Visual Literacy - A Grammar of Visual Analysis

VISUAL LITERACY Within images there are three different aspects of MEANING that you have to be able to analyse • REPRESENTATIONAL MEANINGS • INTERACTIVE MEANINGS • COMPOSITIONAL MEANINGS

Visual literacy • REPRESENTATIONAL MEANINGS – REPRESENTED PARTICIPANTS – TRANSACTIONAL/REACTIONAL PROCESSES – VECTORS – SYMBOLISM – SHAPES

This image has a background that socially contextualises the REPRESENTED PARTICIPANTS whose GAZE is a DEMAND because we can see the little girl in the centre.

Power relationships are developed in images through the use of vertical and horizontal lines.

Our knowledge of the world informs us about visual texts.

The SALIENT image is that of the lion with straight shiny hair.

The REPRESENTED PARTICIPANT is the lion advertising…

This GAZE is a DEMAND The BACKGROUND of the image is DECONTEXTUALISED and is constructed of SATURATED COLOUR

REPRESENTED PARTICIPATES are the characters/or objects that are represented in an image. Look for SALIENCE. ACTIONS and REACTIONS.

TRANSACTIONAL PROCESSES. What’s happening and what is the relationship between the participants?

He’s actively carrying the coke and she’s watching him do it. He is the

ACTIVE REPRESENTED PARTICIPANT while she is the REACTIVE PARTICIPANT. She’s reacting to his action.

The REPRESENTED PARTICIPANTS are connected by their EYELINE - eyelines are a sort of VECTOR

VISUAL LITERACY • INTERACTIVE MEANINGS – – – – –

IMAGE, ACT and GAZE FRAMING, SOCIAL DISTANCE POWER STATUS MODALITY COLOUR SCALES LEVELS OF ILLUMINATION – BRIGHTNESS – BACKGROUND

DEMAND

OFFER

When a character, animal or human, looks directly at its audience that GAZE is a DEMAND. When a character, animal or human, looks away from its audience that GAZE is a OFFER.

DEMAND

When a character, animal or human, looks directly at its audience that GAZE is a DEMAND. When the represented participant’s gaze is a DEMAND (responders) have little choice but to engage directly with the image.

OFFER

When a REPRESENTED PARTICIPANT, looks away from its audience that GAZE is a OFFER. The audience (responders) have more choice to interpret the meaning of the image.

The gaze is a demand, which is framed by the traditional painting on the representative participant’s faces.

The orange of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge suggest the wide-orange land for which Australia is known worldwide. A slightly romanticised version of the cityscape.

• The represented participants are actively engaged in an activity. Their gaze is an offer, not a demand.

•

The image above the horizontal line suggests an idealised version of the world.

• The background is contextualised.

• The colour is mono-chromatic.

Leunig’s cartoon uses

LOW MODALITY.

The fragility of the lines almost lets the image escape from within them.

On a scale between real and abstract these images are at the abstract end of the scale.

The text has a SATURATED NONCONTEXTUALISED BACKGROUND.

LOW MODALITY (ABSTRACT), LITTLE SHADING, STYLISED TO SUGGESTS CONCEPT

HIGH MODALITY (REAL) STRONG USE OF COLOUR AND CONTEXT

VISUAL LITERACY • COMPOSITIONAL MEANINGS – INFORMATION VALUE DISTANCE – SALIENCE (WHAT TAKES YOUR EYE FIRST?) – POSITIONING • Left/Right/Top/Bottom/Centre/Margin – FRAMING • Strong • Weak • Isolating or inclusive

Vertical lines in ads suggest power and status

The vectors point to the father who is framed both by the refrigerator and the newspaper. The newspaper provides a barrier between him and his daughter. The vectors also exaggerate the distance between the represented participants.

The back of the chair along with the black and white tiles on the floor suggest the girl is trapped or imprisoned in her kitchen.

The vectors from the back of the chair and the natural vectors of the girl’s shoulders also point directly to her father.

The colours in this page from Anthony Brown’s Gorilla are washed out and virtually monochromatic - except for the accent which is the girl’s red jumper.

TRANSACTIONAL PROCESSES. What’s happening and what is the relationship between the participants?

He’s actively carrying the coke and she’s watching him do it. He is the

ACTIVE REPRESENTED PARTICIPANT while she is the

REACTIVE PARTICIPANT. She’s reacting to his action.

The REPRESENTED PARTICIPANTS are connected by their EYELINE - eyelines are

VECTORS

Eyelines also create vectors to focus responders’ attention This is a ad for tourism in Australia that has been released in America.

VECTORS are the lines that draw a responder’s eye to the focal point or the SALIENT image in the text. In this picture there are several vectors.

Circular and curved lines suggest endlessness, symbolise warmth; it is suggested that they’re organic. Straight lines suggest human constructs.

VECTORS Vertical lines delineate power while the curved line of the car suggests something organic/natural.

ILLUMINATION is the word to describe the use of light in an image.

Here are two commercials advertising weight-loss products.

They use vectors in very different ways.

CONTEXTUALISED BACKGROUND

NONCONTEXTUALISED BACKGROUND

Considering context we know that hippos can swim under water so the relationship between the animals and car suggest that that car is also amphibious.