Understanding Visual Art: An Introduction

Visual Art

• Visual Art is the analytical study of art appreciation, interpretation, and critique.
• It encompasses techniques, composition, materials, terminology, and the cultural and social significance of artistic expressions.
• As a branch of the humanities, it coexists with Literature, Music, Drama & Theater, and Dance.
• Visual art is primarily experienced through sight, unlike performing arts.

Understanding Visual Arts

• Visual Arts refer to art forms designed to be appreciated through visual perception.
• It involves creating images, structures, and objects to convey meaning and evoke emotions.
• Visual literacy enables individuals to analyze, interpret, and critique imagery beyond mere observation.

Forms of Visual Arts

• Painting is the artistic application of pigments on a surface to create imagery.
• Drawing involves using lines, shading, and perspective to create visual compositions.
• Printmaking is the process of transferring images using engraving, etching, or screen printing.
• Sculpture consists of three-dimensional artistic forms created through carving, modeling, or assembling materials.
• Ceramics are artworks made from clay and other materials, often hardened by heat.
• Photography involves capturing and manipulating images using a camera.
• Video Art uses moving images as an artistic medium.
• Filmmaking is the creative production of films as a narrative or artistic expression.
• Design is the artistic arrangement of elements in graphic design, fashion, or industrial design.
• Crafts are handmade creations serving aesthetic or functional purposes.
• Architecture involves the design and construction of buildings and structures with artistic and functional elements.

Purpose and Significance of Visual Arts

• Ceremonial art is used in rituals, religious practices, and traditions to express cultural identity.
• Expressive art serves as a medium for artists to communicate emotions, thoughts, and ideas.
• Narrative art conveys historical events, stories, or societal messages.
• Functional art consists of artistic creations designed for practical use, such as furniture and architecture.
• Persuasive art is utilized in advertising, propaganda, and social activism to influence opinions.
• Aesthetic art is created to showcase beauty and artistic mastery.

Reading Visual Arts

• It involves the ability to read, analyze, and critique works of visual arts.
• Reading is forming a perception based on imagery, form, and language translated through the experience of the reader.
• Visual reading is the ability to find meaning through imagery.

Why Study Art?

• People may learn to address and embrace diversity, present emotions, and differentiate values in the world, according to the study of Punzalan (2018).
• Arts allow schools to provide students with knowledge of ethics, see social realities, and understand their rights and responsibilities.
• Arts improve students' performances, specifically learning skills, critical thinking skills, creativity, and school attendance (Eisner 2003).

Key Benefits of Studying Art

• Develop personal exploration and expression.
• Understand varied cultures.
• Develop strong analytical abilities.
• Improve interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.
• Enhance communication skills.
• Develop higher-order skills.
• Aid in conceptualizing, problem-solving, and critical thinking.
• Develop self-discipline.
• Adapt and be creative.

Core Elements of Visual Arts

• Shape consists of defined areas with height and width, classified as geometric (e.g., circles, squares) or organic (irregular, natural forms).
• Shape is a two-dimensional design encased by lines to signify its height and width, used to provide a symbolic and faux feeling.
• Line functions as marks moving in a space between two points.
  • Straight Lines signify steadiness & force.
  • Horizontal Lines indicate repose & serenity.
  • Vertical Lines represent poised, balanced, forceful & dynamic qualities.
  • Diagonal Lines convey action & movement.
  • Curved Lines express grace, movement, flexibility & joyousness.
• Form refers to three-dimensional objects possessing height, width, and depth (e.g., spheres, cubes).
• Space is the distance between shapes and objects.
  • Positive space is the subject of the artwork.
  • Negative space is the empty areas surrounding the subject.
• Texture is the surface quality of an artwork, which can be tactile (real) or implied (visual perception of texture).
• Value is the degree of lightness and darkness, affecting contrast and depth perception.
• Color is the visual perception of light, characterized by hue (color name), intensity (brightness), and value (light or dark tones).

Principles of Art

• Pattern is a repeating unit of space or form, representing the repetition of a visual element.
  • Man-made patterns can be either regular or irregular; regular patterns repeat predictably.
  • Natural patterns are found in nature (e.g., waves, tree rings).
• Balance is the visual distribution of elements.
  • Symmetrical balance refers to a sense of formality, order, and permanence.
  • Asymmetrical balance occurs when both sides are different, but it is arranged to look balanced.
• Emphasis is the focal point that attracts attention in an artwork.
• Contrast is the difference in art, achieved by the arrangement of opposite elements, such as smooth and rough textures, small and large shapes, and light and dark colors.
• Harmony & Unity: An artwork becomes complete when all elements work together in a composition, ensuring a cohesive and visually pleasing result.
• Variety introduces different elements to maintain interest.
• Movement pertains to the physical movement in art, which can also be shown through repetition, such as repeating lines.
• Proportion is the size relationship between elements to maintain balance.

