Master presentation May 2005

Jo-Anne [email protected] - Visual Communication - 1

Jo-Anne AlvisMaster - Visual communications


My initial questionWhat is a socially responsible designer?


Introduction

Adbusters: An ecological magazine, dedicated to examining the relationship between human beings, and their physical and mental environment.

One example, of a `socially responsible` company.


In their own words:“We want a world in which the economy and ecology resonate in balance. We try to coax people from spectator to participant in this quest. We want folk to get mad about corporate disinformation, injustices in the global economy, and any industry that pollutes our physical or mental commons”.www.adbusters.org

Spoof ad:You´re running because you want that raise, to be all you can be. But it´s not easy when you work sixty hours a week making sneak-ers in an indonesian factory and your friends disappear when they ask for a raise. So think globally before you decide it´s so cool to wear Nike.


Introduction cont.

If responsible professionals share skills and impart knowledge, by encouraging, enquiring receptive minds towards a new way of thinking, a realization of what is important will emerge, and with it the knowlege, that they have the empowerment to make a difference.


Of course - the children

Barbara Kruger - untitled 1982 & 1983


Background

Media stories and myths, told ´en masse´ for generations, have dictated how society and culture, eventually lives and behaves.

We can however, actively respond to world issues, through the link between: Image EthnologyVisual communication &Society


We have to increase understanding


Background cont.

A catalyst for change - children too, have points of views. They are open and unbiased, sharing their experiences, their stories from different cultures.

My aim therefore, is to produce a pictorial news based design, that responds to the need for change in society’s values, for a society that is looking for change.

I will focus on information to increase awareness and empathy, which could provoke an early interest in newsworthy current affairs, and would be remembered throughout adulthood.


There are responsible companies, whose websites, have a focus towards informing children.

One of my goals therefore, is to ackowledge them.

Their issues should be at the forefront of the media, not lost behind a blanket of colourful pop imagery.

IllustratorAnna Jordhøy Lunder


Visual Communication

“Before children learn to read and write, they do not know the difference between a line drawing and a letter”.Paul Martin Lester - Syntactic Theory of Visual Communication, Part One.

One of the oldest forms of communication are cave drawings, our first visual communication.

Nowadays, it is t.v, and the mass media who influence the way we perceive the world.


We are awash with media


Visual communication & visual literacy Educational psychologist Jerome Bruner of New York University, cites that studies show:“People only remember 10 percent of what they hear, 30 percent of what they read, but about 80 percent of what they see and do”.

We are inundated with imagery, we are taught how to make pictures and read stories, but children should also learn to read images.


Photographs “quote” rather than translate reality


There are 6 perspectives to visual literacy and visual communication, which can be put in to place:

Personal gut reactionPictures in place and timeTechnical aspectsEthical / motivesCultural - identifying the symbolsCritical - conclusions about the medium, viewer & culture.


Visual communication & visual literacy is:

To read & think criticallyIdentify, observe & examineAnalyse, decode & deconstructUnderstand & make senseSee the creators intentionPlace in contextCreate & build andCommunicate graphically

The more we know about visual communication, the more we see.


It takes an understanding of semiotics, the science of signs, to discover how every image, is a complex collection of symbols, with distinctive meaning, depending on the culture of the viewer, and of individual signs that are grouped together to form meaning. These elements are called codes.

As with any symbolic communicative system, if you do not know the language, you will have trouble deciphering the message.




Visual communication & visual literacy

One must also consider each medium of presentation, typography, cartoons, tv, film etc. in order to become visually literate, and learn visual communication.

It is the medium, color, form, depth and movement, that are characteristics that help define the message.

The perception of the importance attached to words, or pictures in publications, is often communicated by the size, position and proximity of the words, to the visuals.



Text should be short & snappy & affect the reader emotionally

By making them laugh ...


Making them angry, making them curious, or making them think!


Literacy

Refers to the ability to `read` signs, and how to use them.

If children should learn visual literacy, analyzing individual pictures, then they need to diagnose the rest of what they see and hear.

Challenging existing ideologies, to grow into informed, media literate adults.




News literacy

We are, a mainly visual media society, where children see and hear:

Headlines, snippets and bulletins from the news, on tv, the internet and in the papers.

They do not always understand what they see and hear, or else, they take it too literally.



