Highlighting many of the author's own experiences as an artist and an art instructor, this paper laments the problem of visual ignorance among contemporary children and proposes a course in basic visual literacy. Such a course would teach form and content as interactive and synergistic concepts rather than as separate attributes. Students could…

This paper addresses the television program "Cheers" and demonstrates one way of interpreting the complexity of messages within the program. The interplay of visual messages within the "Cheers" programming is referred to as intertextuality, or the relation of one text to another to express an idea. Two basic types of…

This paper reviews the literature on visual literacy over the past 25 years. The following areas of visual literacy are reviewed: theoretical foundations of visual literacy; establishing a research agenda; visual vocabulary; visual learning/visual teaching; visual thinking; visual-verbal relationship; and visible language. (Contains 158…

This paper is a report on a decade of teaching visual literacy at the American University (Washington, D.C.). Visual literacy is defined as an awareness that comes with appropriate development of basic visual and aural competencies. The 15 reasons for studying visual literacy are perception, drawing, expression, brain awareness, design elements,…

Visual criticism is a major component of the new visual communication. Visual communication has changed through the advent of new technology which allows images to be combined and manipulated with relative ease. Visual criticism analyzes the forms and practices of image production and examines the roles of images in society creating a new dialogue…

As the viewer watches the opening credits for the program "Entertainment Tonight," the screen comes to life with rotating shapes and spinning geometric patterns. One has the sense of travelling on an imaginary voyage through space. Many of the computer generated displays common now on television use such visual devices as linear perspective,…

This essay examines the relationships between teaching and visual media over the last several hundred years, particularly the concept of illusion. The teacher as magician or shaman is explored and compared to contemporary theories of instruction and the use of media such as television, films, and slides. The teacher as artist and alchemist is also…

A study was conducted investigating whether a sequence of visuals presented in a serial manner differs in connotative meaning from the same set of visuals presented simultaneously. How the meanings of pairs of shots relate to their constituent visuals was also explored. Sixteen pairs of visuals were presented to both male and female subjects in…

This paper presents and illustrates a framework for synthesis of research and theory on human characteristics, and relates that framework to the concerns of individuals working in the visual literacy area. The framework presented casts learner characteristics into four general types, derived from two primary dimensions: stability/change and…

Describes a course set up for Year 11 students using digital editing equipment to examine the audiovisual fabric of films of their choice. Investigates how the advent of digital technologies enables new kinds of reading of visual texts as well as new kinds of textual production. (NH)

Art history is a hybrid discipline that combines the verbal with the visual, yet the limiting verbal approach traditionally has defined the field. Another problem at the university level is that different types of classes define visually literacy differently; for example, art education programs emphasize perceptual and cognitive angles while art…

Past uses of art reproductions in schools and mass media publications are described, along with political, economic, and aesthetic issues raised by such usage. The presentation focuses on concerns associated with present and future educational use of reproductions, whether electronic or some other form. Issues of selectivity and aesthetics are…

Based on the notion that technological and artistic developments in the area of television production affect viewers' comprehension and appreciation of televised programs, this essay examines the impact of telecommunication advances on the industry. The first section briefly considers the technological advances of the last decade in major TV…

Treating the camera as an information technology, this essay shows how the camera is a powerful theoretical disquisition on the nature of form, realism, and scientific vision. The first section presents a history of form, separate from matter, as something collectible in a library or museum. The second section discusses the photograph as a rival…

This study focused on the psychophysiological reactions of viewers seeing such selected cinemagraphic elements as varying camera distances, tracking shots, panning shots, and zooming shots. Subjects (N=29), randomly selected from introductory speech courses, viewed five films that varied in the presence or absence of the selected filmic elements.…