Artwork: Nadia Sanmartin

Visual Communication
CMNS 3401
Housekeeping

Reminders:
The final project is done individually. The presentation is done in pairs.

Please contact me via email at [email protected] not Blackboard.

The slides are part of the “coursepack” but it is helpful to take notes in preparation
for the quiz in Week 6.
Today’s Agenda
Topic: Reality and Representation

Key concepts:
Theories of perception and “hard” and “soft” approaches to the study of visual communication.
Is something that looks “real” always truthful?
From your phone, choose a photo that YOU took and that is
meaningful to you.

Share it with a peer and discuss.

1. Possible interpretations.
2. Factors you were conscious of when you took the photo.
Visual Literacy
Benefits of visual literacy
(Messaris & Moriarty, 2005)

● cognitive enrichment

● critical viewing skills (ability to detect a visual lie)

● improves analogical thinking, critical thinking,

spatial intelligence, empathy
Example: Ability to see and create visual relationships
Is visual language a universal language?
 A visual work can be a “text” that is read like a book.

Aligns with a humanities-based approach: a text is anything

that conveys meaning. The creative process and interpretive
process involve different modes of thought (verbal, visual) and
mediums (physical forms or carriers of meaning).

Methods to analyze the meaning of a work can cross mediums.

Theories from Literature

Literary theories are tools to analyze the meaning of literature.
They give us terms to analyze the themes and genres in visual media or describe
techniques, such as the use of allusions or metaphors.
Social Realism Magical Realism
Incorporating realistic depictions of contemporary life, Adding magical elements to realistic representations.
usually for political commentary

Backgrounder
Interpretation: Search for meaning

Perceptual theories explain the ways visual information is perceived and interpreted.

Different approaches draw upon these theories to explain individual human behaviour
and social phenomena.
SOFT vs. HARD
● Jamieson: draws from the humanities and “soft” sciences (psychology) to understand
how visuals become meaningful, emphasizes the collaborative relationship between artist
and viewer

● Barry: draws from studies that use scientific methods to understand how the brain works,
and focuses on the sociocultural effects of mass media
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A Soft Approach to the Study of Visual Communication

1. Optics
Kenneth L. Smith, et al. (eds.) (2004).
Handbook of Visual Communication:
Theory, Methods, and Media

What happens next?

What should
researchers focus on?
2. Processing of Sensory Information

“Reading” and “seeing” involve different

parts of the the brain and different modes of
thinking.

Together, let’s try reading an excerpt

(bottom of p.17 to middle of p.18).

Different sides of the brain are

responsible for certain functions but
both sides work together.
3. Psychology and visual perception

Psychology is a field that offers theories on how viewers interpret images

based on prior knowledge or experiences.

Schemas: mental frameworks used to classify information and connect them

with previous experiences of objects, events, or people.

What are possible schemas for

understanding what’s happening
in this image?
What if the schema is ambiguous or not something you’ve directly seen before?
 o k s
Lo d?
Experiences are not only based on what we’ve
seen in the past but also on other physical

col
sensations.

Kinesthesia - sense of body movement

Visceral - nausea, “gut” feelings
Thermosensation - sense of temperature

When visuals induce other sensations, they can

contribute to a sense of immersion, a feeling of
being in an entirely different world (Jamieson).
4. Sociocultural Dimensions

Social and cultural traditions provide templates for systematically organizing schemas.
Example: informal colour systems that are socially learned as cultural traditions.
Jamieson Takeaways and the Perceptual Connection
Jamieson is primarily concerned with the creative process as a communicative process.

Understanding vision and how someone might perceive things is important to the process of creation.
In Jamieson’s theory of pictures, the “eye” of the beholder is just as important as the “eyes and hands” of the artist.
The Work that Viewers Do: The Symbolic Realm

We see visuals as symbols (something that represents another thing).

Symbols have a relationship to each other in a symbolic framework that can be read systematically (semiotics).

What symbols do you see? How are they related to communicate a message?
Differentiating Reality and Representation
A visual “work” is a physical object representing a real object or the reality of something abstract (idea, feeling or experience).
The artist arranges symbols in the viewer’s visual field and makes the viewer conscious of an object or idea when they make
something visible in the frame.

