VISUAL CULTURE
LES 1
VISUAL TEXTS
VISUAL LITERACY
Reading visual texts requires ‘visual literacy’
• Visual literacy is more than the ability to read alone
• Visual literacy presumes insight in ‘styles of reading’ too
Evaluative approach theory
• We look at the dis/advantages of approaching visual culture from specific perspectives
• Combining the theory of method with the practice of looking
Visual literacy’s ‘double use’
• Crucial social scientific competence
• Crucial civil competence
AFTER VISUAL CULTURE
From ‘viewers’ to ‘analysts’
• Refining and applying visual literacy
• Challenging our ‘way of seeing’
Being critical individuals in a world increasingly dominated by images means being mindful of
• The power of visual representation
• Our socio-cultural reliance on the visual
MAPPING VISUAL CULTURE
ICONOLOGY
What is in an image?
• The Arnolfini Portrait (Van Eyck, 1434)
• Abbey Road cover (McMillan, 1969)
• Panofsky’s 3-tiered approach to analysing images
FORM
• How does an image speak?
o Nr. 32 (Pollock, 1950)
o Untitled 1969 (Rothko, 1969)
o Self-Portrait with Two Circles (Rembrandt, 1665-1669)
• Fry’s 5 dimensions
ART HISTORY
• Where does visual analysis come from?
o Guernica (Picasso, 1937)
1
, o Man Wearing a Gilt Helmet (Rembrandt?, ca. 1650-1652)
• Gombrich’s approach (context, attribution & provenance)
IDEOLOGY
• What is ‘under’ images?
o Regents & Regentesses (Hals, ca. 1664)
o L’Odalisque Brune (Boucher, 1745)
• John Berger & Laura Mulvey (the gaze)
SEMIOTICS
• How do images ‘mean’ something?
o Brands & advertisements (Mercedes; Renault)
o Commodification (Ché Guevara)
• De Saussure (structuralism) & Barthes (post-structuralism)
HERMENEUTICS
• How to interpret visual culture?
o Cockfighting in Bali
o Contemporary subcultures
• Geertz and the interpretative method
PHOTOGRAPHY
• How do pictures re/present reality?
o Migrant Mother (Lange, 1936)
o San Luis Potosi 16 (Siskind, 1961)
• Bazin and the ontology of the photographic image
FILM
• How does film relate to time and space?
o La Sortie des Ouvriers de l’Usine (Lumière, 1895)
o The Shining (Kubrick, 1980)
• Deleuze and film temporality
TELEVISION
• How does television re/produce our everyday lives?
o Neighbours (Network 10, 1985-)
o The Cosby Show (NBC, 1984-1992)
• Popular television and ideology
SCREENING
• Collective viewing of the visual essays (group assignment)
ICONOLOGY
What is an image?
2
,Iconology is a very interesting and useful, systematic way to bring order to the chaos of the visual
TODAY
• Images & subject matter
• Erwin Panofsky & Iconology
o 3 “levels of meaning”
▪ Primary: factual, expressional…
▪ Secondary: conventional, social…
▪ Tertiary: cultural, historical…
• What do we mean when we say “image”?
CUES INSIDE VISUAL TEXTS
The Haywain (John Constable, 1821)
Landscape
• Rural area
• Nature
• Weather
Characters
• Cart driver
• Washwoman
• Animals
No (art) historical knowledge needed
• Constable?
• Romanticism?
• Landscape painting?
Evidence presented by the tekst itself
• Natural cues (weather, nature)
• Factual cues (characters, time)
Primitive but useful method
3
, • Giving structure to primary interpretation of images
• Disciplined “dissection” of unfamiliar images
• 7 “stops” to make an informed conclusion (= WYSIWYG)
o Allow us to get a sens of the kind of images that we are dealing with, kind of meanings, kind of
significations they express
The 7 Stops:
1. Genre (// “type”; “kind”)
o Portrait, still life, landscape…
2. Subject matter (// “content”; “theme”)
o Subscribe what we see in the picture
3. Setting (// “location”; “environment”)
o Beach
o Can give us precise cues of what we’re dealing with, often very vague/very genual idea of what we’re
dealing with
4. Era (// “timeframe”; “period”)
o Our art historical knowledge and our historical knowledge here comes to play at this stop
o Steers our interpretation of images
5. Season (// “time of year”; “occasion”)
6. Time (// “moment in the day”; “hour”)
7. Moment (// “instance”; “event”)
o What is happening in these paintings?
