Reading Visual Arts SIM Manual

College of Arts and Sciences Education
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Matina Campus, Davao City
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UNIVERSITY OF MINDANAO
Languages Discipline
Physically Distanced but Academically Engaged
Self-Instructional Manual (SIM) for Self-Directed Learning (SDL)
Course/Subject: GE 20 - Reading Visual Arts
Name of Teacher: Prof. Ruben Fajardo
THIS SIM/SDL MANUAL IS A DRAFT VERSION ONLY. THIS IS NOT FOR

SALE AND NOT FOR REPRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OUTSIDE OF
ITS INTENDED USE. THIS IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE USE OF THE
STUDENTS WHO ARE OFFICIALLY ENROLLED IN THE
COURSE/SUBJECT.
EXPECT REVISIONS OF THE MANUAL.
Table of Contents
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Page
Course Outline 5
Course Outline Policy 5
Course Information 9
Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO-a) 10
Metalanguage 11
Essential Knowledge 12
1. Reading the Visual 12
1.1. Seeing as Reading 13

1.2. Seeing in Context 14
1.3. Techniques of Seeing as Reading 15
1.4. Seeing in Time and Motion 16
1.5. Text and Intertext 17
1.6. Text and Genres 18
2. Visual Technologies 20
2.1. Tacit Seeing 20

2.2. Seeing as Literacy 20
2.3. Arresting Reality 21
2.4. New Technologies of Seeing 22
ULO-a Activities 24
Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO-b) 31
Metalanguage 31
1. Communication and the Visual 31
1.1. Seeing and Sense 31

1.2. Images and Sign 32
1.3. Images and Meaning 32
1.4. Reading the Real 34
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1.5. The Reality Function 36
2. Visual Narratives 31
2.1. What is Narrative 32

2.2. Plot and Narrative 32
2.3. Time and Narrative 32
2.4. Content and Narrative 33
2.5. Everyday Life as Narrative 34
2.6. Image into Text 34
3. Visual Art, Visual Culture 44
3.1. The Identity of Art 44

3.2. Reading Artworks 45
3.3. The Fields of Artistic Production 46
3.4. Aesthetic Judgment 47
3.5. Aesthetic Pleasure 48
ULO-b Activities 50
Unit Learning Outcome (ULO-c) 56
Metalanguage 56
1. Normalizing Vision 57
1.1 Modernity as a Way of Seeing 57

1.2 Subjective Vision and the Scientific Gaze 59
1.3 Knowledge, Technology and the Trained Eye 61
2. Selling the Visual 62
2.1 Capitalism and Culture 62

2.2 Commoditizing the World 64
2.3 Everyday as Commodity 65
ULO-c Activities 66
Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO-d) 68
Metalanguage 68
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1. Media as Spectacle 69
1.1 Society of the Spectacle 69

1.2 The Media and Imagined Communities 72
1.3 The Imperative to Communicate 74
ULO-d Activities 76
Online Code of Conduct 84
Course Outline: GE 20 – Reading Visual Arts
Course Coordinator: Fajardo, Ruben

Email: rfajardo@umindanao.edu.ph
Student Consultation: Done by online (LMS) or thru text, emails, or calls
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Mobile: 09778257685
Effectivity Date: May 2020
Mode of Delivery: Blended (On-Line with face to face or virtual sessions)
Time Frame: 54 hours
Student Workload: Self-Directed Expected Learning
Requisites: None
Credit: 3
Attendance Requirements: A minimum of 95% attendance is required at all scheduled
Virtual or face-to-face sessions.
Course Outline Policy
Areas of Concern Details

Contact and Non-contact Hours This 3-unit course self-instructional manual is designed
for a blended learning mode of instructional delivery
with scheduled face-to-face or virtual sessions. The
expected number of hours will be 54, including face-to-
face or virtual sessions. The face-to-face sessions shall
include the summative assessment tasks (exams) if
warranted.
Assessment Task Submission of assessment tasks shall be on the 3rd,
5th, 7th, and 9th weeks of the term. It is also
expected that you already paid your tuition and
other fees before submitting the assessment task.
If the assessment task is done in real-time through the
Blackboard Learning Management System's features,
the course coordinator shall arrange the schedule
ahead of time.
Turnitin Submission To ensure honesty and authenticity, all assessment
tasks are required to be submitted through Turnitin
with a maximum similarity index of 30% allowed. This
means that if your paper goes beyond 30%, the
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students will either opt to redo her/his paper or explain