Visual Art Analysis

• Author's Meaning: From the author's perspective.
  • Expert's Meaning: Based on an expert's perspective.
  • Artist's Meaning: Researching the artist's background.
  • Visual Thinking: Imagining the artistic process and decision-making.
  • Critical Viewing: A tool to read art using questions and critical thinking to critique a work of art.
• Audience's meaning comes from the perspective of an audience viewing a visual artwork.
  • Visual Language: A tool for readers to look at the artwork's message, code, and symbols.
  • Constructive Meaning: Interpreting art through personal experiences and knowledge.

Levels of Visual Analysis

• Literal Description involves identifying and gathering relevant data from a piece of artwork.
• Comprehensive Feeling is understanding how the artwork influences feelings and thoughts.
• Formal Analysis is based on literal description and comprehensive feeling toward a piece of artwork.
• Interpretation of Meaning involves drawing from personal experience and information acquired from formal analysis and contextual knowledge to reflect on the artwork.
• Value Judgment involves drawing on all of the above to make reasonable, effective, and comprehensive judgments about the significance and value of the artwork.

Notable Examples of Visual Art

• Painting – Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (Renaissance Masterpiece).
• Sculpture - La Pieta by Michelangelo (Religious Renaissance Sculpture).
• Architecture – Leaning Tower of Pisa (Iconic Structural Design).
• Drawing – Darna by Mars Ravelo & Nestor Redondo (Filipino Comic Illustration).
• Photography – Photojournalism by Dennis Bautista (Visual Storytelling).
• Video Art - The Colour of Nothing by Andrew Frost (Postmodern Digital Art).

Conclusion

• Visual art is a powerful medium of expression, cultural representation, and historical documentation.
• Mastering the elements and principles of art enhances both art appreciation and creation.
• Visual analysis and critique enable a deeper connection between the viewer and the artwork.
• Understanding art allows individuals to broaden their perspectives, think critically, and engage with the world creatively.

Difference Between Habit, Mannerism & Routine

Habit

• A behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiological exposure.
• Becomes nearly or completely involuntary.
• A learned behavior that becomes reflexive over time.
• Example: Brushing your teeth after breakfast.

Mannerism

• A characteristic and often unconscious mode or peculiarity of action, bearing, or treatment.
• Example: Biting fingernails, clearing the throat, flipping hair.

Routine

• A sequence of actions regularly followed; a fixed program.
• Example: A morning routine of waking up, showering, and eating breakfast.

Who is Pierre Félix Bourdieu?

• Renowned French Sociologist, Philosopher & Anthropologist.
• Born: August 1, 1930, Denguin, France. Died: January 23, 2002, Paris.
• His work had a major impact on the social sciences in the second half of the 20th century.
• Pioneered important sociological concepts like Symbolic violence, Cultural capital and Habitus

What is Habitus?

• One of Bourdieu's most influential yet ambiguous concepts.
• Refers to the physical embodiment of cultural capital—the deeply ingrained habits, skills, and dispositions we develop due to life experiences.
• A learned set of preferences or dispositions that shapes how we perceive, think, and act.
• Taste in art, food, and clothing is influenced by social class positions (upper class, middle class, lower class).

Examples of Habitus

• The way you dress.
• Your accent.
• Your body language.
• Things you feel naturally good at.
• Your values.

Habitus and its Influence

The way we perceive the world around us.

• Perception, including worldview and ideologies, is part of habitus and shaped by personal and cultural histories.
• Identity is constructed, debated, and re-constructed through interactions (Norris, 2005).
• Perception of gender roles is influenced by family interactions, media, and culture.
• Over time, these perceptions become internalized as natural within a sociocultural context.

The way we speak

• Accent, choice of phrases, and slang are part of habitus, reflecting who we are and where we come from.
• Language use positions individuals within social and economic landscapes.
• Working-class language may be seen as crass by the upper class, while posh language signals social status.
• Symbolic domination occurs when fluent speakers of the standard language view themselves as superior, while non-standard speakers may feel inferior (Hanks, 2005).

Our values and beliefs

• Religion is an example of habitus—an enduring set of values, attitudes, and behaviors shaping interactions.
• Durkheim (1912) argued that religion is not just beliefs but also the social context in which they are enacted.
• Religion is passed down by example and ritual rather than through written texts.
• Bourdieu stated that people act religiously based on what they believe in their bodies to be right, not through open calculation (Kupari, 2016).

