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Visual Literacy Series — Where the Necessity Begins: Examples and Contextualisation

Updated: Sep 11, 2024

Foreword


Visual Literacy Series articles serve as one of the academic courses in this precise field. The main aim of this research is to focus attention on the analysis of the topic of “mass culture”, its visual representations and the ways it takes action through imagery and its components. The theoretical framework will be covered from a “counter-hegemonic” stance and, essentially, the project involves the attempt to create a diagonal discourse that promotes visual literacy through the idea of art as a pedagogical and revolutionary act, since it moves collective subjectivities.


Visual Literacy Series will be mainly divided into the following chapters of content:


Where the necessity begins: examples and contextualisation


It seems that the evolution of machinery created by human beings is something that has exceeded the race. From the 1800s until the middle of the last century, multiple studies have been talking of enlightened reason, which has been explored in depth by multiple intellectuals throughout centuries yet firstly analysed by the French philosopher René Descartes back in the 17th century (Descartes, 1641). According to Descartes, people can gain knowledge through reason and deduction rather than simply by relying on the influence of authority and cultural traditions, which led to the establishment of the idea that the human being can be seen as a superior entity, as the undeniable centre of knowledge and learning (Descartes, 1641). Establishing these ideas helped to begin challenging the traditional, hegemonic authority and promote scientific discoveries into the present times, becoming a framework for investigating the natural world.


His ideas on the role of reason and deduction in acquiring knowledge heavily impacted the evolution of human-created machinery as he laid out the foundation for a shift away from traditional and hegemonic views through his emphasis on the capacity of individuals to think critically and question established authority (Descartes, 1641). The influence of enlightened reason became increasingly evident from the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century as societies underwent industrialization and technological advancements. The idea that humans are superior and are the source of knowledge was strengthened as intellectuals probed the depths of human thought and sought to discover universal truths. Scientists, engineers, and inventors were inspired by this belief to push the boundaries of what was previously thought possible because it promoted a sense of empowerment and curiosity.


Though formulated in the 17th century, Descartes’s ideas provided a philosophical framework that fueled scientific progress. The encouragement of reason and deduction changed the mindset of studying the natural world, fostering various discoveries and technological innovations and propelling humanity towards an era of unprecedented scientific exploration. Still today, these ideas continue to shape our understanding of the world, reminding us of the significance of human agency in driving scientific progress and the continuous evolution of machinery.


Figure 1 – Portrait of René Descartes

Despite these revelations, society at large has not evolved as much as it is assumed to; in fact, people are still at the same point on the evolutionary tree as we were some 100,000 years ago, as Peter Watson, an intellectual historian, ex-journalist and editor of the New Society, points out in his book Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud (Watson, 2005). Indeed, it is thought that it was 140,000 years ago that the cognitive skills that led to man’s landing on the moon emerged (Watson, 2005). Regardless of such a vivid example, postmodernist philosophers such as Michael Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Gilles Deleuze were vividly aware of that and have advocated the impossibility of absolute truth and, therefore, the delegitimization of the modern discourse of man’s supremacy over all things (Lyotard, 1979). For the past century and even more, society has been living through the age of technological advances which continue to alter how people transmit and view public information. Therefore, it is relevant to explore how the past ideas of enlightened reason are subdued by the rising dominance of a hegemonic narrative, reinforced by the constant technological changes, and how it is primarily incorporated into people’s daily lives.


Figure 2 – Portrait of Edmond de Belamy


While multiple studies suggest that human evolution has stalled for years, technological advances keep moving forward in rapid, lengthy steps. Since the industrial revolution, technological advances have followed a frenetic path associated with a sense of urgency that compels one to move quickly to achieve a particular goal, thus being marked by a high activity level that allows limited to no time for pausing and reflection. This path leads to machines that can operate in a very human-like manner. Take, for example, the Edmond de Belamy (Christie’s, 2018), an oil painting entirely at the hands of an artificial intelligence-based device, or the robot Tay (Malvar, 2017), which wrote comments on Twitter on its own, just like a person: it translated information, compared concepts and made speeches, even adopting fascist ideologies. Looking at Bellamy’s portrait, an average onlooker would be unlikely to realise that the painting was done not by a human hand but purely using an AI software package, showing how expeditiously technology takes place in every nook of people’s lives.


Going back to the beginnings of this advance, one of the earliest images published on the web in 1992 was a photograph of Les Horribles Cernettes, a humorous parody music band made up of the wives of several of the CERN’s employees (European Organization for Nuclear Research). This image became a cultural icon during the beginning of public internet use, creating an emphasis on the conjunction of creativity and humour in science and technology. The image of Les Horribles Cernettes not only holds significance by being the first web image, but also because it highlighted the role of women in science and technology, emphasising the need for greater diversity and inclusion in the field. Thus it shows how a single visual can carry multiple messages and levels of significance.


