COM 232 Visual Literacy
Assignments Syllabus for Tues/Thur 2:00 Syllabus for Thur 6:00


Course Description

It is one of the great ironies of contemporary existence that we are beset, informed, controlled, and constructed by images, yet we receive almost no formal training in understanding and creating visual communication. Visual Literacy addresses this issue through interdisciplinary study of the terminology and theory of visual communication, with special emphasis on the relationship of visuality and cultural practice. Considering ideas from art history, photography, film, mass media, and cultural studies, students will be asked to analyze visual rhetoric, begin to see critically, articulate meaning, and author visual rhetoric of their own.

Articles to Print Out

Sontag: On Photography
McClintock: Soft-soaping Empire: Commodity Racism and Imperial Advertising (read pp. 506-512 only; stop at "The Monkey")
Foucault: Panopticism (paragraphs 1-15 only)
Berger: Naked and Nude (Ways of Seeing)
Turkle: Constructions and Reconstructions of Self in VR
Baudrillard: Virtuality and Events (parag. 1-16 only)

Additional Articles (Optional)

Barthes: Mythologies
Seiter: Semiotics and Television
Baudrillard: Simulacra and Simulation
Williamson: The Grid
Debord: Society of the Spectacle, CH1
Balsamo: On the Cutting Edge: Cosmetic Surgery and the Technological Production of the Gendered Body
Sontag: Re The Torture of Others
Photos: Iraqi Prison Photos p1
Photos: Iraqi Prison Photos p2
CBS News Commentary on Photos

Handouts to Print Out

How to Read Critically and Interact With Texts
Glossary of Design
Visual Literacy in Film Handout
Camera Termonology
Film Worksheet: Insomnia
On Photography Worksheet

Optional Handouts for Film Viewing
Signs | One Hour Photo

PowerPoints
(NOTE: Some of these PowerPoint presentations have graphic images and strong language. I suggest that students view them after they are discussed in class,rather than before, so that they may be read in the context of those lessons.)


Unit 1: Elements, Principles, Media
Intro to Visual Literacy
Elements and Principles of Visual Images Flash | PPT
Class Exercise: Bronzino, Hals, Guston
Art Analysis Group Work | lesson plan
Looking at Art
The Grid: History, Use and Meaning
Film Intro
On Photography
Thesis Paper | more images

Unit 2: Critical Theory Examples
Semiotics and Advertising
Fetish
Panopticism
Society of the Spectacle | long version
Virtuality and Events
Perception and Deception

Unit 3: Representing Body, Gender, Race
Naked and Nude (1 | 2 | 3 )
Exploitation
Creativity

Media

Merchants of Cool Documentary
Critical Art Ensemble Web Site
Rodney King Video Trailer
Rodney King Second-by-Second Account

Sample Student Work

ART ANALYSIS ESSAY

Juan Stroop: "Music: Pink and Blue II"
Diana Dowe: "Getting to Know Fernando Llort"
WordVisions Web Site (created by students in one class)

PAPER: Visual Themes / Cultural Contexts

Stacey Crooks: "History Rewritten"
Minerva Martinez: "Badge of Honor"

CREATIVE / EXPERIMENTAL

Sample Photo Projects