Face it. Most people are visually stupid. Or let's say visually illiterate. But it's really not their fault. Lots of what they see through media is eye candy. Contemporary art is often distant and has little meaning to their experience. Their education, even through the college level, sees art as disposable.
In the educational system, we aim for verbal literacy and make it a staple of the curriculum. We aim for mathematical literacy and make it a staple of the curriculum. But even in a world saturated by images and mediated by screens of all kinds, visual literacy is boiled down to art so it can be easily set aside.
Children spend an average of 9.5 hours a day looking at screens according to a recent study. We are surrounded by marketing everywhere we go. We have well-paid and creative minds working at advertising aimed at seducing and manipulating us. From sports programming to movies to video games we a blinged to death without realizing it.
If we are expected to think critically and analyze critically, why aren't we expected to see critically. Seeing can be exploration and discovery. Seeing can reveal beauty and give pleasure. Seeing can unravel meaning and uncover dishonesty.
It is a difficult task in our culture to give visual literacy the recognition it deserves. The schools are far from this place. Artists take little responsibility as educators and champions of visual literacy. Most people don't have the least idea it is a gap in their learning.
Until there's a big shift in awareness, bottom line: visual stupidity.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment