Week Six: Visual Literacy

Visual literacy manifests itself in just about anything: street signs, body language, clothing, magazines. How we perceive these symbols is only half of the communication battle; the other half is putting forth our own images to be observed. and interpreted. Using computers, images can be distorted in any way to communicate all sorts of messages. This often makes being visually literate a double-edged sword, as reality is not always actuality.

To understand the entire concept of visual literacy, let's look at the basics:

1. Dots
2. Lines
3. Shapes
4. Direction
5. Value
6. Hue and Saturation
7. Texture
8. Scale
9. Dimension and Motion
   

The combination of all of these aspects is visual literacy. With them comes an understanding of what a person or artist is intending to say. The most obvious use of visual literacy is in advertisements. Using photograph editing software, such as PHOTOSHOP, an advertiser can distort an image in any way, in order to send a particular message about a particular product. Below is a video discussing PHOTOSHOP and the dangers of its misconceptions.

Clearly, the media portrays a certain ideal, often unattainable. As a teacher, I believe it will be a responsibility of mine to teach that what you see is not always what you get. Perhaps, teaching students about PHOTOSHOP and how to use it will help them realize that there are certain dialogues of visual literacy in which no one will ever be completely fluent.