The Book of Selected Readings Editorial Philosophy
IVLA is an eclectic organization of professionals working toward a fuller understanding of how we derive meaning from what we see and how we interact with our visual environment. IVLA members represent a wide range of disciplines including the arts, sciences, education, museum, library, communication, business, videography, photography, instructional technology, health, and computer applications.
Each year, members come together at a conference held in conjunction with a university, museum or organization to present their ongoing work and to share perspectives in a multidisciplinary forum. Characterized by many different voices, and cross-fertilization of ideas, interests and values, discussion is a lively mix of scholarship, creativity, and applications. Since the founding of the organization in 1968, this dynamic interaction between practitioners and theorists has been IVLA’s greatest strength.
The Book of Selected Readings (BSR) is a peer reviewed collection of papers, selected from the presentations at the annual IVLA Conference. It is meant to reflect the spirit of the ongoing conversation among its diverse members and to promote new perspectives in its readers. Included in the BSR are creative ideas in the making, works in progress that invite further thought and the results of long-term scholarly research. For the 2023 BSR, the art works awarded and honored at the international online juried art exhibition are included.
What makes the BSR special, like the members of IVLA who have contributed to it, is that it represents this broad range of interests and reflects some of the most diverse thinking in the field of visual communication.
In addition, the BSR truly presents the international perspectives. For the 2023 BSR, articles and art works came from 9 different countries: Pakistan, Israel, Greece, Turkey, Ecuador, Spain, UK, and Japan as well as USA.
We are proud to present these multi-faceted works for your consideration.
International Visual Literacy Association
Publications Committee
First stated in 1998
Jung Lee, Editor-in-chief 2023
Featured Chapters
Editors’ Choice Award
Faizan Adil
Independent Scholar, Pakistan
Abstract:
This enquiry delves into an investigation of whether a photograph, due to its ambiguous nature, can be fabricated by removing or adding accompanying text, changing its placement, or editing, retouching, altering, or distorting it. This paper examines the art of photo-editing and manipulation both in the historical and contemporary context to assess the exploitative impact of photography in the form of spreading mistruths, distortion of facts, and propagating false narratives. I further investigate the ethics of contemporary photographs and photojournalism to see how the visual medium has evolved by not only becoming more accessible but also by providing easy access to several manipulation tools. Furthermore, to describe the application of ambiguous photographs in the contemporary era, this paper relies on Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman’s “Propaganda Model” theory (Chomsky & Herman, 1988).
Keywords: Propaganda Model, Ethical Photojournalism, Photomanipulation, Doctored Images
Sara Benninga
Tel Aviv University and Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Israel
Abstract:
This paper examines the uses of allegory in early modern and contemporary art. I discuss allegory as a poetic and visual means, creating a multiplicity of meanings, and positing the image as a ruin. Referencing previous discussions of allegory by Walter Benjamin (1963, 2010), Peter Burke (1997), Craige Owens (1980), among others, I discuss the reliance of allegory on iconographical precedents and its fragmentary nature. These points are exemplified through paintings from the 17th century, by Peter Paul Rubens and Diego Velazquez, and contemporary artworks by Joseph Beuys and Francis Alÿs.
Keywords: Allegory, Ambiguity, Rubens, Beuys, Alÿs, Fragmentation
Yuqiao Cao
University of Delaware, USA
Abstract:
Visual literacy instruction is an emerging topic in higher education, yet a gap exists in how those concepts and skills are taught in classrooms. The Visual Literacy Librarian at the University of Delaware created a mixed-method needs assessment that surveyed faculty and instructors on their current awareness and experiences in teaching visual literacy skills in classrooms across disciplines. Data was collected from a campus-wide online survey and voluntary interviews. A thematic analysis demonstrated that faculty and instructors across fields had similar interests and values toward visual literacy as a critical component in teaching and learning. The variation in experiences and different levels of expertise indicated challenges in implementing visual literacy in instructions. This chapter introduces new opportunities for the library and museums to support faculty by proposing new partnerships and unique institutional supports that aim to expand the interdisciplinary effort in teaching visual literacy in faculty’s educational practices and beyond.
