obvious or literal level: denotation

content analysis

quantitative analysis of data—count number of certain images, etc., not indicative of qualitative vale; but precision and verifiability

genre

species, kind or sort; a classification or grouping of visual artifacts that share certain iconographic elements, themes and stylistic conventions

signifier

material dimension of sign

index

record of; a direct, causal connection (footprint)

myth

when connotations for a subgroup are made to look “universal” and ideology is made to look natural

structuralism

a set of theories emphasizing the laws, codes, rules, formulas and conventions structuring human behavior and systems of meanings

deconstruction

skeptic “method” refusing to accept as absolute the truth and knowledge claims of existing systems

hermenuetics

interpreting texts and works of art

hyperreal

reality is fabricated by technology

fourth wall

looks between depicted characters and spectators

scopophilia

erotic gratification derived from looking

cinematic apparatus

traditional social cinima space-darkened theater, mirror-like screen-invites regression to childlike state

objective shot

camera as third person viewer

dominant-hegemonic reading

unquestioningly identify with the dominant ideology

oppositional reading

completely disagree, reject or ignore

visual poetics

examines rhetorical devices (figures of speech or tropes) in images and language

synecdoche

part standing for the whole “a hired hand”

symbols

signs or objects that have, over time, acquired fixed secondary meanings

allegory

a treatment of one subject under the guise of another; a presentation of an abstract meaning through concrete forms

intertextuality

references to other works in the genre; “quoting;” game with audience, reflecting their sophistication as knowledgeable viewers

double meanings

visual puns, form overlapping or superimpositions

“breaking frame”

looks exchanged to characters outside the frame

habitus

field exists before entry with rites of passage; individual assumes position within it; “legitimate language”

orientalism

exotic conceptions of East as European inventions

postmodern era of electronic technology

computer/digital imaging; image has value from accessibility, malleability and information status

exchange value

what something costs

pseudoindividuality

consumption will make you unique

commodity fetishism

separates goods from context of production for new meanings to be attached

reification

abstract ideas given concrete form

bricolage

taking existing artifacts and recoding them for new subgroup meanings (appropriation)

reception aesthetic

branch of criticism/history
concerned with the impression art, design and media
make and how they are “read” by various individuals
and social groups; taste: key variable in reception

“death of the author”

production to reception emphasis shift

base

material resources, means of production, the economy

superstructure

“spiritual”

ideology

a shared set of societal values and beliefs

hegemony

power relations in constant flux

kitsch

visual artifacts judged to have little or no aesthetic

cultural capital

like money, everyone has some access to culture

mass

made by professional designers and artists

popular

made by untrained people for masses

cross-cultural study

looking for commonalities

Connoisseur

master of taste

synaesthesia

colors and shapes associated with sounds, smells, and feelings

ocularcentrism

critique says vision complicit in social oppression via surveillance and spectacle

biopower

state has indirect control over citizens

“The Gaze”

eye objectifies and masters

history of perception

different classes/different periods emphasized different senses/ways of perceiving

representation

use of language and images to create meaning about the world

mimesis

mirroring the world

mediated vision

seeing images vs seeing the world

haptic

touch, texture and contour

panopticon

“all seeing” prison design