What I have learned this semester.....

From the first book, “Practices of Looking,” the main theme that I learned is: Do not take any image for granted, and do not believe everything you see. Before this class, I think of images as “visual evidence.” When I hear something strange, I want to see an image of it to determine whether it’s true or not. However, as a viewer, we should question the things we see. Photos, paintings, and films are especially designed to communicate messages. They have a purpose. They can even be manipulated to show one side of the story (as opposed to the universal Truth). So when we try to read images, we should consider the context of the image construction and the underlying meanings of the image. Images can communicate a shared meaning for a group of people. So from an image, we can learn about the culture and history of the group, including both viewers and producers. Images can also have different meanings for each individual. Not everyone from the same culture would interpret an image in the same way. So from one person’s interpretation, we can look into one’s values, background, and psychology. In this book, we also learned about the gaze. For example, Foucault’s notion of surveillance made me realize that humans are not just viewers; we are also objects of the gaze. The gaze is also related to consumer culture. Gazing creates desire. Oftentimes, the purpose of visual communication is to stimulate desire. Ads, movies, TV shows, and so on are all trying to sell a desirable experience that can never been fulfilled. But humans are not just passive receivers of messages. The postmodern paradigm teaches us to create remix and simulation (through digital technology) to challenge the master narrative. In all, by studying images, their meanings, and the system behind their construction and interpretation, we are also learning about the larger society and culture.

The second book, “Reading Images,” is about the grammar and structure of visual design. A lot of my understanding is based on comparing visual structure with language structure. For example, different visual processes are like different sentence patterns. The visual structure can be narrative, conceptual, classificatory, analytical, or symbolic. For each process, there are different elements to look for that can help us make sense of the meaning of the image. From this book, we learned many structures and terminologies useful for analyzing images, such as actor, goal, vector, carrier, attribute, modality, materiality, and image composition. These “grammar” are not only useful for analysis, for also for the production of images. As we work on the class projects, it is necessary to learn the different ways of representing meanings and communicating messages. When I first read the book chapters, it seems very theoretical and confusing. But in class, the examples provided by the professor and classmates really helped me understand the material a lot better.

I also learned a lot from the four sub-projects in class. Actually, my original purpose for taking this class is to learn about visual analysis. I see myself as more of a researcher working on analyzing and interpreting visual data related to tourism, such as photos, brochures, websites, travel documentary, and so on. So usually I’m the receiver, not the producer, in the visual communication process. For me, creating something visually for the projects is difficult. I have to think about what messages I want to deliver and how to present them through visual communication. Although I have a hard time coming up with ideas, I think the actual work is interesting. It’s fun to learn to use the different software. Usually the first workshop of each sub-project is very confusing, and I go home thinking: How in the world am I going to do this? But with the help of many people, and after I become more familiar with the software, it’s fun to work on these projects, not to mention the sense of accomplishment when I “create” something. I’m very glad to have the basic knowledge of Second Life, Photoshop, Movie Maker and Dream Weaver, and I hope I can make use of them in the future.

My website

This is what I have so far.....

http://people.clemson.edu/~WEIJUEH/

Ch 7

This chapter is about the material production of visual messages. The same image can be produced in different forms, such as paintings, photos, films, and websites. When we buy a poster reproduction of a painting, the materiality of the poster and the original painting is very different, and they have different meanings and effects. With modern technology, it is easy to transform an image into different material reproductions. The authors identify this type of technology as “synthesizing technologies which allow the production of digitally synthesized representations” (p. 217). With recording technologies, images are supposed to be a “reference” of the reality. But with synthesizing technologies, the referentiality of images is replaced by representation and signification. I found one website, PhotoFunia ( http://www.photofunia.com/ ), where we can transform photos into different visual effects. I experimented with a photo of a famous Taiwanese baseball player.

This is the original image.


Here is how the photo can be transformed into different materials.
1. “Art painting”

2. “Stencil”

3. “Dorm lights”

Color can also be used as a semiotic mode to communicate different meanings and emotions. Here is the effect of different colors by using PhotoFunia again.
4. “Three colors”

5. “Warhol”



6. “Silhouettes”

In all three images, there is the color blue, but it is used very differently. I am confused about the different features of color, such as value, saturation, purity, modulation, differentiation, and hue. In “Three colors,” the colors are very pure and flat. For me, the blue here is not communicating a message. But in “Silhouettes,” the blue is modulated? differentiated? saturated? I’m not sure how to describe this blue, but the blue makes the image seem sad and serious. And in the “Warhol” image, there are many different shades of blue with different lighting. The individual parts in the image communicate different meanings through the color and lighting. Altogether, the combination of different parts and colors also creates a special effect.

Ch 5 & 6

Ch 5
This chapter is about “modality”—“the truth value or credibility of (linguistically realized) statements about the world” (p. 155). Modality markers are like the little cues that can help us determine whether the messages from texts or images are reliable or not. Verbal modality markers can be auxiliary verbs, such as may, will and must, or adjectives and adverbs, such as possible, probable, certain and so on. Visual modality markers are more complicated. Generally speaking, in terms of color, the more color is reduced, or the more abstract the color, that means the lower the modality. More detailed markers of visual modality include: color saturation, color differentiation, color modulation, contextualization, representation vs. abstraction, depth, illumination, and brightness. What I find interesting is that high modality (=high credibility?) is not necessarily better than low modality. The goal of visual communication is not always to have high modality. In the example of the coffee advertisement (Plate 2), the low modality of the background, through the use of soft focus and soft colors, is meant to represent fantasy and promise. Depending on the message we want to convey, sometimes we may want to have low modality.

The authors also talked about “coding orientation”—the “sets of abstract principles which inform the way in which texts are coded by specific social groups, or within specific institutional contexts” (p. 165). The same level of color saturation can convey high or low modality according to different social groups. The authors identified four coding orientations: scientific/technological, abstract, naturalistic, and sensory. In terms of the coding orientations of different groups, we should think about our target audience when we create images or make films. For example, the principle of modality of horror movies and science fiction would be different from the naturalistic coding orientation. In horror movies, maybe black and white or a dark color tone would have higher modality. In science fiction movies, like when they want to show virtual reality, maybe full color saturation would have higher modality.

Ch 6
This chapter is about image composition and the meanings behind different compositions. Images can be centered or polarized. In horizontally polarized images, the left side is “given” and the right side is “new.” In vertically polarized images, the top section is “ideal” and the bottom section is “real.” In centered images, the center is the focus or the nucleus of information and the margins are subservient. The authors pointed out that the centered composition is relatively uncommon in Western cultures, but more common in Asian cultures. There may be another difference between Eastern and Western cultures in terms of horizontal polarization. Some Asian languages, like Chinese and Japanese, is read from top to bottom, then from right to left, and the book-bindings are on the right side instead of the left. Therefore, in the Asian context, the right side can be the “given” and the left side is the “new.” I have one example from a Chinese/Japanese comic book. The right side is a recap of the previous volume and the left side is the new story.