Figure 3 – Les Horribles Cernettes


Since then, technology, specifically the visual, the digital image, has not stopped evolving, which is explored by the professor at the University of Cadiz and art critic, Juan Martín Prada in his work El ver y las imágenes en el tiempo de Internet (2018). The digital image has become essential to society’s functioning and individuals’ necessary experience. The proliferation of images on the internet has led to a new mode of seeing, allowing individuals to be passive consumers of images and active producers and curators. Such is the case that, nowadays, the visual is one of the most widespread manifestations of the culture: we are educated, work, and live through images. Hence, technology has transformed society’s relationship with digital images, creating new implications for understanding visual culture and representation. Given this fact, the question arises whether society needs to learn to read images more critically. Because although reading used to be a language-specific dynamic, it now also extends to audio-visual representations, given their current predominance.


Prada delves deep into the ever-evolving nature of technology, particularly the visual and digital image, showing how it has become an indispensable aspect of everyday life, influencing how individuals and societies perceive and interact with the world in a larger scheme of things (Prada, 2018). According to him, the proliferation of images on the internet has ushered in a new way of seeing, wherein people can passively consume images while actively producing and curating their visual content. Human interaction with ever-changing technologies transformed people's perception of the visual media leading to new implications for their understanding of visual culture and representation. This leads to a logical question: Does society need to develop a more critical approach to reading images? In the past, reading was solely associated with language-specific dynamics. However, today, that is no longer true. Due to their overwhelming predominance, reading extends beyond textual materials and encompasses audio-visual representations.


Reflecting on the importance of visual literacy in modern society is prompted by Prada's work. It is no longer enough to merely take in images without having a critical conversation with them. The development of technology has democratised the creation and dissemination of images, giving people the ability to rewrite narratives and shape cultural discourse through the use of images. In order to successfully navigate the complexities of our visually-rich world, it is essential to develop a critical eye and a nuanced understanding of the language of images. Juan Martín Prada's investigation of the changing role of technology and digital images highlights the significant influence of the visual in our lives. The need to read images critically becomes clear as society becomes more dependent on and immersed in visual culture. Fostering visual literacy allows people to engage in meaningful conversations about representation and cultural production and more effectively navigate the digital world.


Figure 4 – Unwind Wires by Mahfuzur Rahman


The German philosopher Theodor Adorno in his conjoined work with Hellmut Becker –Education for Maturity and Responsibility: Lectures and Conversations with Hellmut Becker– argues that education should aim to develop critical thinking and independence in individuals, highlighting the importance of critical engagement with culture and politics (Adorno, 1970). In this piece, he claims, when referring to television, that: “in theory, what is modern in the media is, above all, the technique of transmission, insofar as the content of what is shown there is modern or not if it corresponds or not to an advanced consciousness” (Adorno, 1970: 39). According to Adorno’s viewpoint, advanced consciousness implies a critical stance towards the cultural products and values which are being transmitted through the visual medium, constantly questioning the origins and effects of these visuals on the society. Hence, it shows the necessity for fostering independent thinking and a sense of responsibility when related to the media consumption.


This is a statement that can be transposed to all the media existing today to affirm that, depending on the issuer, we will find ourselves faced with more or less reliable content since the information is transmitted according to the ideology defended by each media. Hence, the author already warned us when he also stated: “I believe that this media contributes, at least in many of its concrete materialisations, to spreading ideologies and to orienting the conscience of the people who contemplate it falsely” (Adorno, 1970: 39). Here it can be circled back to Adorno’s reference to “advanced consciousness” (Adorno, 1970: 39) which is suppressed when it comes in contact with the hegemonic materialisations in media. Therefore, following the philosopher’s hypotheses and consequent analysis, it can be deduced that the hasty technological progress described above and the intrinsic subjective transmission characteristics of the media strongly influence society’s collective perception of reality. Thus, it is logical to conclude that if individuals are not educated, they may not recognise, appreciate or understand the information presented, act, share, or create content wisely or consistently.


Figure 5 – Theodor Adorno


To support the analysis above, it is worth mentioning an example from the 20th century of what was a well-known anecdote in popular culture: the Halloween night of 1938. There, Orson Welles presented on his radio programme “The War of the Worlds” session in which he authentically described the invasion of the Earth by inhabitants of the planet Mars in the form of fake news bulletins. Despite having warned his listeners for just a few seconds at the beginning of the story that it would be a fictional tale, after and during the broadcast, panic spread among the public, who seemed to believe that the story of a Martian invasion was real. They took the information as if it were a world catastrophe. Even though the panic eventually subsided, this incident still serves as a significant example of the power of the media to shape public perception and lead to mass hysteria. It was then that people began to think that it was possible to move –or manipulate– the masses of the population through different informational content, affecting society’s perception of reality (Bretones, 1997).


Based on this event, the American public opinion researcher and social psychologist Hadley Cantril carried out research several years later, in which he presented the idea that what was important was not the message, but the capacity of the mass audience to interpret this information, their “critical ability” (Gili, 1986). Cantril’s idea of “critical ability” refers to the importance of people being able to think critically and independently from the information consumed through the mass media to resist the manipulation and effect of propaganda and the general hegemonic narratives. According to his analysis, the critical ability is not innate but rather something that can be developed through education and practice, thus emphasising the importance of visual literacy in promoting sustainable and independent development of individuals within society.