in writing addressed to the course coordinator the
reasons for the similarity. In addition, if the paper has
reached more than 30% similarity index, the student
may be called for disciplinary action following with the
University’s OPM on Intellectual and Academic
Honesty.
Please note that academic dishonesty such as cheating

and commissioning other students or people to
complete the task for you have severe punishments
(reprimand, warning, and expulsion).
Penalties for Late Assignments/ The score for an assessment item submitted after the
Assessments designated time on the due date, without an approved
extension of time, will be reduced by 5% of the possible
maximum score for that assessment item for each day
or part-day that the assessment item is late.
However, if the assessment paper's late submission has

a valid reason, a letter of explanation should be
submitted and approved by the course coordinator. If
necessary, you will also be required to present/attach
pieces of evidence.
Return of Assignments/ Assessment tasks will be returned to you two (2) weeks
Assessments after the submission. This will be returned by email or
via the Blackboard portal.
For group assessment tasks, the course coordinator

will require some or a few students for online or
virtual sessions to ask clarificatory questions to validate
the originality of the assessment task submitted and
ensure that all the group members are involved.
Assignment Resubmission You should request in writing to the course coordinator
his/her intention to resubmit an assessment task. The
resubmission is premised on the student’s failure to
comply with the similarity index and other reasonable
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grounds such as academic literacy standards or other

reasonable circumstances, e.g., illness, accident, or
financial constraints.
Re-marking of Assessment Papers In writing, you should request to the program
and Appeal coordinator your intention to appeal or contest the
score given to an assessment task. The letter should
explicitly explain the reasons/points to contest the
grade. The program coordinator shall communicate
with the students on the approval and disapproval
of the request.
If disapproved by the course coordinator, you can
elevate your case to the program head or the dean with
the original letter of request. The final decision will
come from the dean of the college.
Grading System All culled from BlackBoard sessions and traditional
contact:
Course discussions/exercises – 30%
1st formative assessment – 10%
2nd formative assessment – 10%
3rd formative assessment – 10%
All culled from on-campus/onsite sessions (TBA):
Final exam – 40%

Submission of the final grades shall follow the usual
University system and procedures.
Preferred Referencing Style Use the 7th Edition of the APA Publication Manual
Student Communication You are required to create a umindanao email
account, which is a requirement to access the
BlackBoard portal. Then, the course coordinator shall
enroll the students to have access to the materials and
resources of the course. All communication formats:
chat, submission of assessment tasks, requests, etc.
shall be through the portal and other university
recognized platforms.
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You can also meet the course coordinator in

person through the scheduled face to face sessions
to raise your issues and concerns.
For students who have not created their student email,
please contact the course coordinator or program
head
Contact Details of the Dean DR. KHRISTINE MARIE D. CONCEPCION
Email: artsciences@umindanao.edu.ph
Phone: (082)300-5456/305-0647 Local 134
Contact Details of the Program DR. EDWIN L. NEBRIA
Head
Email: edwin_nebria@umindanao.edu.ph
Phone: (082)300-5456/305-0647 Local 134
Students with Special Needs Students with special needs shall communicate with
the course coordinator about the nature of his or her
special needs. Depending on the nature of the need,
the course coordinator, with the approval of the
program coordinator, may provide alternative
assessment tasks or extension of the deadline for
submission of assessment tasks. However, the
alternative assessment tasks should still be in the
service of achieving the desired course learning
outcomes.
Instructional Help Desk Contact DR. KHRISTINE MARIE D. CONCEPCION
Details
Dean - CASE
Email: artsciences@umindanao.edu.ph
Phone: (082)300-5456/305-0647 Local 134
Library Contact Details BRIGIDA E. BACANI
LIC-Head
Email: library@umindanao.edu.ph
Phone: 0951 376 6681
Well-being Welfare Support Held ZERDSZEN P. RANISES
Desk Contact Details
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CASE Guidance Facilitator

Email: gstcmain@umindanao.edu.ph
Phone: 09504665431
Course Information: see/download course syllabus in the Blackboard LMS
CC’s Voice: Welcome to this course GE 20: Reading Visual Arts. You have seen around you
the diverse forms of arts. How do we gaze at them and interpret the arts depend
on our everyday experiences. It is good to note that “to see is to believe”,
however, the process of understanding lies not on the peripheral aspect of an
artwork but what is within. Thus, our central concern is to make sense of the
importance of visuality to what people say and do., and how, they act in their
everyday lives.
Reading the Visual Arts enables you to have an ability to innovate, appreciate,
CO critique, and analyze. Through transdisciplinarity and multimodal approaches, this
course equips students with broad knowledge of the human disciplines that
characterized modernity, cultural studies that underpinned modern life.
This course helps you to identify the basic elements and principles of reading
visual art,Knowledge
visual technologies and understandings
on the tacit understand its meaning.
people have of the visual domain,
cultivate
This will their imagination,
enable you to make sense imaginative
exemplify of the importance
ability ofwhich
visuality, explore the
are essential in
effect the idea ofand
communication aesthetics
the visualhas
andonthereading of visual texts, analyze the economic
visual narratives.
effects of a globalized market, and illustrate explanations and arguments with images
It also helps
and anecdotes you
that are applyeclectic.
highly analytical and critical skills in describing both Visual
Arts and communication literacy.
This will produce innovative and highly eclectic presentations using the modern
technologies and different facilities of arts.
Let us begin!
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Big Picture
Week 1-3: Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO-a):
At the end of the unit, you are expected to:
a. Demonstrate in-depth knowledge on the definition, importance, and elements of

reading visual art; and
b. Develop a comprehensive understanding of reading the image and the way of
representing the subject.
Big Picture in Focus:

ULO-a. Demonstrate deep knowledge on the definition, elements, and importance of
reading visual art.
Metalanguage
In this section, the essential terms relevant to the study of GE 20 (Reading Visual
Art) and demonstrating ULO-a will be operationally defined to establish a common
frame of reference as to how the text works. You will encounter these terms as we go
through the study. Please refer to these definitions in case you will encounter difficulty in
understanding some concepts.
Terms and operational meaning of Reading Visual Art
1. Reading. A particular form of visual practice; is both an active and a creative

process;
2. Reading the visual. We draw on our general and specific knowledge, tastes,
habits, and personal context.
3. Visual Culture. The study of genealogy and practice of visualization of
modern culture. Its concentration is on the interface between images and
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viewers rather than on artists and works. It is concerned with visual events in
which information, meaning, or pleasure is sought by the consumer in an
interface with visual technology.
4. Visual studies. It is an interdisciplinary field with close links with humanities

and social sciences-philosophy, sociology, and literary studies.
5. Capital-A Art. It is one discipline that provides many useful techniques for
anyone studying visual culture and is one of the important fields of social
understanding, history, and culture.
6. Spectatorship – is the production of social media, especially digital media.
7. Visual matter. It is considered beautiful or appealing.
8. Semiotics. It is an analytical approach and a research methodology that

examines the use of what we are called signs in society.
9. Sign. It is a basic unit of communication; it is just something that has some

meaning for someone; means something, and not one thing.
10. Text. The name of a group of signs- a collection of signs organized in a

particular way to make meaning.
11. Context. This means the environment in which a text occurs and
communication takes place.
Essential Knowledge
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To perform the aforesaid big picture (unit learning outcomes) for the first three
(3) weeks of the course, you need to fully understand the following essential
knowledge that will be laid down in the succeeding pages. Please note that you are
not limited to refer to these resources exclusively. Thus, you are expected to utilize
other books, research articles, and other available resources in the university’s library
e.g. ebrary, search.proquest.com etc.
1. Reading the Visual
The Activity of Seeing

What are the differences between these two activities?
1.1 Seeing as Reading.

What can you describe in this illustration?
3 Main Points in Seeing as Reading
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1. We see things we are actively engaging with our environment rather than
merely reproducing everything within our line of sight.
2. Every act of looking and seeing is also an act of not seeing-some things
must remain invisible if we are to pay attention to other things in view.
3. The extent to which we see, focus on, and pay attention to the world
around us. (Three actions are inextricably linked, depends upon the
specific context in which we find ourselves).
Context- means the environment in which a text occurs and communication takes
place. Contexts are extraordinarily dynamic and variable because they incorporate
everything involved in that environment: the people, their history, current events,
similar texts with which they are comparing this one, and so on.
 The process of making and negotiating the visual (whether driving a car or
taking a photograph), always informed by the notions of attentiveness,
selection and omission, and context. We need to consider other issues,
such as when we focus on, attend to, and see something, and why we see
things differently over time, or from other people?
 We can carry this insight further by suggesting that when we see, we are,
in effect, engaged in the act of reading (the visual). When we read a book,
we try to follow, consider and understand the material at hand (the
words, the sentences, the story), and we end up making both meanings
and connections between different meanings.
(Please refer to the PDF Reading the Visual pp. 14-32 in the Blackboard
Open LMS for further details)
1.2. Seeing in Context
Activity: Film Viewing