Photography is not objective.

However research indicates that 70% of people look at the visual ...


... whereas only 30% read a headline.

On the front page of a newspaper, the most important story and photograph, take up the most space.

Newspaper reading research, has found that:

Readers look at a photograph, Scan the caption, Read the headline, & if they are still interested Read the story.


Illiteracy is dangerous... 10th April 2003. Iraq was occupied by coalition forces and the rule of Saddam Hussain came to an end. Most people will recongnize these Jubi-lant crowds, on the front of nearly every world newspaper.


Myth

Myth is a belief subscribed to groups, or a traditional story, that embodies popular beliefs.

The new myths are the image culture. They promote myths and stereotype an individual, or cultural group.

Which is why, they need to be challenged.

Once a myth is identified however, they can be recognized.

To explode a myth is not to deny the facts, but to re-allocate them.


Myths are intricately linked to journalism, advertising, and educational contexts.

Pictures that evoke memories, and stir feelings can be very powerful, and much of our view of reality is based upon media messages that have been:

Pre-constructed and haveAttitudes, Interpretations and Conclusions already built in.

From these photographs which `came to light`some time after the events of 10/4, we can see that the crowd was in fact small.


... and consisted of:US marines, press, and a small number of Iraquis, who were pro American members of a militia group, flown into Iraq by the Pentagon.


Media

The media are responsible for the majority of observations and experiences, from which we build up our personal understanding of the world and how it works.


Definition of News- Global Modern Dictionary“Information which was not previously known”.

Looking at this much publicised news story, finding evidence, taking apart information, and deconstructing constructions, is an exercise in media literacy.


Media literacy is:

QuestioningAnalyzingDeconstructing &Responding to the media


Media Literacy empowers


Media literacy

Unless we teach our children how to read about, watch, interpret, understand and analyze the day’s events, we risk raising a generation of civic illiterates, political ignoramuses, and uncritical consumers, vulnerable not only to crackpot ideas, faulty reasoning and putative despots but fraudulent sales pitches and misleading advertising claims”. Source unknown


The children

Children have the right to be interactive not passive consumers. Informed and able to read the mass of images, they are inundated with.

We must constantly communicate with our children, otherwise how do we know, how the images are being interpreted?

We have an obligation to teach this increasingly valuable skill.


Children & Media literacy

Teaching media literacy, is in a sense teaching critical thinking, and it should “start early”.

Media is taught in schools, but how much?

It is important especially surrounding news, that children are aware of the capabilities of the media, as well as how to use it.


To date

By using visual communication and literacy,I will communicate to the future generation that there are:

”Other ways of seeing” &“More than one side to any one story”.

I will design an exhibition to be taken to schools and will not, therefore put children in front of yet, another screen.

As knowledge can best be given, when there is an eagerness to learn, then this is the period between 6-12 years old, when seeds can be sown and will germinate within our culture.


Exhibition Design

The exhibition should appeal to educators and those who work in the media.

An exhibition is about experience and participation, rather than being passive.

The exhibition should be adaptable, in content and format, as well as easily transportable.


Exhibition Design

I will use mainly photography, instead of illustra-tion, as people tend to relate best, to realistic photographs.

However, cartoons/illustrations could be used as a way of inviting the children around.

Philosopher Susan Sontag writes:“Only that which narrates can make us understand.”


Summary

The exhibiton should be based upon 5 Key Questions of Media Literacy

1. Who sent this message?2. What techniques are used to attract their attention?3 How might other people understand this message differently from me?4. What lifestyles, values and points of view are represented in, or omitted from this message? 5. Why was this message sent?




To conclude Good news is also ´good´news

Media literacy has the potential to be a powerful tool for us all. With knowledge and understand-ing, we will be less likely to be swayed by slanted portrayals, given by the media in general.

This also helps, to develop greater understand-ing, between diverse groups and perhaps go some way towards, developing a future generation of adults, whose thought processes and actions, are to an increasing extent, more open-minded.



There are strong indications that the status of images are improving, due to their constant bombardment on the senses and the immediate impact that they have.

When words and images have equal status within all media of communication, diverse cultures will be able to understand each other a little better. Hopefully this should lead their creators, to have a ethical and moral responsibility.

I can not believe, it´s all over



The end

Documents

Master presentation May 2005