Visual Literacy Defined & Other Related Quotes
"....the three R’s are no longer enough. Our world is changing
fast – faster than we can keep up with our historical modes of
thinking and communicating. Visual literacy – the ability to
both read and write visual information; the ability to
learn visually; to think and solve problems in the visual domain
– will, as the information revolution evolves, become a
requirement for success in business and in life." (May 22, 2008
Source )
"Texts are only representations but people process images as
reality."
(Media Education Lab website)
"the ability to construct meaning from visual images."
(Source:
The Visual Literacy White Paper)
" the photograph is not valid as a document until it is placed
in a relationship to the beholder's experience." Beaumont
Newhall, "Documentary Approach to Photography," Parnassus, March
1938
“students need visualization
skills to be able to decipher, interpret, detect patterns, and
communicate using imagery—especially given the ease with which
digitized visuals can be manipulated.” NCREL quoted
here
"Visual
culture is not limited to the study of images or media, but
extends to everyday practices of seeing and showing, especially
those that we take to be immediate and unmediated" (Mitchell,
2002, Showing seeing: A critique of visual culture. Journal of
Visual Culture, p. 170).
“The
skills and abilities needed to decode and interpret visual
images are probably as demanding as those required for
print.”
Vandergrift and Hannigan, School Library Journal, 1993, 20
Visual literacy is:
1) the incorporation of visual images as part of conscious
and preconscious thought
2) a process of developing visual images for instructional
purposes
3) the use of visuals to express ideas and convey meanings
to others
Jean Trumbo, 1999 quoted in Communication Research Trends
“Visual literacy is an emerging area of study which deals with
what can be seen and how we interpret what is seen. It is
approached from a range of disciplines that:
1) study the physical processes involved in visual perception;
2) use of technology to represent visual imagery, and;
3) develop intellectual strategies used to interpret and
understand what is seen.” Martin Lester quoted
here
"A
democratic civilization will save itself only
if it makes the language of the image into a
stimulus for critical reflection -not an invitation for
hypnosis."
Umberto Eco
“Visual literacy is the ability to find meaning in imagery.
It involves a set of skills ranging from simple
identification—naming what one sees—to complex
interpretation of contextual, metaphoric and philosophical
levels. Many aspects of cognition are called upon, such as
personal association, questioning, speculating, analyzing,
fact-finding, and categorizing.”
P. Yenawine (1997)
Thoughts on visual literacy, in J Flood, SB
Heath, and D Lapp (Eds)
Handbook of research on teaching
literacy through the communicative and visual arts
"If students aren't taught the
language of sound and images, shouldn't they be considered as
illiterate as if they left college without being able to read or
write?"
Film maker George Lucas, quoted in Edutopia
Based on the idea that visual images are a language, visual
literacy can be defined as the ability to understand and produce
visual messages. (Source)
"Without an understanding of media
grammars, we cannot hope to achieve a contemporary awareness of
the world in which we live." Marshall McLuhan
“Visual Literacy refers to a group of vision-competencies a
human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having
and integrating other sensory experiences. The development of
these competencies is fundamental to normal human learning. When
developed, they enable a visually literate person to
discriminate and interpret the visible actions, objects,
symbols, natural or man-made, that he encounters in his
environment. Through the creative use of these competencies, he
is able to communicate with others. Through the appreciative use
of these competencies, he is able to comprehend and enjoy the
masterworks of visual communication.” (Source:
IVLA)
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