Students will watch the movie “The Hobbit- The Fellowship of the Ring.”
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Simple Recall: In the film “The Fellowship of the Ring, the hobbit Bilbo Baggins is
represented as an inoffensive, generous, and altogether nice type who seems untouched by
desire, passion, or greed. But he has a secret: he owns a ring that can cast an evil spell on
him (binary of things).
 Habitus- can be understood as a set of values and dispositions gained from our
cultural history that stay with us across contexts (durable and transposable). These
values and dispositions allow us to respond to cultural rules and contexts in various
ways (they allow for improvisations). Still, these responses are always determined-
regulated- by where we have been in culture.
Cultural Literacy- refers to a general familiarity with, and an ability to use, the official
and unofficial rules, values, genres, knowledge, and discourses that characterize cultural
fields. In this sense, it is not just familiarity with a body of knowledge; it also presupposes an
understanding of how to think and see in a manner appropriate to the imperatives of the
moment.
 Our situation in that what we see is inextricably linked to and product of our cultural
trajectories, literacies, and context.
 We can exemplify this by returning to Verlaine’s reference to the ‘actor’s advice’
about things needing to happen twice. What this means is that we sometimes fail to
see the significance of something until we are aware of what we could call a pattern
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 To sum up, how and why people see in particular ways referred to habitus, cultural
trajectory, and cultural literacy as the most important factors in determining what
we see.
(Read further the PDF Reading Visual about Seeing in Context for further details)
1.3. Techniques of Seeing as Reading

Compare and contrast the picture of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci:
1. Important techniques for reading the visuals are:
 Selection and omission, framing, and the evaluation-every act of looking and
seeing is also an act of not seeing. (see figure1.3, pp. 30-reading the visual)
 Selection, omission, framing, and evaluation produce a visual text.
Text- are produced or created; this process of production is an ongoing one.
 The status of signs and texts is always relational and contingent.
2. Two important factors here are attention and focus. If we attend closely or carefully
to an event, person, thing, or scene, we will create a text of contiguous elements.
(Read further the PDF Reading Visual about Techniques of Seeing as Reading for
further details)
1.4. Seeing in Time and Motion
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 Several elements contribute to or facilitate the process of suturing the world

to make a text.
a. Color
b. Shape
c. Movement
d. Texture
e. Distance
f. Light
Analyze the picture of Zeus using the following elements.
(Read further the PDF Reading Visual about Seeing in Time and Motion for further details)
1.5. Text and Intertext
1. Sign- is anything that is treated as a meaningful part of the unit that is the
text.
Intertextuality-the use of other texts to create new texts.
2. Genre-is term for text-types

 These two concepts inform or influence visual activity.
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Describe each picture and the genre each picture belongs.
(Refer to pp. 27, Reading the Visual- pictures provide an example of the
relational character of signs and texts)
1.6. Text and Genres
Genres- text-types that structure meanings in certain ways through their

association with a particular social purpose and social context.
 We normally think of genres in terms of cultural fields and mediums

such as fiction or film- for instance, detective, science fiction, or
romance novels; and action, horror, or erotic films
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 Each of these genres is identifiable in its content, narratives,

characterization, discourses, values, and worldviews.
 Like intertext, genetics do not provide us with special access to visual
reality; rather, they are frames and references that we use to
negotiate, edit, evaluate, and in a sense, read the visual as a series of
text. How socio-cultural fields and institutions categorize people,
places, events, and texts in terms of certain genres is often based on
or associated with evaluative binaries orients and disposes us to see
and read the visual world in particular ways.
Text and Genres Activity:
Can you tell what particular place each picture belongs and describe the genre each picture
belongs to?
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(Read further the PDF Reading Visual regarding Text and Genres)
2. Visual Technologies
In this lesson, we take up the mechanics of visual perception, more

specifically. This includes the apparatuses and technologies people have developed
over the centuries as aids for seeing.
2.1. Tacit Seeing