Figure 6 – Orson Wells during The War of the Worlds retransmission


It is between these two dimensions regarding the use and intention of information where the paradox of Is the image the owner of its time or vice versa? gains credibility and weight (Martín Prada, 2018). Prada’s question provokes debate on whether the image is the owner of its time, capturing the essence of the time and people’s mentality, becoming a reflection of the period rather than an operating device. On the other hand, it can be argued whether the image is a product of the cultural and political context of the time, shaped by prevailing ideologies, and consequently used to promote these ideas to the masses and shape society. In any case, the image and the time are constantly connected, staying in a constant state of dialogue and negotiation, giving space to the flexibility of meaning and purpose of the image. Therefore, as consumers and creators, people are responsible for promoting experience and knowledge since everything is mutable in the vortex of technological advances and constantly fluctuates. That way, at some point, the concepts of the production, emission, and reception of information can be contextualised, along with people, in this cybernetic world that every individual experiences in society. That being the case, individuals are given an opportunity to resolve the paradox, this time, with the human being as the owner of the image.


This is something very close to the conceptions established by the Polish-British sociologist and philosopher Zygmunt Bauman (2021) on the concept of “liquid modernity,” which explores the idea that society has moved to a state of more fluid and flexible modernity, moving away from the clear social structures (Bauman, 2021). According to this concept, society’s versatility, constant movement, and mutability are placed before the past and more outdated realities and values typical of stoic, predictable, and permanent communities. Such a change led to a sense of uncertainty experienced by people, consequently exacerbated by the fast pace of technological advances. Therefore, the constant state of change to which the contemporary individual is subjected makes them a variable entity, destined to evolve and develop with –and in– the media in a continuous search for new experiences and identities in an attempt to find stability and meaning. Here the concept of “liquid modernity” stresses the idea that people become increasingly disconnected from the stable institutions, leading to a constant state of searching for new identities to keep up pace with the constant changes in modern societies.


Figure 7 – Zygmunt Bauman


Bauman's "liquid modernity" concept offers valuable insights into the shifting dynamics of contemporary society and the individual's place within it, suggesting that society has transitioned from a state of solid and fixed structures to a more fluid and flexible state. Traditional social frameworks and values give way to a dynamic and ever-changing landscape in this new reality. Therefore, today, society emphasises versatility, constant movement, and mutability, contrasting stoic and predictable communities of the past. Consequently, this leads to a constant experience of uncertainty, exacerbated by the relentless pace of change. In this setting, people find themselves constantly adapting and evolving, closely connected to the media and motivated by a desire for new experiences and identities. People constantly reinvent themselves to keep up with the ever-changing demands of contemporary societies due to their ongoing search for stability and meaning in a fluid world.


Indeed, and given these manipulative intentions that condition the behaviour of individuals towards the interests of others, it is here where the need for independence and emancipation of the subjects begins to emerge in the face of the oppressions that the system exerts on them. It is, therefore, necessary to develop new ways of acting that promote critical thinking among the population so that collective imaginaries receive interpretations that are strictly diagonal to those imposed. It is also necessary to seek the authentic meaning of visual experimentation, which must be voluntary and not determined by the state. That is how this 101 series of Visual Literacy articles was born, seeking to promote collective awareness and establish a theoretical basis of content from which to start its analysis. The series aims to not only inform the reader but encourage them to challenge the hegemonic narratives and ideologies to develop a critical and individual perception of the consumed visual content.


Bibliographical References

Adorno, Theodor W. (1970). Erziehung zur Mündigkeit: Vorträge und Gespräche mit Hellmut Becker 1959-1969 [Education for Maturity and Responsibility: Lectures and Conversations with Hellmut Becker 1959-1969], ed. Gerd Kadelbach. Available on: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/095269519901200301 Bauman, Zygmunt (2021). On Education in Liquid Modernity. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. [1st ed. 2019]

Bretones, María Trinidad (1997). Funciones y efectos de los medios de comunicación de masas: los modelos de análisis. Barcelona, Spain: University of Barcelona.

Christie’s (2018). Is artificial intelligence set to become art’s next medium? London, England: art and luxury business Christie’s. Available on: https://www.christies.com/features/Acollaboration-between-two-artists-onehumanone-a-machine-9332-1.aspx

Descartes, René (1998). Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. Cambridge, England: Hackett Publishing Company. [1ª 1641] [trans. Donald A. Cress].

Gili, Gustavo (1986). H. Cantril, “An invasion from Mars” Sociology of mass communication, vol. II, pp. 91-110. Barcelona, Spain: M. de Moragas.

Lyotard, Jean-François (1979). The Postmodern Condition. Manchester, United Kingdom: University Press.

Malvar, Aníbal (2017). ¿Qué fue de Tay, la robot de Microsoft que se volvió nazi y machista? [web article]. Spain: Público. Available on: https://www.christies.com/features/Acollaboration-between-two-artistsonehuman-one-a-machine-9332-1.aspx

Martín Prada, Juan (2018). El ver y las imágenes en el tiempo de Internet (Estudios visuales). Madrid, Spain: AKAL.

Watson, Peter (2005). Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud. New York, United States: HarperCollins Publishers.



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Alicia Macías Recio

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