Linda Reynoso

Professor Amber Ward

ART 133 Section 7
Unit Paper 2
In the article Interpreting Visual Culture by Terry Barrett, the teaching practice of
connotations and denotations are discussed across different age and skill ranges. From the article
I gathered that denotations are ideas shown in an image and connotations are the things that an
observer can infer as meaning based upon the way things are presented in an image (Barrett,
2003). For example when college students were taught to use this strategy on the magazine cover
they described it as three women, seemingly African American, with light brown skin
(Barrett, 2003, p 8). For the connoted image the students used clues such as the words Booty
Camp! placed right below their breasts to infer that attention is drawn to the womens sexual
anatomy (Barrett, 2003). The article describes how this strategy is used in art teachers, the
college students, middle-school students, and kindergartners with some adaptations (Barrett,
2003).
This article combined with the Visual Thinking Strategies that were introduced to my
peers and I during this unit were very intriguing to me. The fact that a strategy like connotations
and denotations can be applied throughout the years and be successful in a classroom is really
interesting. It is a skill that could be introduced in the younger grades with the simple items like
the cereal boxes in the article and then as they grow and get better at the skill be introduced to
other art pieces to pick apart. Visual Thinking Strategies can also be used to help learners
through this process. By paraphrasing what a student is saying and pointing to what they are
discussing at that point it helps to generate other new ideas in other students minds.
Reference
Barrett, T. (2003). Interpreting visual culture. Art Education, 56(2), 6-12.