How would you describe this image?
Pierre Bourdieu writes, “the relation to the world is a relation of presence in the
world, of being in the world, in the sense of belonging to the world.”
 So we see and perceive not because we are looking at the world from the
outside, as it were, but because we are part of everything within our gaze.
 This ‘everything’ includes our habitus (our background, tastes, tendencies,
and dispositions), as well as our physical aptitude and status.
 The principle of constancy states that ‘past experiences of the viewer will
influence what is perceived.’
(Read pp. 41 for further details.)
2.2. Seeing as Literacy
What comes out into your mind upon gazing at the picture below?
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 Tacit seeing is fine if we simply want to get through the day’s responsibilities
and activities, but it is insufficient if we want or need to make sense of what
we are seeing.
 As an analogy, consider the processes of communicating in the language.
 The school system trains children to develop sophisticated literacies in the
various components of written language. We learn the shapes of letters,
remember the look of words, we know grammar and syntax- and with these
literacies (and discipline-specific training), we can write or read anything from
abstract philosophy to shopping lists.
(Refer to pp. 42-45; Reading Visual Art PDF for further reading)
2.3. Arresting reality
What makes photography very important to you?
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 Arrested image- is most often associated with photography because

photographs perfectly freeze time and motion so that no other art form
achieves.
(Refer to pp. 45-47 of Reading Visual PDF for further details)
2.4. New Technologies of Seeing
Why is technology played an important role in visualizing reality?
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 Technology is defined variously, of course. We understand it to be a range of

objects (tools and other instruments and devices), and we know it as a sort of
knowledge-know-how and skill.
 Technology can also be understood as an organizing principle and a process.

The way society constitutes itself, and its formations bring people and
machines together to produce goods and services.
 The current era is marked by an incredible range of visual technologies, using

all the senses of the term presented above. It includes older forms of films,
video, and television; the newer ones of computers, the internet, and virtual
reality; and the ‘scientific’ mechanisms of microscope, telescope, and digital
imaging.
 We can take from this that technology is not just know-how or designed
devices; it is also a verb, a principle of action.
(Refer to pp. 53-55 of the PDF Reading the Visual for further information)
Self-Help: You can also refer to the sources below to help you further understand the
lesson:
1. Baesa, S. (2015) The Aesthetic experience: An Introduction to Humanities. Metro

Manila: Grandbooks Publishing
2. Cooper, C.(n.d)Movie/film review lesson plan. Date retrieve, April 7, 2020, from
https://dinus.ac.id/repository/docs/ajar/film+review+lesson+plan.pdf.
3. Jacob, S. (n.d) Framing pictures: film and the visual arts.
https://search.proquest.com/docview/2130930522/30522/307F71C614DDOPQ/7?
accountid=31259&gototoc-true
4. Schirato, T. & Webb, J. (2004) Reading the visual. Date retrieved, May 2, 2020, from
https://www.monoskop.org/images/1/15/Schirato_Tony_Webb_Jen_reading_the_Vis
ual.pdf
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5. Valli, M. (2013) Walk the Line: The Art of Drawing. London: Lawrence King
6. _____.(n.d) Edward Munch Painting, Biography, and Quotes. Date retrieved April 5,
2020, from https://www.edvardmunch.org/link.jsp.
7. http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/definition/visual-art.htm
8. PROQUEST BOOKS
Let’s Check
Activity 1. Now that you know the important concepts of reading the visual let us check how
well you understand the topic. Read the following sentences carefully. Write TRUE if the
statement is correct and FALSE if otherwise.
____________ 1. Reading is both an active and creative process while reading the visual
draws our general and specific knowledge, tastes, habits, and supernatural contexts.
____________ 2. Visual culture is a field of study and a set of ways of understanding these
physical and social phenomena.
____________ 3. Semiotics is an analytical approach and a research methodology that
examines the use of what we are called visuals in society.
____________ 4. Text is a collection of signs organized in a particular way, too devoid of the
meaning of visual art.
____________ 5. Habitus is a set of values and dispositions gained from the cultural history
that stay with us across contexts.
____________ 6. Cultural history and trajectories naturalize certain values and ideas, and
effectively determine worldviews.
____________ 7. Cultural literacy presupposes an understanding of how to think and see in
a manner that is inappropriate to the imperatives and context of artworks.
____________ 8. Things needing to happen twice means that we sometimes fail to see the
significance of something until we are aware of what could call a pattern.
____________ 9. If we attend closely or carefully to an event, person, thing, or scene, we
create a text made up of continuum elements.
____________ 10. Genres are text types that structure meanings in a certain way through
their associations with a particular purpose and social context.
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Let’s Analyze
Activity 1. Guided by the lessons on the introduction of reading visuals, it is best to note
that you can articulate the sub-topics in a manner of explanation. Now, it is your chance to
explain the following briefly.
1. Text and Genres
2. Text and Intertext
3. Seeing as Reading
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4. New Technologies of Seeing
5. Tacit Seeing
6. Techniques of Seeing as Reading
7. Seeing as Literacy
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8. Arresting Reality
9. Seeing in Context
In a Nutshell
Activity 1. Base on the essential terms and operational definition of concepts in the study of
reading visuals, please feel free to write your arguments or lessons learned below.
1.
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2.
3.
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Q&A List
Do you have any questions for clarification?
Questions/Issues Answers
1.
2.
3.
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4.
5.
Keywords Index
Reading Reading the Visual Text
Semiotics Sign Intertextuality

