Visual Literacy and Art History: Teaching Images and Objects in Digital Environments

Abstract

Though the image is central to the discipline, art history has not contributed extensively to the definition and practice of visual literacy studies. This chapter identifies an intersection between the two fields by examining the role of digital reproduction in the study of art history, particularly the ways in which reproductions of art objects and architecture in online digital environments provide an egalitarian space for students and teachers to hold discussion beyond the classroom. First, this chapter provides a brief examination of art history's pedagogical practices as they relate to visual literacy studies. Then, four activities and assignments are presented which highlight the digitized object as a pedagogical tool. Students demonstrate visual and media literacy in assignments that make use of familiar apps like Instagram to perform traditional art historical methods of evaluating images, such as visual analysis and iconography, on the digitally reproduced image. Instructors guide students through web sites that host digitized objects, meeting their students, for example, in a medieval cathedral and discussing the articulation of the digital space. Through these activities, art history instructors capitalize on students' technological abilities as digital natives while providing them with perspective on image-based technologies of previous eras. Although the focus is on students in a traditional higher education environment, many of the exercises presented can be modified for a younger learner base or the nontraditional higher education student.

El uso intertextual de las fuentes hist�ricas ic�nicas en las manuales escolares de la LOMCE

“…El tratamiento de la imagen, su decodificación y significación crítica se presenta como uno de los retos fundamentales de la escuela actual, la cual está inmersa en sociedades con una digitalización acelerada que está incrementando la exposición a multitud de estímulos visuales. Como conse-cuencia de todo ello encontramos que la cantidad y variedad de imágenes accesibles por medio de la red ha llevado a la aparición de un nuevo tipo de lectores que, a diferencia de épocas pasadas, se ven menos limitados por los condicionantes físicos y de localización a la hora de acceder a estos recursos (Filch, 2015). Una situación que lleva a que el alumnado, por ejemplo, necesite emplear e interpretar múltiples documentos y fuentes para poder informarse y, así, ser capaces de construir conocimientos y tomar decisiones (Anmarkrud, Bråten, y Strømsø, 2014;Cooper, 2012).…”

“…Las habilidades vinculadas al análisis e interpretación de las imágenes en la sociedad actual son de gran importancia (Filch, 2015), así como también lo es el desarrollo de un pensamiento histórico que contemple dimensiones éticas necesarias para la vida personal y social del alumnado (López-Facal et al, 2017). Ambos elementos son fundamentales y pueden desarrollarse si invitamos al alumnado a formular preguntas y profundizar sobre los discursos inherentes a cualquier fuente histórica.…”

Virtual Reality and Learning: A Case Study of Experiential Pedagogy in Art History

“…For instance, in the collection of essays on Teaching Art History with New Technologies, new digital technologies and web-based applications for building concept maps and GIS are discussed, but VR was in its infancy [2]. Finch [3] confirms the surprising dearth of studies and points to the apparent hostility of digital environments in teaching in the discipline. A study by the Kress Foundation in 2011 confirms the assumption.…”