Painting: Escaping Criticism (1874)

29.8 inches tall x 24 inches wide

Artist: Pere Borrell del Caso

Art Movement: Realist

Visual Style: Trompe de l’oeil (illusion)

Subject Matter: ?

Gallery backgrounder
Jamieson calls the world represented in a visual work a pseudo-reality but the pseudo-reality in a photo
is harder to identity.
In the photo below, what is the subject matter? From whose point of view (subjectivity) is the work taken?

Ammar El Bushy, February 26, 2016

The Work that Artists Do

Frame subjects to create focus Assemble visual elements in unexpected ways to create
A visual field is essentially a frame. When we move new relationships.
things from the periphery to areas where viewers are
most likely to pay attention, we create focus.

Arielle Nadel
Combine elements to make a subject
emotive or to add a sense of surprise
or satire Play with the viewer’s sense of time or space

Use visual analogies

to add emphasis

LHOOQ
Marcel Duchamp (1964)
 Representation Exercise

1. With a partner come up with words to describe life as a student.

2. Take a photo to represent the reality of a student’s life and share it on Padlet.
questions?
 soft hard
Humanities-based Scientific
● Perception of light ● Perception of data
● Electrical signals ● Neural signals
● Symbolism (art history, literature) ● Visual vs. verbal processing
● Philosophy ● Emotional learning
● Psychology ● Measurability
● Concerned with meaning-making ● Media effects
● Concerned with the impact of media

Jamieson, G. H., & Jamieson, H. (2007). Barry, A.M. (2005). Perception Theory. In Smith, K. L.,
Introduction. In Visual communication: More than Moriarty, S., Kenney, K., & Barbatsis, G. (Eds.).
meets the eye. Intellect Books. Handbook of visual communication: Theory, methods,
and media. Routledge.
“Hard” approaches & perceptual theory

An approach based on neurological research.

1960s split-brain research of Roger Sperry at the

California Institute of Technology.

Research focused on how the brain takes in and

processes visual information.
Sensory info takes different, simultaneous pathways:
● “Emotional” thalamo-amygdala pathway
● Cortical pathway sending info to different regions
optimized for certain activities more than other (scanning,
reading color, recognizing forms).
● Signals are interpreted as the same time as they are
relayed through pathways
● Different levels of thinking involved (higher and lower)
Visual imagery: Lingua franca or universal language of the mind

Barry’s points:
● Imagery is the “lingua franca” for all consciousness and meaning
● Ideas are expressed as neural imagery (we “think” in images)
● Semiotic approaches to visual communication are less useful for studying media effects

Semiotic criticism or rhetorical criticism relies on the use of verbal expression in order to explain
the nonverbal.

However: “Images drive the emotions as well as the intellect.” (Pinker, 1997, pp. 284–285)
We are not logical when
it comes to visual
stimuli.

By the time we’ve

rationalized an image,
the image has already
left an impression.
Advertising Theory

Emotional Templates
Templated approach to
advertising are based on the
idea that the decision to buy
certain products involve different
ways of thinking and feeling.

“Most effective advertising ideas

are non-verbal, using visual
archetypes. Their true meanings
lie too deep for words.” (Simon
Broadbent, cited in Barry, p.55)
Emotions and learning
Emotional responses takes place before
rational thinking.

Emotional responses to representations of

reality can be just as impactful as real
experiences.

The brain can’t tell the difference between

reality and representations of the real.

Finnish researchers found that brain regions experienced

enhanced activity during horror movies, same as they would if
they were terrorized in real life.
Media Effects
Because our mammalian brain interprets media images as reality and responds emotionally
according to the circumstances presented to it, understanding perceptual processing has
significant implications for [the study of] media effects (Barry, p.59).

Cultivation research by George Gerbner (1968)

investigated the cumulative effects of television
violence on American audiences.

Contemporary research might study the effects of

social media on mental health or the effects of
playing violent video games on youth.
Impact of Deepfakes

What is a visual falsehood?

Can visual literacy improve our

ability to detect visual lies?

Even before the digital era, technology Darkroom techniques

made it possible to doctor
representations of reality.
Deepfakes

Risks, benefits
Role of technologies
Things to think about
Are you a technological determinist?

Who is responsible for mitigating the effects of media violence on youth and other vulnerable groups?
Next
● Worksheet: Interpretation exercise (think about the schemas!)
● No Readings
● Topic: Analyzing Visual Elements and Introduction to Design Principles