Visual History

This section is designed to help us understand how media and art can be maps of the culture that produced them. Each image is accompanied by a hypothetical question that can be used for discussion, followed by a possible response. The text accompanying each image is designed to be a guide.

Introduction

Media can be viewed as patterns of symbols. Media educators can gain a broader pattern-seeking view by thinking of art and media as cultural maps. This is important because it is an easy way to explain the concept that different historical epochs express different ways of seeing the world. This is a non-dogmatic way to generate discussion and to highlight difference in medium type, cultural representation, gender stereotyping or other themes media educators normally work with. The dialog that results from comparing and contrasting creates lively and memorable conversation.

Compare: "Shukei-sansui (Autumn Landscape)," by Sesshu Toyo, on the left with "The Arnolfini Portrait," by Jan van Eyck on the right. What stands out in term of importance? Look at the use of light, negative space (the background or the space that surrounds the figure), and what is considered important to the artist.

In Asian cultures, visual art has entirely different orientations. Japanese images emphasized negative space (the space around the subject). Like Asian art, pre-Columbian books of the Maya and Aztec utilized flat colors, a technique later adapted by newspaper cartoons. As Scott McCloud notes in Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, flat colors (think of early Superman newspaper cartoons) are more psychological. Simple shapes of comics like Peanuts also open the images up to more interaction, more imagination. Thus, action comics that are more detailed tend to be for more mature readers, while bold, simple lines tend to appeal to young readers who can project their own experience into the broad shapes.

Technical note: If you want to use any of these images in your own presentation, you can move the computer mouse over the image and right-click. The contextual menu will give you the option of downloading the image onto your computer.