Keywords: assessment, academic libraries, visual literacy study and teaching, opportunities, higher education
Xiaoning Chen
Eun Kyung Ko
Xue Han
Vishodana Thamotharan
National Louis University, USA
While multilingual students in K-12 classrooms are steadily increasing, they are significantly underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) at the post-secondary level and workforce (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). This paper contributes to narrowing this gap by proposing an integrated STEM, language, and visual literacy approach. The first part of the paper explains the theoretical perspectives and their connections to each other. In part two, the authors share how the integrated approach works, using concrete classroom examples such as sense-making, deepening STEM learning, developing disciplinary language and discourse, and using multimodal communication. STEM educators will be inspired to implement appropriate multilingual student support strategies to create culturally responsive instructional activities that empower students and leverage multimodal communication, motivating them to pursue advanced study and add new perspectives traditionally excluded in STEM.
Keywords: visual literacy, inquiry, culturally responsive teaching, multilingual learners, STEM
Read the full chapter here
Wally De Doncker
Independent Author, Belgium
Katerina Dermata
Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Greece
Abstract:
Distance and communication during the Covid-19 pandemic have been one of the challenges of the last two years worldwide. While traveling was difficult, new technologies and visual stimuli provided opportunities to overcome those obstacles. This paper describes the art project titled Love cannot be framed implemented by Wally De Doncker and Katerina Dermata. While “trapped” in their own countries, the two authors creatively challenged each other during the pandemic. Every week they proposed a theme to each other and took photos from their own living environment in Belgium and Greece. The authors created a synthesis by combining those photos, one Greek and one Belgian for each theme. As a writer, Wally De Doncker interpreted each synthesis with a literary and philosophical methodology and created an artistic album. This art project indicated that distance is only sometimes a barrier to creativity. It is an example of how love bridges a global epidemic.
Keywords: photography, philosophical thinking, interpretation, visual arts
Katerina Dermata
Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Greece
Abstract:
Children use digital cameras from very early age as the progress of technology provides accessible tools such as smartphones and tablets in everyday life. Children use the photographic medium to create their own photos, take photos to represent and explore their environment, to communicate with others, etc. By designing and implementing a visual literacy program focused on the impact of using the photographic medium from preschoolers, the researcher examines how children behave when they use the camera or are photographed in the class environment. The dimensions examined are the role of the child as a photographer and the role as the subject of the photograph and how the medium affects children’s behavior. The results highlight the impact of the medium in preschoolers’ behaviors when using a digital camera, and the importance of the observation in children’s’ reactions for the adults.
Keywords: digital photography, interactions, social development, preschool age
Murray Dick
Newcastle University, UK
Abstract:
Public understanding of many aspects of modern life is routinely, and sometimes wildly out of step with reality. Given the increasingly visual nature of modern life, the question arises whether visual communication may address this problem. There are historical precedents in this field from which to learn – such as Isotype. This theoretical study sets out the groundwork for an alternative approach to Isotype. The datatext (after W. J. T. Mitchell) is a multilevel discourse comprising visual arguments mutually reinforced by combinations of words, numbers, and images. This concept draws upon John Dewey’s philosophy of education (and localism); Martha Nussbaum’s ideas about capability; Iris Murdoch’s metaphysics; representational and embodied metaphor; and good practice in infographic design. The author provides recommendations for an experiment to test the effective visual display of key civic facts to improve a local public’s civic awareness.
Keywords: data visualization, civic information, visual communication
Catalina Huilcapi-Collantes
Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, Ecuador
Juan Pablo Hernández-Ramos
University of Salamanca, Spain
Azucena Hernández Martín
University of Salamanca, Spain
Abstract:
Visual literacy (VL) is essential for improving the visual communication skills of graduate students who desire to develop instructional material or manage Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-mediated learning. However, in the current challenging and highly visual digital world, the Ecuadorian context needs a well-structured graduate program of VL. Indeed, promoting visually literate professionals in Education and other fields has yet to be understood as a complement to their digital competence development. This educational intervention was conducted with graduates from different areas of study who were in an ICT in an Education program. The specific content was integrated into one of the subjects. The VL training module described focuses on the themes, subtopics, and teaching methodology. The professor identified the most difficult topics for students to understand. This experience aims to help scholars, teachers, or researchers who want to perform an intervention in a similar context to make learning design and content decisions.
