According to Michelle Marder Kamhi, art education needs rescued from Visual Culture Studies. Ms. Kamhi defines visual (fine) art as paintings and sculptures as ‘re-creations of reality whose purpose is to concretize ideas and values in an emotionally compelling form’. Kami does not consider modern art, installation art, video art, crafts, and photography art. Furthermore, she argues that the Visual Culture movement has a social / political agenda. Ms. Kamhi believes the influence of Visual Culture studies will ‘further debase the general level of culture, but may extend far beyond the arts themselves.’
The article I read was Visual Culture Isn't Just Visual: Multiliteracy, Multimodality and Meaning
“There are no exclusively visual sites. All cultural sites that involve imagery include various ratios of other communicative modes and many employ more than vision”.~ Paul Duncum
Duncum presents a strong argument for art teachers to expand from the long advocated, traditional focus of solely the visual, to a more contemporarily relevant focus on visual culture. He strongly advocates the need for Art Education to include multiliteracy – ‘the making of meaning through the interaction of different communicative modes’ (p253) and mulltimodality – ‘all cultural sites but especially ones like television, and the internet, include a range of modalities, especially language, images, and sound.’ Giving the examples of watching a TV show with no volume, or viewing a web page with the text blocked out, he emphasizes the importance of importance of these modes working together. He goes on to say that cultural sites such as: magazines, malls, theme parks, packaging, advertising of all forms are all venues which utilize a combination of images, sounds, music and language. Duncum says, they” saturate our cultural landscape, and impact our everyday thoughts and decisions.”(P252)
Duncum asserts that the visual must be acknowledged as a part of communication, and stresses the importance of the dynamic interaction among differing sign systems. He does not deny that the visual is a unique in it’s communicative code, however goes on to stress that “The visual was never exclusively visual”, (p258) the cultural meaning of a work of art has always depended on the viewer’s prior knowledge, experience, the artifact, and the title of the work.
In conclusion, Duncum proclaims that an education in visual culture, one, which teaches an understanding of multimodal cultural sites, might be the most important subject taught.
My reaction… I am definitely going to have to put my money on Paul Duncum for this match. I agree completely with everything Duncum has to say about Visual Literacy. The more I learn about Artistic Thinking, technology, and multimodal applications for art the greater need I see for the development of a blended literacies approach to education. Art communicates, whether it is Michelangelo's David, or, to use Ms. Kamhi’s example, Mattel Toys' Barbie and Ken dolls. (The Barbie dolls may be communicating a far more serious message in regard to little girls and body image than David ever did to any man or boy!)
Borrowing a few lines from my closing to last semester’s course, Visual Literacy and Visual Culture, “In this age of continual visual bombardment, one must sift through, interpret and make sense of what is real. The passage (p ix) of the Smith-Shank book, Semiotics And Visual Culture: Sights, Signs, And Significance introduction, is stuck firmly in my mind, if we passively interact with images, we accept the messages without critical examination. Perceptions that grow and develop without conscious attention to content and context, and un-interrogated responses to visual input are dangerous to democracy. If the mission of education is to prepare students for successful lives, I believe Visual Literacy should play a key role in education!
I love the boxing gloves metaphor. Your closing statement from Smith-Shank says it all. We need prepare our students or the world we live in. I especially liked : He strongly advocates the need for Art Education to include multiliteracy – ‘the making of meaning through the interaction of different communicative modes’ (p253) and mulltimodality – ‘all cultural sites but especially ones like television, and the internet, include a range of modalities, especially language, images, and sound.
ReplyDeleteKathy, The Smith-Shank quote is forever embedded in my mind. What a reminder to approach visual culture with an ever questioning perspective, and perhaps even more importantly, teach my students to do the same.
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