Our level of education is a reflection of our habitus

• Educational habitus is influenced by school type, support, work experience, and effort.
• Elite schoolboys develop refined speech, formal attire, and upper-class sports preferences (rugby, rowing).
• Working-class boys may value manual labor, relaxed clothing, and sports like boxing or soccer.
• Socialization shapes perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors, making habitus feel natural rather than culturally mediated.

Socialization and Lived Experience

• People forget they have an accent until they leave their homeland.
• A person raised in a devoutly religious family may view religious texts and values as absolute truth.
• Bourdieu (1977) stated that we act a certain way due to lived experience, not solely by external social structures.
• Behavior is learned through exposure, not imposed by rules.
• "It is yesterday's man who predominates in us" - Our present is shaped by past experiences and repeated actions.

Distinction

• Termed by Bourdieu.
• Linked with the notion of taste, meaning a refined, educated, sophisticated worldview.
• Example: A photograph of a pile of dishes and utensils may be seen differently by a gardener and a professor.

What is Cultural Literacy?

• A combination of knowledge and skill.
• A familiarity with official and unofficial rules, values, genres, knowledge, and discourses in a cultural field.
• Example: The Iceberg Model - visible aspects of culture (language, dress, food) vs. hidden cultural norms (values, history, beliefs).

Seeing as Reading

• Our habitus disposes us to see certain things.
• Sometimes, there is a misfit (anomaly) between what we expect to see and what we actually register.
• To look means to gaze upon something with your eyes and acknowledge its presence and Seeing requires time, patience, open mindedness, and, sometimes even effort.
• Three simple steps to understand art are Look, see and think
• Looking is about literally describing what is in front of you, while seeing is about applying meaning to it.
• To look suggests both the beginning and end of the action, whereas to see suggests the beginning of a process of investigation.

Techniques of Seeing as Reading

• Selection & Omission: Every act of looking is also an act of not seeing.
  • Example: A candid shot-some details are selected, others ignored.
• Frame: Selecting details to focus on.
  • Example: A photographer frames a subject while blocking out other elements.
• Signification & Evaluation: Deliberate or spontaneous selection of contents in a frame.
• Arrangement: How signs or images are grouped or sequenced.
  • Example: The Rule of Thirds in photography.
• Differentiation & Connection: Finding connections between unrelated elements.
• Focus: The act of attending closely or carefully to an event, person, thing or scene to create an interesting text worthy of attention.
• Context: The interrelated conditions in which something exists.

Seeing in Time and Motion

• The production of visual meaning is an ongoing process.
• The meaning of an image changes based on its framing and context.
• Example: A photographer takes a picture of a woman and a dog and If another shot is taken 10 meters away, now including a house and fourteen other dogs, it creates a different text.

Text and Intertext

• A text is anything that conveys a set of meanings to the person who examines it.
  • Example: A collection of family photographs tells a story when placed together.
• Intertext refers to how texts relate to one another.

Examples of Intertextuality

• A movie referencing another movie.
• A novel using phrases from historical texts.
• A song using lyrics from another song.

Types of Intertext

• Allusion is an indirect reference to another text.
  • Example: A movie character saying "This is my destiny," referencing classic hero stories.
• Quotation – Direct repetition of another text.
  • Example: A book quoting a historical speech.
• Calque - A word-for-word translation.
  • Example: "Reclusion Perpetua" to "Life Imprisonment."
• Plagiarism – Copying without credit.
• Translation – Converting meaning into another language.
• Pastiche - Borrowing elements from one or more works to create something new.
  • Example: A film that imitates old Hollywood styles.
• Parody - Imitating another style for humor or criticism.
  • Example: "Scary Movie" makes fun of horror films.

Sign and Intertextuality

• Sign - Anything that conveys meaning within a text.
• Intertextuality
  • Relationship between texts; every text is a product of intertextuality.
  • The use of other texts to create new texts.
  • Example: Katy Perry's "Roar" referencing the phrase "Eye of the Tiger."
• Genre is a structured way of creating meaning through social context.
• It represents a pattern or set of rules that a given text follows to communicate its message effectively to its intended audience.

Which of these would be a kind of text?(all)

• A graphic novel or comic book
• A journal written by a 15-year-old
• A series of photographs
• A poem
• A movie

Conclusion

• As readers, we are also writers—we select, edit, and frame what we see.
• Our perception is influenced by habitus and cultural literacy.
• Visual texts are created using techniques like selection, omission, framing, and evaluation.
• Seeing is a learned behavior shaped by social experience.

