Celia Wilson
VISUAL LITERACY
Lecture Seven - Visual Literacy now
MARK ADAMS
The rise of digital photography and imaging has transformed the landscape of visual communication and culture. events, activities, moments, objects and people are 'captured' and distributed as images on an unprecedented scale. Many of these are shared publicly; some remain private, others become intellectual property, and some have the potential to shape global events.
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300 million photos are uploaded per day to Facebook
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8,796 photos are uploaded onto Snapchat every second
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27,800 photos are uploaded to Instagram every minute
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There will be more photographs taken this year than in the entire history of photographing on sensitized substrates (film and plates)
Authorship:
In his essay, 'The Work of Art in the Age of it's Reproducibility', Walter Benjamin examines the development of mechanical visual reproduction. He argues that the original artwork is independent of the copy, yet through the act of reproduction something is taken from the original by changing its context.
Leonardo Da Vinci (1503 - 1506)
Many contemporary visual artists are concerned with processes of appropriation, this is a process where visual artists quote the work of others in order to redefine its reading and therefore meaning. This often provides different contexts and audiences.
Marcel Duchamp: The Fountain
(1917)
Sherrie Levine: Fountain
(1991)
Ideology:
Definition - The body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class or culture
- A set of doctrines or beliefs that form the basis of a political, economic or other system
Citizen Journalism and Photography - The concept of citizen journalism is based upon public citizens playing and active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information.
Today almost a third of news photographers are frame grabs from video and digital sources. The proportions increase in the coverage of international conflict.
Key Issues Facing Visual Communicators in the 21st Century:
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Globalisation and technology - digital information is a shared resource that can be accessed with increasing ease and speed regardless of geographical location.
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The citizen as cultural commentator/journalist due to access to increasingly ubiquitous publishing tools and technological devices.
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The artist as a curator - harnessing increasingly expanding online databases as raw material for personal expression / cultural commentary.
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The convergence of media and disciplines within communication e.g. blurring of boundaries between art and commerce, typographer and animator, photographer / sculptor.