Transcript Slide 1

VISUAL COMMUNICATION –
MEMES & GOING VIRAL
COMM 2P91
April 1st, 2015.
"The more you see, the more you know.“
Aldous Huxley
Admin
Research Essay:
 Is due by 5pm on Wed, Apr 8th. Digital copy
only – submitted to Turnitin. Essays
submitted after Wed, April 22nd 5pm will not
be accepted.
 Class ID: 9758805 Password: social
Visual Communication
 The role of the ‘visual’ in culture
 Various kinds of visual
 Meaning making, Inform, entertain, incite
 Perceptual Theories
• Semiotics - Signs, signals & symbols
• Cognitive
 Sensual Theories
• Gestalt
• Constructivism
• Ecological
John Berger – Ways of Seeing
 Emphasizes the importance of vision
 "It is seeing which establishes our place in the
surrounding world; we explain that world
with words, but words can never undo the
fact that we are surrounded by it“
 ‘seeing’ is an involuntary process where one
detects a stimulus
 ‘looking’ is a voluntary process where one
chooses what to see
 Images are ways of ‘seeing’ and looking’
Understanding the Visual

Descriptive /Explanatory Photos
 scientific accuracy of documenting & reproducing the subject matter

Interpretative photos
 explain how things are, but they do not attempt scientific accuracy
 expressive & reveal the views of the photographer
 exploratory & not necessarily logical

Ethically Evaluative photos
 make ethical judgments, usually about a social situation;
 show how things ought to be or ought not to be
 praise, condemn ,political

Aesthetically Evaluative photos
 make judgments about aesthetic – beautiful things photographed in beautiful ways

Theoretical pictures
 are photos about photography, the making of & politics of art making
 are purposefully self-aware / self-conscious
Finding Meaning
 How Can You Find a Picture's Meaning?
 Graphic Clues
 Symbolic Clues
 Social Clues
 Literal & Symbolic Messages
 Is there Meaning Without Words?
Loch Ness Monster [1934]
Sudan Famine:
UN food camp [1994]
National Geographic
Afghan Girl [1984]
China: Tiananmen Square [1989]
Social Media – Viral Visuals
 Visual quick & to the point
 User-generated
 Viral via networks
 Visuals:
 Inform: tells you something about subject
 Educate: help viewer understand something
 Persuade: makes you want to buy or believe
something
 Entertain: may show funny things/situations
– word of mouth; networks
 Social Media & Visual Comm…?
 What has your FB wall looked like lately?
 Tumblr, Twitpic etc
 Creative & often collaborative
 User-based or social networking web sites
 4chan, Newgrounds, Reddit, Facebook, Fark, Flickr,
Myspace, Slashdot, Something Awful, YouTube, etc
infographics
What are they?
 Visual representations of information, data or
knowledge
Why so popular?
 Present complex info quickly & clearly
 (sounds like how we tweet)
Information graphics
Memes
 Meme: an idea, behavior or style that spreads
from person to person within a culture.
 Internet meme: is an idea that is propagated
through the World Wide Web. The idea may take
the form of a hyperlink, video, picture, website,
hashtag, or just a word or phrase, such as
intentionally misspelling the word "more" as
"moar" or "the" as "teh". (wikipedia)
Why are Memes so popular?
 Brevity
 familiarity
 Highly visual content
 Instant accessibility
 Conducive to sharing
 Tailor made for a viral
internet culture
List of Internet phenomena
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_memes
Trends – Demotivational
Viral Videos
 100 Greatest hits of YouTube in 4 min
http://bit.ly/AR8qL
Culture Jamming –
creative appropriation
“refiguring logos, fashion statements, and
product images as a means to challenge the
idea of "what's cool” along with assumptions
about the personal freedoms of
consumption” (Boden & Williams,2002).
Culture Jamming is “an organized, social activist effort that aims to counter the
bombardment of consumption oriented messages in the mass media .”
Chad Gillespie: What Is This Jam In My Culture?
Questions?
CLASS.
IS.
DONE.