Looking Back and Moving Forward
Danilo M. Baylen
Three years seemed like a lifetime when one was just at the beginning of an appointed role. I remember receiving an email from the committee containing information on their decision to choose me as the new editor-in-chief for The Book of Selected Readings (TBSR). The message also included four editorial team members: Xiaoning Chen, Ricardo Lopez-Leon, Patrick Hickey, and Tiki Baghasvilli. Aside from my previous experience with TBSR, the rest of the team were all new to their roles. The publication encountered challenges resulting from having different editorial teams since 2014, and thus, made the tasks ahead seemed daunting.
The International Visual Literacy Association, popularly known as IVLA, celebrated its fifty-first year as an organization for visual literacy educators, scholars, and practitioners in 2019. Further, the IVLA membership marks another milestone as the organization holds its annual conference in Leuven, Belgium, in 2019. The organization lives up to its designation as an international body by holding its meeting outside the United States every three years.
Almost all annual IVLA conferences produce an edited book called The Book of Selected Readings (TBSR). The publication provides opportunities to those who presented at the yearly conference independent of their involvement in visual literacy. The edited book contains papers that showcase scholarly activities focusing on visual literacy research and practice.
As the TBSR editor-in-chief, I am completing my final year to review experienced colleagues’ works, mentor those interested in scholarly writing for this field, and collaborate with a diverse group of peers as editors and reviewers. This year’s publication received support from an editorial team of Xiaoning Chen, Ricardo Lopez-Leon, Patrick Hickey, and Sarah Christensen. All of us are very proud of this year’s collection of writings from a diverse group of authors. After multiple reviews and revisions, the editorial team accepted seven manuscripts for publication on the theme of Crossing Boundaries and Disciplines to acknowledge the submissions from the annual conferences held in Chicago (2018) and Leuven (2019). Many individuals presented at these conferences, but a selected few translated their ideas into proposals and finally into manuscripts for publication consideration.
The editorial team coordinated this TBSR volume publication containing two sections (Crossing Boundaries and Crossing Disciplines). CROSSING BOUNDARIES recognizes the scholarly work completed in different parts of the world, connecting visual literacy to teaching and learning. CROSSING DISCIPLINES focuses on the activities on integrating and teaching visual literacy in disciplinary content areas.
Each chapter in this edited book includes different perspectives yet similar goals of improving learning, be it in a classroom, clinical setting, or community. It offers different strategies of teaching visual literacy to include inquiry-based, content-focused, processoriented activities to improve the understanding of how we learn about things around us through images, visuals, illustrations, photographs, videos, or multimedia devices.
The Crossing Boundaries section opens with Chapter 1, Social-emotional intelligence and picture books: Visual modality as a challenging stimulus for discussion with preschoolers by Katerina Dermata. The chapter “explores how illustrations offer young readers a range of visual challenges in interpreting the emotions and the social-emotional skills demonstrated by literary characters when reading picture books.”
Chapter 2, Development of spatial skills through the Moholy-Nagy modules: A longitudinal study, written by Andrea Karpati and Bernadett Bajaly. They described and discussed the development of visual-spatial skills after completing Moholy-Nagy Modules on one area of Visual culture: Visual communication, Visual media, Environment and design, and Contemporary arts.
The team of Abigail Winard, Lory E. Haas, and Slimane Aboulkacem wrote Chapter 3, Preservice teachers’ perspective of Photovoice and visual literacy experiences. They discussed the perceptions of undergraduate preservice teachers on visual literacy using Photovoice.
The last chapter in this section focused on Sketchnoting written by Verena Paepcke-Hjeltness and Teddy Lu. They investigated and discussed the methodology in supporting the development of visual literacy competencies.
The second section focuses on Crossing Disciplines. Researchers and practitioners identified areas where visual literacy knowledge and skills would help learn discipline-specific content or material. In Chapter 5, Margaretha Häggström wrote Embodied connective aesthetics: A collaborative art project guided by mirroring. She studied a collaborative art project conducted through art-based and autoethnographic research by three scholars/art teachers. The study results showed the complexity of working on a collaborative art project and that the visual expressions were not restricted to the artwork but incorporated body language.
Chapter 6, Measuring the visual in the museum: Social meaning mapping as a means of capturing more than meets the eye, described and discussed Visitracker, a tablet-app designed for timing and tracking studies. The researcher also examined the Social Meaning Mapping (SMM), a digital tool embedded in the Visitracker app, designed to be used post-visit by museum visitors.
Finally, Chapter 7, Visual literacy in architecture education, by Matthew Dudzik, investigates design education by studying cultural coding and cognitive imagination in architecture education.
A Million Thanks
The editorial team (Xiaoning, Ricardo, Patrick, and Sarah) and I appreciate all those who made this book of selected readings a reality. The chapter authors deserved multiple kudos for the quality of their work. As editor-in-chief, I believe that these chapters can help those interested in promoting visual literacy — whether as a new teacher, faculty member, researcher, scholar, or practitioner. Also, I hope it will inspire experienced and beginning visual literacy scholars to study ideas and practices with courage and a sense of adventure given the rapidly changing visually-rich world.
