Seeing is Believing: The Increasing Impetus for Visual Literacy in the Digital Revolution View Digital Media

Workshop Presentation
Olivia A Carye Hallstein  

Information is increasingly accessed through visual and auditory media (video, images, podcasts, audiobooks etc). YouTube alone averages ~5 billion video views per day while text based media accounts for ~2.16 million books sold per day internationally. Given the decrease in text-based media usage and growing dependence on visual and auditory media, there is also a need for visual literacy, not only for the production of these media, but also for the critical consumption of information. As artmakers, designers, art historians and theorists know, aesthetics can have a huge impact on how information is perceived, and how it influences the viewer. In this workshop presentation, I argue for the increased necessity of universal visual literacy education, exploring both real world examples of aesthetic influence and examples of considered design and related principles. Participants will be challenged to apply their own image making practices and interact with examples of relevant visual literacy activities for the 21st century.