Keywords: visual literacy, higher education, graduate students, digital competence
Yan Ma
University of Rhode Island, USA
Abstract:
In addition to the continuing call for the inclusion of visual literacy into the curriculum for library and information science education, a paradigm expansion in research to develop and lead an interdisciplinary research advancement is a pressing task. The proposed paradigm shift in research results from the shift in the nature of information from text-based to visual information. Such a paradigm shift requires expanding research methodologies and theoretical frameworks. At the same time, paradigm inclusion is needed to invite and embrace interdisciplinary research and diverse research methodologies and theoretical frameworks to study visual information. This paradigm shift, expansion, and inclusion empathize with the social construction of knowledge/meaning in the studies of visual information by communities of users/viewers/readers.
Keywords: visual literacy, paradigm shift, information research, social construction of knowledge, ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards, Framework of Visual Literacy for High Education
Mary Jane Murphy-Bowne
Stockton University, USA
Abstract:
A syllabus is the first introduction to a course. It can either provide a warm welcome to a course or be seen as an overwhelming list of rules and requirements, leaving students feeling that they cannot be successful.
To use the syllabus to promote equity and inclusion in an online course, the author developed a web-based syllabus. This visual approach can welcome students. This interactive approach can provide transparency and support. It can also offer relatedness, accessibility, and social and teacher presence, which helps promote a positive learning community. An example of how this syllabus was developed and used in an online course is included. There is also an alternate way to create a visual, accessible syllabus. Students responded positively to using a liquid syllabus. Other course design professionals, as well, evaluated the syllabus as a beneficial strategy for inclusion.
Keywords: equity, inclusion, liquid syllabus, transparency, visual interaction
Nick Poulakis
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Hellenic Open University, Greece
Zoi-Danai Tzamtzi
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Abstract:
The paper presents three examples of ethnomusicological documentaries, all dealing with music cultures but deriving from diverse methodological viewpoints and techniques, to analyze how music, sound, and other aural dimensions of ethnographic films could enhance audiovisual literacy practices. The main focus of this review is on the cinematic representation of the nonrepresentational art of music to establish awareness of image-sound literacy and seek a balance between visual and audio channels in contemporary multimedia contexts. The purpose of this interpretation is to investigate how the visual matches with the aural aspects in these ethnographic documentaries and to inaugurate alternative approaches to handle the relationship between sonic and optical film narration. In this respect, our study attempts to critically expand the idea of “visual literacy” to a more comprehensive concept of “audiovisual literacy,” offering a more holistic approach to understand and communicate multimodal phenomena.
Keywords: audiovisual literacy, music anthropology, ethnomusicological film, ethnographic documentary
Yuqiao Cao
University of Delaware, USA
Abstract:
Visual literacy instruction is an emerging topic in higher education, yet a gap exists in how those concepts and skills are taught in classrooms. The Visual Literacy Librarian at the University of Delaware created a mixed-method needs assessment that surveyed faculty and instructors on their current awareness and experiences in teaching visual literacy skills in classrooms across disciplines. Data was collected from a campus-wide online survey and voluntary interviews. A thematic analysis demonstrated that faculty and instructors across fields had similar interests and values toward visual literacy as a critical component in teaching and learning. The variation in experiences and different levels of expertise indicated challenges in implementing visual literacy in instructions. This chapter introduces new opportunities for the library and museums to support faculty by proposing new partnerships and unique institutional supports that aim to expand the interdisciplinary effort in teaching visual literacy in faculty’s educational practices and beyond.
Keywords: assessment, academic libraries, visual literacy study and teaching, opportunities, higher education