Visual Technologies

• Definition: An engineering discipline dealing with visual representation.
• Purpose: Helps people make sense of their surroundings, capture moments, and navigate the world.
• Evolution: High bandwidth, Cloud computing, real-time data, and mobile devices allow exponential visual content creation (images & videos).

Types of Visual Technologies

• Photography involves The art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically (image sensor) or chemically (photographic film).
• Printing is a mass reproduction process for text and images using a master form or template.
  • Woodblock Printing – The earliest form, developed in China before 220 AD.
  • Movable Type – Invented by Bi Sheng (1040 AD).
  • Printing Press – Invented by Johannes Gutenberg (15th century).
• Augmented Reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world with computer-generated content.
  • Incorporates real & virtual worlds, real-time interaction, and 3D registration of objects.
  • Example: Pokémon Go, Google Lens, Theme Park Experiences.
• Virtual Reality (VR) is a simulated experience using pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to immerse users.
  • Applications: Video games, education (medical/military training), virtual business meetings.
  • It uses VR headsets or multi-projected environments.
  • Completely replaces the user's real-world environment with a simulated one.
• Video: An electronic medium for recording, copying, playing, broadcasting, and displaying moving images.

Augmented Reality vs. Virtual Reality

• New Technologies of Seeing Includes older media (film, video, TV) and newer digital tools (computers, internet, VR).
• Uses scientific instruments like microscopes, telescopes, and digital imaging.
• Technology is not just devices—it is also an action that shapes society and production and it is a sort of knowledge— ‘know-how' and skill.
• Sigmound Freud said that technology extends human ability, making people "prosthetic gods" and Ernst Kapp saw communication technologies (railways, telegraphs) as extensions of human circulatory & nervous systems.

The Art of Seeing and Visual Literacy Points:

• Looking and seeing are not the same.
• Art is a universal language and a form of communication.
• The education system focuses on textual and computer literacy but neglects visual literacy.
• The media often discuss declining literacy rates, focusing on textual literacy while ignoring visual literacy.
• Nicholas Mirzoeff (1999) stated that "Modern life takes place onscreen, making human experience more visual than ever before."
• Donald Hoffman (1998) Highlights the complexity of visual content in media (MTV, video games, virtual reality).
• James Elkins argued that visual complexity peaked during the Renaissance and declined after the 19th century.
• Jeannette Winterson suggested that spending extended time observing a single artwork allows for deeper appreciation.
• Digital communication promotes quick glances over deep visual engagement.

Definition of Image:

A physical likeness or representation of a person, animal, or thing, photographed, painted, sculptured, or otherwise made visible.

• In psychology, a mental representation of a previously perceived object.
• Is generally defined as, "...something that stands for something else, to someone in some capacity."
• Two great thinkers in Semiotics were Ferdinand de Saussure (Swiss linguist, founder of modern semiotics) and Charles Sanders Peirce (American philosopher, developed a classification system for signs).

Two Parts of a Sign are:

• Signifier:
  • The physical representation (words, images, symbols). Ex. Facebook. Signifier 3 Categories:
• Icon - has a physical resemblance to the signified. Ex. Drawing of a bike.
• Symbol - opposite of an icon so it does not resemble the signifier that is being represented. Ex.: McDo, Pepsi
• Index - describes the physical connection between a signifier and a signified.
• Signified
  • The concept that the signifier represents. Ex. Facebook is a social media, Facebook is for friends, family or entertainment
• Three Categories of Signs:
  • Icon - has a physical resemblance to the signified. Ex. Drawing of a bike.
  • Symbol - opposite of an icon so it does not resemble the signifier that is being represented. Ex.: McDo, Pepsi
  • Index: A direct connection between signifier and signified (e.g., smoke indicating fire).

Denotation vs. Connotation:

• Denotation: The literal meaning of a word or image (e.g., dog = domesticated animal).
• Connotation: Cultural and emotional associations with a word or image (e.g., a dog representing loyalty).
• Symbols and signs allow efficient visual communication. Used extensively in marketing and web design (e.g., download buttons, brand logos).
• Visuality relates back to the perspective from which culturally relevant aspects of images are understood and is subject to historical and social contexts.

Differences between Signs and Symbols:

Visuality and Reality

• Roland Barthes (1977) noted that images function as a language but lack grammatical structure.
• According to Aristotle, the pleasure of realism comes from learning and identifying with the subject matter with Panofsky outlining the 3 meanings of structure with the material, factual and contextual structure.
• Both terms, visuality and reality rely on the understanding of what the art or image means based on historical information and what culture the object is trying to convey.