A 20,000 year non-linear history of the image

Lascaux Caves, France

The pre-historical Lascaux Caves in France are the earliest signs of image making, no one knows what they are about but they are seen as images of magic, mysticism and allow the attempt to understand the world in a deeper way. 

Rothko Chapel, Houston, Texas, opened 1971

Viewers of Rothko's painting are said to be sucked in, lost within his paintings, sucked in to the abyss. Overwhelmed with feelings of tragedy, viewers are said to be brought to tears due to the emotional power of his work. This leads on to the consideration of whether there is in fact something, a power, within visual communication that hooks our soul and moves us on a higher level of visual consciousness or whether it's the authority of the institution that provokes these 'feelings within us'. Do institutions have the ability to make things important? do they force us to feel, or at least believe we are feeling certain emotions...do you become so overwhelmed whilst looking at a painting due to actual emotion, or expectation? 

Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lista, Louvre, Paris (instillation view)

The Mona Lisa, encased within bullet proof glass, is it meaningful due to essential characteristics, or is it due to the popularity, exposure, and security around the piece which has caused it's global admiration; if that's the case, it's again the institution that has all the power. 
"exit through the gift shop" The 2010 documentary by Banksy again brings to light the power of institutions. We are told a painting is powerful and that going to see it is a mystical, meaningful experience, however the digital age creates possibilities that we can change, relay and use art as we choose; out of the authority of the institution, we can now, view, create, appreciate and distribute art without receiving the 'mark of approval' from institutions. 

Bnksy's Mona Lisa, 2013

Above is an example of Street Artist Banksy's work, Banksy creates art to be viewed, for free, by the every man, out of the authority and control of the institutions. However, the art world has decided that Banksy is interesting, and that his work is worth seeing and so people knock down his f r e e art to sell under the authority of the institutions. This creates the argument as to whether modern art is elitist, and that it is patronizing to create art for the 'every man', Art should be viewed in galleries where the institution has control over what you see and what reaction you have, for people to have their own opinions, and emotional reactions to art, outside of the installations is absurd, right?    

Visual Literacy: the language of design

Visual communication; the process of sending and receiving is based upon the level of shared understanding of the signs, symbols, gestures and objects which are being used.

How successful the communication is depends on factors such as the audience and the context.

Visual literacy; the ability to construct meaning from visual images and type and produce images that effectively communicate a message to an audience. Also relates to the interpretation of images of the present, past and from a range of cultures.

INTERPRET– NEGOTIATE – MAKE MEANING

Utilising the shared understanding of signs, symbols, gestures and objects allows us to control, manipulate and play with the recognised communication.

The shared understanding of these signs, symbols, gestures and objects comes from the combinations of universal recognitions; all that is necessary for any language to exist is the agreement amongst a group of people that one thing will stand for another.

Being visually literate requires an awareness of the relationship between visual syntax and visual semantics: 

Visual Syntax: pictorial structure and visual organisation of elements

Visual Semantics: how an image fits in to a cultural context; social ideas, religious & political beliefs etc…

VISUAL SYNECDOCHE: taking part of something to create a whole e.g. the statue of liberty is sometimes used to represent New York as a whole; even though it is just one landmark within the city.

VISUAL METONYM: symbolic image, makes reference to something with a more literal meaning e.g. a yellow taxi cab is closely associated to New York however not entirely representative of the city.

VISUAL METAPHORE: used to transfer meaning from one image to another e.g. a picture of a green apple given the right context, can be used to communicate New York due to it being known as the ‘Big Apple’.

“Every object has the capacity to stand for somethingother than what is apparent, work on what it stands for.Work the Metaphor.”– Bruce Mau