The edited book has become a reality due to numerous individuals, from those who initially proposed, authored manuscripts, and acted as peer-reviewers and multiple contributors. The editors would like to thank them all for the accomplishment. On a personal level, I would like to acknowledge a good friend, Cristine Goldberg, who cheered and provided sage advice “when things got tough” while making this dream a reality. Finally, the editorial team and I hope that you will enjoy reading the book chapters as we did and will be inspired to do more teaching, learning, and research related to visual literacy soon.
We look forward to your participation in IVLA annual conferences and submissions to future books of selected readings. Finally, my best wishes to the new editorial team for a productive journey ahead.
Sincerely,
Editor-in-Chief
The Book of Selected Readings (2017-2019)
University of West Georgia
Carrollton, Georgia 30118 USA
December 31, 2020
Featured Chapters
Dimitra Christidou
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Abstract:
The duration of visitors’ visual engagement with the museum collection has been treated as a proxy for their visual literacy. Researchers draw upon different methods to measure this engagement, including eye-tracking and timing and tracking studies. This chapter presents Visitracker, a tablet-app designed to be used in timing and tracking studies, and Social Meaning Mapping (SMM), a digital tool embedded in the Visitracker app, designed to be used post-visit by the visitors. For SMM, visitors are invited to recount their experience verbally while marking it on a digital copy of the room’s floor plan projected on the tablet. Visitors’ audiovisual annotations are recorded by the app and can be accessed later through the Visitracker portal. This chapter argues for the value of coupling timing and tracking with SMM in approaching the museum experience as an embodied and multimodal event, unfolding in specific time and space. Examples from two studies highlight SMM’s contribution to a multimodal understanding of visual literacy in which vision is one of the multiple modes enacted.
Keywords: Informal learning, museum experience, multimodal, sociocultural, visitor studies
Matthew Dudzik
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Abstract:
Visual literacy aids architecture and design students in decoding embedded meaning in our built environment, helping them address a myriad of issues from construction to cultural resonance. As a creative field, this built visual lexicon creates a foundation from which to vet project-specific issues, allowing students to reinterpret visual data in the process of creation. Colin McGinn (2004), in his book Mindsight posits that the phenomenon of envisioning new realities from the internal manipulation of previous visual experience is cognitive imagination. The question becomes how students can be taught to see in such a way that they intuitively look beyond visual composition to analyze what forces socially, environmentally, economically, politically, and culturally drove the design. As global practice has simply become design practice, architects and designers must find ways to address culture and bring a voice to those who are marginalized in our built environment. Architecture responds to the needs of the people, and as designers increasingly practice in cultures other than their own, they need to find ways to connect with disparate groups deeply. Traditional research methods play an essential role in this process, but as architecture is experientially understood, the study of visual literacy can unlock the three-dimensional manifestation of the inherent complex social and cultural data locked within architecture. Like the cyclical design process itself, this method of inquiry and analysis moves from one method (visual or traditional) and back again building in refinement as each cycle adds another layer of information. Yet to propel the field forward and especially to address marginalized voices this process must also allow for the translation of this information and the creation of new realities. This chapter investigates design education by studying the use of cultural coding and cognitive imagination in architecture education.
Keywords: Architecture education, culture, design process, imagination, visual literacy
Read the full chapter hereMargaretha Häggström
University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Abstract:
Identity formation is a lifelong process, which defines individuals to others and themselves. When humans develop their social self, they depend on other people’s views and values, as well as on imitating. Imitating is an indication of social behavior, which includes mirroring. In this qualitative study, the author examined a collaborative art project conducted through art-based and autoethnographic research by three scholars/art teachers, the author included. The study started from a life-world phenomenological perspective and the concepts of lived experience, wonderment and intersubjectivity. In addition, a four resources model of visual literacy was used to analyze the result. The study was implemented in the context of teacher education, and art was regarded as the principal content as well as a didactic tool, accentuating the communicative feature of visual literacy. The result shows the complexity of conducting a collaborative art project, and that the visual expressions was not restricted to artwork but incorporated body language. Mirroring included not only visible signs but also audio signs and signals, and occurred even though the scholars/art teachers were quite immersed in and preoccupied with the art-making. One does not need to visually observe another person when mirroring, but can experience another person’s performance by merely being in the moment.
