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.