graphical production online and visual literacy a presentation by david gillis
graphical production online and visual literacy a presentation by david gillis
visual codification online: structure
visual codification online: symbols
visual codification online: style
The growing influence of graphic design
• Stats Canada: economic contribution of culture outpacing economy; specialized design services up 14.4% 1999-2001; 6.9% 2001-2002
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: graphic design field expected to grow faster than national avg.
• California occupational guide: growth rates of 34% for commercial artists, 96% for desktop publishing specialists, and 45% growth for multimedia artists and animators between 1998 and 2008
visual thinking as a service: XPLANE
• (c.f. Florida, 2002)
• Economic: accounts for 1/3 US GDP
• Social: “derives identity from members’ roles as purveyors of creativity”
• Think no-collar workplace; bo-bos (simultaneously bohemian and bourgeois)
the creative class and graphic design
the creative class, graphic design and you
• “The creative class is the norm-setting class of our time.”
• “The final element of the social structure of creativity...is a supportive social milieu that is open to all forms of creativity...This milieu provides the underlying eco-system or habitat in which the multidimensional forms of creativity take root and flourish...It also facilitates cross-fertilization between and among these forms.”
visual productivity on the web
• Hundreds of online exhibits displayed weekly on design portals like surfstation.lu, k10k.net, newstoday.com
• k10k receives 100-150 thousand hits per day
• Mixture of professional/personal work on display
• Example...
visual productivity on the web
• Question: what sort of theory can account for this phenomenon?
visual literacy
• Work manifests both idiosyncrasy and coherence; appears to be driven by individual interest as well as a collective consciousness.
• Each individual piece is (at least, tacitly) part of a larger project
• Creative forms represent a mode of discourse where the medium is the message
visual literacy as a condition
visual semiotic
visual language
visual literacy
• meaning-making substrate• representational resources
• communicative technology• stabilized form & function
• receptive/interpretive framework• encultured knowledge and its social implications
visual literacy is a condition...
• whereby traditional communicative technologies and forms are reconfigured and reshaped;
• it is a communal, rather than an institutional phenomenon;
• and it entails the re-codification of imagery and renders visual forms conspicuous once again to our culture
concerning orality and literacy
• Aboriginal art in oral cultures characterized by structural, stylistic, and symbolic conventions.
• Takes advantage of representational affordances in visual modes of expression.
• Effective mode for conveying narrative, ceremonial, cultural meanings.
concerning orality and literacy
• McLuhan: “The phonetic alphabet fell like a bombshell, installing sight at the head of the hierarchy of senses. Literacy propelled man from the tribe, gave him an eye for an ear...”
• Innis: “The written language was made into an instrument responsive to the demands of the oral tradition. Introduction of the alphabet meant a concern with sound rather than sight or with the ear rather than the eye”
questions?