Theory of Visual Communication
2022-2023
Contents
Lecture 2: Visual culture (part 1) ................................................................................. 2
Lecture 3: Visual culture (part 2) ................................................................................. 6
Lecture 4 : Forest of Bliss ........................................................................................... 9
Lecture 5: Approaches for analyzing images ............................................................ 10
Lecture 6: Applying semiotics and phenomenology to photography ......................... 15
Lecture 7+8: Documentary film ................................................................................. 19
Lecture 9: How to analyze still images ..................................................................... 23
Lecture 9+10+11: How to analyze moving images ................................................... 26
1
, Lecture 2: Visual culture (part 1)
Why the visual matters
• The visualization of the world is actually a reflection of power
- Visualizations are a mirror of politics, visualizations produce our politics
- Foucault
o In pre-modern times the king had to be seen, power had to be seen
o Comes modernity, power sees → the king is seated in the center
- Vision is political, it is connected to power
• The visual is central to our daily lives
- Visual hypertrophy: there is an overload of images
o However, hypertrophy is something we should question
▪ Our we really as visual as we’ve ever been? Is now really the most
visual time?
▪ We have always been visual
- Space is constructed visually
o Example: the church bell tower in a city was always the tallest, as a sign of
power
- Time is constructed virtually
o Example: if you’re asked to point to the future, you are likely to point in
front of you
▪ In other cultures, this can be different
- A lot of information comes to us visually
o Infographics
o Information about our health is visual (MRI scan, CT scan, ECG line, …)
o Catastrophe mainly reaches us through images
The eye
• Metaphor of the hunt
- “The eye is always on the hunt” (Simon Ings, building upon the theorizing of
Theon from Alexandria)
• Extramission
- Plato: theory of extramission
o The eye conquers what it sees → the eye is an active agent
extramission & intramission: 2
o Objects are reduced in size and brought into the eye
ways of looking at the eye
▪ The eye reduces elements to the minimal form
▪ The eye captures, is a hunter
o The world was made up by the existence of pure, universal forms,
archetypes to which all elements and objects that make up the world must,
to a certain extent adhere
- Democritus: materialized this process
o Matter composed of atoms that are carried to the soul to be viewed
o Objects make copies of themselves which contracts in size until it is
sucked up by the pupil
o Objects emanated a thin pellicle that would enter the mind by traveling
through the eye
- Empedocles: connected vision to fire
o Vision related to fire; light radiates from the fire within the eye
o The eye illuminates the world with its own spirit as when a human being
going out at night lights up a lantern
2
2022-2023
Contents
Lecture 2: Visual culture (part 1) ................................................................................. 2
Lecture 3: Visual culture (part 2) ................................................................................. 6
Lecture 4 : Forest of Bliss ........................................................................................... 9
Lecture 5: Approaches for analyzing images ............................................................ 10
Lecture 6: Applying semiotics and phenomenology to photography ......................... 15
Lecture 7+8: Documentary film ................................................................................. 19
Lecture 9: How to analyze still images ..................................................................... 23
Lecture 9+10+11: How to analyze moving images ................................................... 26
1
, Lecture 2: Visual culture (part 1)
Why the visual matters
• The visualization of the world is actually a reflection of power
- Visualizations are a mirror of politics, visualizations produce our politics
- Foucault
o In pre-modern times the king had to be seen, power had to be seen
o Comes modernity, power sees → the king is seated in the center
- Vision is political, it is connected to power
• The visual is central to our daily lives
- Visual hypertrophy: there is an overload of images
o However, hypertrophy is something we should question
▪ Our we really as visual as we’ve ever been? Is now really the most
visual time?
▪ We have always been visual
- Space is constructed visually
o Example: the church bell tower in a city was always the tallest, as a sign of
power
- Time is constructed virtually
o Example: if you’re asked to point to the future, you are likely to point in
front of you
▪ In other cultures, this can be different
- A lot of information comes to us visually
o Infographics
o Information about our health is visual (MRI scan, CT scan, ECG line, …)
o Catastrophe mainly reaches us through images
The eye
• Metaphor of the hunt
- “The eye is always on the hunt” (Simon Ings, building upon the theorizing of
Theon from Alexandria)
• Extramission
- Plato: theory of extramission
o The eye conquers what it sees → the eye is an active agent
extramission & intramission: 2
o Objects are reduced in size and brought into the eye
ways of looking at the eye
▪ The eye reduces elements to the minimal form
▪ The eye captures, is a hunter
o The world was made up by the existence of pure, universal forms,
archetypes to which all elements and objects that make up the world must,
to a certain extent adhere
- Democritus: materialized this process
o Matter composed of atoms that are carried to the soul to be viewed
o Objects make copies of themselves which contracts in size until it is
sucked up by the pupil
o Objects emanated a thin pellicle that would enter the mind by traveling
through the eye
- Empedocles: connected vision to fire
o Vision related to fire; light radiates from the fire within the eye
o The eye illuminates the world with its own spirit as when a human being
going out at night lights up a lantern
2
