1st Edition
Connecting Visual Literacy to Theory Revisiting the Disruptions of Visual Thinkers in Education and Beyond
This volume seeks to close the gap between education systems across the world that remain systematically devoted to understanding our world through text, rather than images.
Through an exploration of the contributions of well- and lesser-known visual thinkers from across disciplines and geographies, the contributors offer contemporary appraisals and modern reconceptions of the subject and approach. The book illuminates how experts from various disciplines ranging from art, communication, education, and philosophy laid the foundations for what we know today as visual literacy. These foundations and innovative ways of thinking and understanding images have been disruptive, but until now, have been relatively understudied. As such, the chapters examine the context of individual thinkers, expanding upon famous theories and providing new insight into why these visual and cognitive processes are imperative to learning and education and to disciplines spanning art history, higher education, museums, philosophy, photography, and more. The authors of each of the chapters, all members of the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA), are committed to advancing the study of visual literacy, unveiling the most significant contributions of each of the experts, raising new questions, and proposing new routes of inquiry.
A unique and timely exploration of the way we derive meaning from what we see and how we interact with our visual environment, it will appeal to researchers, scholars, and educators from a range of interdisciplinary backgrounds across art, art education, art history, design, information science, photography, and visual communication.
Introduction
by Ricardo Lopez-Leon and Dana Statton Thompson
Chapter 1
Rudolf Arnheim: The Power of the Image
by Diederik W. Schönau
Chapter 2
Vilém Flusser: Play/Read/Write/See
by Gary McLeod
Chapter 3
The Conspiracy of the Spectacle: Guy Debord’s Relevance for Visual Literacy Today
by Ashley Pryor
Chapter 4
Fontcuberta and Postphotography: unveiling the border between fiction and reality
by Ricardo López-León
Chapter 5
Literacy Foundations in June King McFee’s Art Education Philosophy
by Margaretha Häggström
Chapter 6
Visual Literacy Development through Picturebooks: The Contributions of John Warren Stewig
by Geri A. Chesner
Chapter 7
Abigail Housen: Visual Thinking from Museums to the Classroom
by Michele Colandene
Chapter 8
Unleashing Perception: Exploring Michael Matyushin's Expanded Vision
by Nikolai Selivanov
Chapter 9
Thinking in pictures: Temple Grandin's contribution to Visual Literacy
by Jacqueline Huddle
Chapter 10
David Howes: Pioneer of Sensory Studies
by Brian P. Kennedy
Chapter 11
Nada Shabout: The Challenge of Visual Literacy in Modern and Contemporary Arab Art
by Marty Miller
Biography
Ricardo Lopez-Leon, PhD, is a lead researcher-lecturer at the University of Aguascalientes at the Design Sciences Center, in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
Dana Statton Thompson, MLIS, MA, MFA, is the assistant dean of libraries, associate professor, and research and instruction librarian at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky, USA.