Session 4a: Places of Seeing and Being

3rd Global Conference

Tuesday 14th July 2009 – Thursday 16th July 2009
Mansfield College, Oxford

Critiquing the Visual via Semiotic Tools Inside the Image Saturated World of Advertising. Learning through the Mobilization of the Iconic Popular Culture Programme: ‘The Gruen Transfer’ (ABC)
Jan Connelly
Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

Students today increasingly inhabit e-worlds and digital i-environments that are saturated with fast, intense constructed images. This paper establishes that there is a pedagogical need for greater attention to reading how such images work. In re-defining what it means for students to be literate in today’s world, educators need exemplars of how students can be taught to apply a critical gaze, in the social theory sense, to the images they encounter. This paper introduces an effective way to enact such readings through a pedagogical framework using social semiotic tools. Material from the engaging format of ‘The Gruen Transfer’ http://www.abc.net.au/tv/gruentransfer/ an Australian popular culture television show will be utilized to show how advertising works on us (Study Guides for students have already been written for some episodes see http://www.metromagazine.com.au/pdfs/studyguides/Gruen.Ep9.pdf )

During the presentation I will demonstrate how teachers can use semiotic tools in the process of recognizing representations, identifying social discourses –i.e. identity-forming discourses – and noting when appropriations have been made via intertextual connections in the images in the popular television show. I name this pedagogical process an exemplar of critical visual literacy – a set of strategies – that can be employed with all visual images students encounter in their contemporary worlds.

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Young Learners’ Second Language Visual Literacy Practices
Marina Mohdarif
MARA University of Technology, Malaysia

Reading is an activity which is both perceptual (auditory and visual) and cognitive (thinking and problem solving). Visual exploration, visual scanning, and visual pick-up of information in print are important first-year learning tasks for school children, but they are often neglected by educators and researchers because they are not easy to observe or record (Clay, 1993). The world now is experiencing an explosion of knowledge and with the advancing media technology, most of this knowledge comes in the form of visual input. Visual images are becoming the predominant form of communication across a range of learning and teaching resources, delivered across a range of media and formats. Thus, it is crucial that we understand how children read images, how they extract meaning from images and how they use these strategies in their quest of becoming literate. A study was conducted to better understand visual literacy practices of young second language learners. The qualitative inquiry probed young learners’ responses as they engaged in visual literacy activities. Findings revealed details of how the young learners made sense of the tasks given. Discussion will also focus on the young learners’ interpretations of visual images which were very much influenced by their social and cultural contexts. Finally implications will be drawn for theory, policy and practice.

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Architectural Analysis Portfolio – Drawn Knowledge A Case Study
Amanda Hufford
Lincoln, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom

This abstract introduces a case study of the motivation and development of Architectural Analysis Portfolio, a course created for and offered to architectural students participating in an overseas study program. The development of the course was instigated by two notions; the first, to create a course complimentary to the program’s compulsory coursework and the second, based on the observation that there seems to be a growing disconnect, among architectural students, between design and tectonics as students are increasingly reliant on digital methods for design and visual communication. The primary scope of the class was to challenge students to compose a journal visually documenting the built environment in an analytical manner. This was accomplished through a series of drawing exercises based on observation and inquiry. This methodology, training the student to engage with the built environment, allowed him to ‘draw knowledge’.

In contrast to the historical model of the artist’s ‘Grand Tour’ [primarily concerned with creating ‘postcard representations’] Architectural Analysis Portfolio endeavored to establish a more meaningful experience by being more analytically positioned. The praxis of observing beyond the façade and mark-making fosters genuine knowledge of tectonics. These tactile exercises and visual journal keeping contribute to the intuitive understanding of architecture that the students will continue to reference, both consciously and subconsciously, throughout their careers as young designers and practitioners.

This abstract reflects upon the experience of one group of architectural students’ and ultimately their cognitive understanding of the built environment. I anticipated and observed efforts made in Architectural Analysis Portfolio evidenced as students displayed greater confidence in making informed decisions in design based courses. Thus, suggesting that drawing by hand is a valid methodology for comprehending the built environment, nourishing intuition, and perpetuating the design process. I expect to further investigate the role of freehand drawing in architectural education and to develop relevant exercises to assist the design process in compulsory coursework.

Download Draft Conference Paper (pdf)
Conference Handout (pdf)