Keywords: Art-based research, autoethnography, collaborative artwork, mirroring, visual literacy
Verena Paepcke-Hjeltness
Iowa State University, USA
Teddy Lu
Veo, USA
Abstract:
In recent times, sketchnoting has become more popular due to its approach to visual sense making and visual synthesis resulting in instructors across disciplines increasingly implementing it into their curriculum. Being that it is heavily focused on visual sense making, the question arose if there is an opportunity to explore sketchnoting in the greater context of Visual Literacy? In an effort to investigate and understand the similarities and differences of various Visual Literacy definitions and explore their relationship to sketchnoting in general, select definitions were sketchnoted to uncover patterns and connections to its principles of listening, synthesizing, and visualizing. Building on these visual explorations this chapter discusses the introduction of sketchnoting at two different industrial design programs and the connection to all five pillars of Visual Literacy Theory: visual learning, visual language, visual communication, visual thinking and visual perception. The outcomes give insight for how sketchnoting, as a methodology, could support building Visual Literacy competency by increasing students’ observation, listening, and visualization skills, aiming at fostering a sense of general empowerment.
Keywords: Sketchnoting, visual empowerment, visual listening, visual sense-making
Abigail Winard
Lory E. Haas
Slimane Aboulkacem
Sam Houston State University, USA
Abstract:
The image and visual experience has become an accessible and embedded part of our society. The digital generation lives in an age of new media and photograph. They constantly engage in capturing moments with portable devices, and then sharing and receiving pictures. In this qualitative study, the researchers examined the perceptions of twenty-two undergraduate preservice teachers on visual literacy using Photovoice at a public university in southeast Texas. The participatory action research was carried out by allowing preservice teachers to participate in the Photovoice process and ultimately create their own Photovoice product. Through the process, participants analyzed a variety of photographs which served as catalysts for meaningful discussion to develop visual literacy skills and promote critical pedagogy. The study was implemented in five phases over the course of an academic semester. Participants presented their Photovoice projects to the class at the end of the semester. The preservice teachers’ projects contained sentimental photos and reflections. Also, the material shared in the class increased the depth of discussion as well as the evaluation and interpretation of photographs. The preservice teachers’ final projects revealed themes focusing on passion for teaching, strength in overcoming life challenges, social advocacy, importance of visual literacy, and desire to replicate a similar Photovoice study with future students.
Keywords: Photographic literacy, Photovoice, preservice teachers, visual literacy
Andrea Karpati
Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovak Republic
Bernadett Babaly
Óbuda University, Hungary
Abstract:
In the age of digital imaging, spatial skills seem to have increased their status in education. Geometry tasks were included in the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in mathematics (OECD, 2012, 2013) and their positive correlation with achievement in science and technology disciplines were repeatedly proven in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education research. This chapter presents results of the development of visual-spatial skills after the completion of Moholy-Nagy Modules, an innovative curriculum that focuses on one area of Visual culture: Visual communication, Visual media, Environment and design and Contemporary arts in fifty percent of the lesson hours (32 art lessons of 45 minutes in Grades 5-8, ages 11-14 and 16 art lessons of the same duration in Grades 9 -11, ages 15-17). The in-depth immersion in an area of art education provided an opportunity for a focused visual literacy development and resulted in a more intensive enhancement of spatial skills. he paper begins with an overview of components of the spatial skill cluster (components of perception of and creation in space) and presents the digital, interactive diagnostic assessment tools developed for this study. Spatial perception involves the elements of visual language, including methods for creating spatial illusions; perception of spatial arrangements; orientation in real and virtual spaces based on two-dimensional (2D) images and spatial memory. Representational skills involve in 2D and three-dimensional (3D), including construction and reconstruction of changing experiences of space through time and visualization of 3D objects on the basis of 2D images. Results of the pre- and post-tests as well as background variables impacting students’ performance will be discussed to show the potentials of art education in developing an area of visual literacy equally important for everyday life and hundreds of vocations and professions.
Keywords: Art education, assessment, development, spatial skills, visuospatial information processing
Katerina Dermata
Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Greece
Abstract:
The chapter explores how illustration offers young readers a range of visual challenges in interpreting the emotions and the social-emotional skills demonstrated by literary characters when reading picture books. Literature studies focus either in the texts or in the response of the readers; our research attempts to combine two aspects: the creation and the interpretation. The author studies the choices of the creators – emphasizing on the illustration, and how those choices affect children’s interpretation. To achieve this, the author applies a dual research design called the Social-Emotional Profile (SEP) and Book-based Social Emotional Thinking (BEST). The first approach focuses on visual elements that sketch the social-emotional skills of the literary characters. The second approach is an empirical program of reading with preschoolers to explore the way young readers interpret social-emotional skills based on the visual elements. This work involves an experimental process which combines theory from the fields of children’s literature and cognitive literary approach, visual studies, social-emotional intelligence and applied educational research. The corpus of the study consists of five Greek awarded children’s books published from 2014 to 2017. The initial findings indicate that discussing with preschoolers about the social-emotional profile of the literary characters is a challenging procedure, due to the complex nature of picture books and the special characteristics of preschoolers as readers. Insights gained from the implementing the procedure identify visual elements and choices made by the creators as playing key roles to the interpretation of the SEP of the literary characters.
Keywords: Critical thinking, emotional-social skills, picture books, preschool education, visual perception