Week 2: Visual Literacy

The subject of focus this week was "Visual literacy". Confusing as that might sound I assure you it's not.. Quite as complex as it might seem. Let me explain..

Lesson 2: Reading the Image.

I'm sure many of you know that behind a picture exists a story. There's actually a saying that "a picture is worth 1000 words!" and they weren't kidding. Basically, everything visual has a hidden message in it that we have to seek out ourselves. Something hidden behind the overall idea, influencing us secretly and many of us are unaware of it happening. Behind every image, film, TV advert is somebody who's trying to get a particular idea across to their audience. They can do it openly, or they can hide the true message behind a fake one. Sneaky, sneaky people.

How does this work then?

Welp. It started with a French Philosopher, called Roland Barthes. Barthes noticed this and decided to give it proper recognition. In the modern day it's known as Semiotics. It works something like this. Everything in our world is labelled. Look at the picture below.

Is it a tree, a plane or a dog? 

When you look at this picture, you immediately known it's a tree. How do we know it's a tree? Because we, as a society over the centuries, have labelled it this way. This is the same with everything else around it. We've labelled everything to make it easier to understand and teach to others. If everyone saw a tree as something completely different then the world would fall apart and we wouldn't have progressed very far over the years, if at all! It's become part of our nature now to accept the labels created by others and follow the 'rules of society' to seem "normal" and fit in. Everything has been about what we say and do, how it is seen and portrayed by others.


Every image usually has a Denotation, which is a factual message, and a Connotation, which is a hidden message. To explain this let's look at another example. To the right is a typical sign seen on the roads in the UK. Now the denotation, the factual message, tells us that in this particular area you can only travel 30 MPH. That's pretty clear to see. Now, what about the connotation? The hidden message behind the sign is basically saying if you cross this speed limit and get caught, you get a nice fine and a few points on your license.

So, even something like a simple sign can have a hidden meaning behind it. You just have to read between the lines. Don't trust everything you see!

Lets go back to the concept creativity, now we know this.

After explaining this, Paul (our lecturer) showed us a truly brilliant piece of art by Italian Baroque master, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio called "The Betrayal of Christ"

The Betrayal of Christ (1602)

Various people said that it was a stunning piece of art, very well done as expected from a master painter! Dark in colour to express the emotion of the scene and each figure is made to stand out. Much like other paintings made at the time of this one (1602) the eye is made to follow a triangle that always leads back to Jesus being the center focus. I myself did like the painting, not quite of my taste, but I liked the way my eye was always drawn back to Jesus and the Guard pushing them away.

You get a hint of the emotion felt by those there at the time, and that to me is what makes art what it is.

Next we were shown Andy Warhol's video "Empire" which can be seen here. Compared to the first image, needless to say that most of us were rather shocked that this sort of thing is in a famous gallery in New York! Of course, that video is only a short clip taken from a several hour long film. Yes, there is an 8 hour version of it. I do recommend going to watch it 100%!

This is what you see!
Incredible, right?

What's the point in it, I hear you ask? Obviously, there is a hidden message behind this strange video that's not as clear to see as the Empire State building itself. Andy Warhol said he wanted people to have a different perspective on the Empire State building. Usually people are looking up at it from ground level and honestly, it looks rather intimidating because it's so gigantic! It looks like it keeps going way into the clouds. However, this film by Andy Warhol gives a fresh look at the monstrously tall Empire State building making it look, well like any other building!

We were asked which of the two was more effective, and everyone said the painting by Caravaggio was better by far. But think about it, is the hidden message behind the Empire video not just as effective as the painting? Paul continued to explain to us that 'Andy Warhol put serious thought into the perspective of the camera on the building, the lighting, the duration. Everything was thought through to help express his message. Is that not just as skillful as a painter?' This certainly gave us food for thought. When you look at it like that both pieces are definitely full of two different varieties of skill!

David Hockney's Secret Knowledge...

Mr Hockney discovered a shocking truth about Caravaggio, and the other artistic Masters, and their paintings. Something that shocked a lot of the people in the room too. More about his findings can be found at this website, as I won't be going into vast detail here. Basically, the 'Masters' were cheats. They used a clever way to project the image onto the canvas and trace around the outline. Some would then get other painters to fill it in using the good old number system! Sign their name on the bottom and there we go, masterpiece painting.

As you can expect, when this came out people were outraged at such an insult to Italy's grandmaster painters but it was true. However, does that really make the paintings any less creative? Sure, he might not have painted them but the actual concept for the paint itself was his idea. He would have pieced it all together using his talent and imagination, is that not more important then anything else? I never saw it this way when Paul told us what really went on, but it's what I think now. It doesn't matter what you do, if the concept is yours and completely original then you are most certainly being creative! It takes a lot to actually come up with an idea like that, sometimes a lot more then the process of creating itself.

Sadly, this idea is not shared around the world and the typical thoughts among people who see a fancy painting in an art gallery is that this is the definition of 'proper art' because it's done so well! But is that always the case? Just because an artist creates an image using computer software, or a musician pieces together a virtual soundtrack, does that mean they're not as creative and skillful as somebody who spends weeks painting a giant canvas? Creativity can be expressed in many different ways and just remember that it's the concept that really makes it yours!

Next week! We will be looking more at understanding what the Virtual Space (Internet) is really about. How is it changing the world as we know it and what's really going on beyond our firewalls! Should give an interesting look at things we use on a daily basis, I know what much.

Until next time. :)