Habitus Genres Visual Culture

ULO-b. Exemplify imaginative ability which is essential in communication and the visual
and the visual narratives.
Metalanguage
Week 4-5: Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO-B):
For you to exemplify ULO-b, you will need to have an operational understanding of the
following terms below. You will encounter these terms as you go through this topic. Please
refer to these definitions in case you encounter difficulty in understanding some concepts.
1. Seeing. On the one hand, it is an automatic, physiological function we perform

without thinking and, on the other, a complex and absorbing process.
2. Seeing Subjects. Human beings whose feature characteristics are that they
access the physical and intellectual world through vision.
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3. Postmodernism. A set of theories and practices which describe the

contemporary world as a kind of MTV clip, a plethora of images whirling in
promiscuous uncertainty
Essential Knowledge
To perform the unit as mentioned earlier learning outcome, you need to fully
understand the following essential knowledge laid down in the succeeding pages.
1. Communication and the Visual
1.1 Seeing and Sense.

How may the five senses play a vital role in communication and visualizing reality?
 Eyes, in particular, fascinate us. They are the ‘windows to the soul.’
 According to Mirzoeff, “human experience is now more visual and

visualized than ever before.”
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 Human beings have always lived in a world packed with visual objects,
phenomena and have always looked at and made sense of the things
about them.
(See pp. 60-61, Reading Visual PDF for more details)
1.2 Images and Sign
What are the realizations you see in the pictures?
 We are no longer as visually complex people in earlier periods, not

because there are now fewer visual texts or because the texts are more
straightforward in design. We make sense of the world by using non-
visual analytical devices.
 “Linguistic turn”- a move within the Humanities to focus almost

exclusively on literary texts and to use the analytical devices associated
with literary texts to make sense of society, visual images, individual
psychology, and so on.
 All social practices, in other words, were understood as meaning-making

practices or semiotic events.
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 Under this analytical principle, visual texts are considered to

communicate according to linguistic rather than iconographical rules.
 Semiotics is certainly an effective tool for analysis because it deals with

signs-anything, which stands for something- and in general, even obscure
visual images can easily be imbued with some meaning.
(see pp. 62-64 for further reading)
1.3 Images and Meaning
See the emoji picture and its meaning.
 The semiotic principle of analyzing signs is attractive because it makes

good sense in terms of how people approach texts, and it has been
thoroughly texted over a considerable time.
 Though it is usually associated with French linguist Ferdinand de Saussure

and his Course in General Linguistics (1997), the idea of language as a
series of signs is found as early as Aristotle. He defined the human voice
as semantikos psophos, “significant sound,” or sounds that make
meanings.
 Semiotic - its basic principle is that language is not simply a naming device
but rather a differentiated symbolic system.
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(See pp. 64-66 of Reading Visual for further details)
1.4 Reading the Real
What is this picture all about?