‘7 STOPS’
• Easy to apply, but many problems arise
o Common sense (e.g. agricultural; religious)
o Codes, conventions & canon
• “Meaning” of image conjures something external to it
o No way for these images to speak for themselves
o Paintings, pictures, films… mean nothing until we engage with them
ERWIN PANOFSKY & ICONOLOGY
Panofsky’s work points us to what the content of images, the substance matter of images can tell us about the context in
which they were created
→ We can use the content, the subject matter of paintings to make an inference/interpretation of the broader social and
historical moments in which the painting was made
So it’s not about painting as such, it’s about using the painting/image to say something about the broader social and
cultural context
ARNOLFINI WEDDING PORTRAIT (VAN EYCK, 1434)
4
LES 1
VISUAL TEXTS
VISUAL LITERACY
Reading visual texts requires ‘visual literacy’
• Visual literacy is more than the ability to read alone
• Visual literacy presumes insight in ‘styles of reading’ too
Evaluative approach theory
• We look at the dis/advantages of approaching visual culture from specific perspectives
• Combining the theory of method with the practice of looking
Visual literacy’s ‘double use’
• Crucial social scientific competence
• Crucial civil competence
AFTER VISUAL CULTURE
From ‘viewers’ to ‘analysts’
• Refining and applying visual literacy
• Challenging our ‘way of seeing’
Being critical individuals in a world increasingly dominated by images means being mindful of
• The power of visual representation
• Our socio-cultural reliance on the visual
MAPPING VISUAL CULTURE
ICONOLOGY
What is in an image?
• The Arnolfini Portrait (Van Eyck, 1434)
• Abbey Road cover (McMillan, 1969)
• Panofsky’s 3-tiered approach to analysing images
FORM
• How does an image speak?
o Nr. 32 (Pollock, 1950)
o Untitled 1969 (Rothko, 1969)
o Self-Portrait with Two Circles (Rembrandt, 1665-1669)
• Fry’s 5 dimensions
ART HISTORY
• Where does visual analysis come from?
o Guernica (Picasso, 1937)
1
, o Man Wearing a Gilt Helmet (Rembrandt?, ca. 1650-1652)
• Gombrich’s approach (context, attribution & provenance)
IDEOLOGY
• What is ‘under’ images?
o Regents & Regentesses (Hals, ca. 1664)
o L’Odalisque Brune (Boucher, 1745)
• John Berger & Laura Mulvey (the gaze)
SEMIOTICS
• How do images ‘mean’ something?
o Brands & advertisements (Mercedes; Renault)
o Commodification (Ché Guevara)
• De Saussure (structuralism) & Barthes (post-structuralism)
HERMENEUTICS
• How to interpret visual culture?
o Cockfighting in Bali
o Contemporary subcultures
• Geertz and the interpretative method
PHOTOGRAPHY
• How do pictures re/present reality?
o Migrant Mother (Lange, 1936)
o San Luis Potosi 16 (Siskind, 1961)
• Bazin and the ontology of the photographic image
FILM
• How does film relate to time and space?
o La Sortie des Ouvriers de l’Usine (Lumière, 1895)
o The Shining (Kubrick, 1980)
• Deleuze and film temporality
TELEVISION
• How does television re/produce our everyday lives?
o Neighbours (Network 10, 1985-)
o The Cosby Show (NBC, 1984-1992)
• Popular television and ideology
SCREENING
• Collective viewing of the visual essays (group assignment)
ICONOLOGY
What is an image?
2
,Iconology is a very interesting and useful, systematic way to bring order to the chaos of the visual
TODAY
• Images & subject matter
• Erwin Panofsky & Iconology
o 3 “levels of meaning”
▪ Primary: factual, expressional…
▪ Secondary: conventional, social…
▪ Tertiary: cultural, historical…
• What do we mean when we say “image”?
CUES INSIDE VISUAL TEXTS
The Haywain (John Constable, 1821)
Landscape
• Rural area
• Nature
• Weather
Characters
• Cart driver
• Washwoman
• Animals
No (art) historical knowledge needed
• Constable?
• Romanticism?
• Landscape painting?
Evidence presented by the tekst itself
• Natural cues (weather, nature)
• Factual cues (characters, time)
Primitive but useful method
3
, • Giving structure to primary interpretation of images
• Disciplined “dissection” of unfamiliar images
• 7 “stops” to make an informed conclusion (= WYSIWYG)
o Allow us to get a sens of the kind of images that we are dealing with, kind of meanings, kind of
significations they express
The 7 Stops:
1. Genre (// “type”; “kind”)
o Portrait, still life, landscape…
2. Subject matter (// “content”; “theme”)
o Subscribe what we see in the picture
3. Setting (// “location”; “environment”)
o Beach
o Can give us precise cues of what we’re dealing with, often very vague/very genual idea of what we’re
dealing with
4. Era (// “timeframe”; “period”)
o Our art historical knowledge and our historical knowledge here comes to play at this stop
o Steers our interpretation of images
5. Season (// “time of year”; “occasion”)
6. Time (// “moment in the day”; “hour”)
7. Moment (// “instance”; “event”)
o What is happening in these paintings?
‘7 STOPS’
• Easy to apply, but many problems arise
o Common sense (e.g. agricultural; religious)
o Codes, conventions & canon
• “Meaning” of image conjures something external to it
o No way for these images to speak for themselves
o Paintings, pictures, films… mean nothing until we engage with them
ERWIN PANOFSKY & ICONOLOGY
Panofsky’s work points us to what the content of images, the substance matter of images can tell us about the context in
which they were created
→ We can use the content, the subject matter of paintings to make an inference/interpretation of the broader social and
historical moments in which the painting was made
So it’s not about painting as such, it’s about using the painting/image to say something about the broader social and
cultural context
ARNOLFINI WEDDING PORTRAIT (VAN EYCK, 1434)
4