What is the role of this in our world?
 Science tends to understand that is real as that which can be observed,

demonstrated, and proven. At the same time, the media use terms like
“reality” in a somewhat nebulous manner, equating reality with what is
happening in the “real world” with what “everyone thinks” or with the
“voice of the people.”
 When it comes to visual culture, the term “reality” is usually a shorthand

way of saying that some representation is “true to life.”
 What is meant by “true to life” itself depends on culture and context?
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 The ancient Greek notion of mimesis, or the imitation (the reproduction)

of reality, posits that the objects we see are only limitations of an ideal
form.
 Aristotle insisted that the pleasure of realists works in “learning,”

“inferring,” and “identifying.”
1.5 The Reality Function
How would you deal with the reality of life?
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 So truth-to-reality, transparent communication, tradition, or utility are

not the only ways to understand visual representation.
 We cannot rely on the evidence or the authority of our eyes to tell us the
truth of what we are seeing, and it can be argued that what reality means
in visual culture is simply a means of communication (it’s real, or like
reality, because it’s telling us something true).
2. Visual Narratives
What is this picture all about?
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 “A picture paints a thousand words,” and this is the issue we deal with in this
chapter: the degree to which pictures-visual culture can communicate or present
not just forms but stories too.
 In the earlier chapters, “reading” visual texts, and this expression alludes to the
notion that pictures, images, and visual objects more generally are not just to be
looked at, but contain a story, or a body of information, which we can access as
we might access the content of a written text.
 There is very little in the literature to indicate what is meant by “narrative
picture” or how such an object relates to what we know of narrative more
generally.
 This chapter explores what constitutes a narrative, its various elements, and how
these elements work together.
2.1 What is Narrative
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 In its simplest form, the narrative means ‘story.’ But of course, it is more
complex: the word comes from the Latin narrare, ‘to relate,’ so it
denotes both what is told and the process of telling.
 Narratology is the study of narrative. It begins with the ancients and with
works such as Aristotle’s Poetics. More recently, it has been associated
with structuralists like Gerard Genette and Roland Barthes’ early writings.
 Narrative theorists agree that the first and central issue about the
narrative is that stories always operate within a social context. The way
we organize the content of a narrative, what elements it must have, who
reads it, where it is read, and what it seems to be saying are all
determined by its cultural context.
2.2 Plot and Narrative
Watch a movie or read a novel or short story and write the basic elements of the story.
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Basic Elements of Story
a. Plot-what happened and why

b. Narrator -the point of view from which it is told
c. Characters- human or otherwise
d. Events-everything in the story that happens to or because of the characters
e. Time and place in which those events take place, and the causal relations
which link the events together
(Read further pp. 84-85 of Reading Visual for more details)
2.3 Time and Narrative
What is the role of time in visual reality?
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 Time- the most important design tool, according to the theorists of a

narrative.
 As Berger stated that ‘narratives, in the simplest sense, are stories that
take place in time-although, it is difficult to think of a story that doesn’t
take place in time. And Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan agrees that ‘time itself is
indispensable to both story and text.
 Time, in short, cannot be ‘told’ in visual texts or even in narrative

pictures; we can only infer it from the structure of the visual text and the
arrangement of its parts.
(Read further the details from pp. 86-87 from Reading Visual)
2.4 Content and Narrative
How important is the content of a story to you?
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 Time is not the only issue in visual stories.
 A narrative can also be implied or identified in a visual text by a device

such as the arrangement of the iconography or perspective to provide a
central focus.
 The use of light particularly structures the reading of the narrative:

lightning draws attention to particular features in a text and ensures we
make sense of the images.
i. Bright colors and whimsical drawing style-for
fantastical sense
ii. Dark images convey melancholy
iii. Black and white signal a particular aesthetic
 Another way of organizing and conveying narrative in a visual image is to

depict characters making expressive movements.
 Visual texts also use figures and techniques to convey stories through
conventions known by most people in a society. The use of literary (and
other) allusions is one approach.
 The known story and the produced image, which narrative theorists term
respectively fabula and sjuzet.
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 Fabula is the actual sequence or (perhaps imaginary) events in a text. It is

often difficult or impossible to identify the sjuzet in a visual text with any
certainty, but if the fabula, the ‘prestory,’ is well known and sufficiently
indicated in the images.
(Read further pp. 88-89 from Reading Visual PDF)
2.5 Everyday Life as Narrative
Live life to the fullest means?
 Every text belongs within a genre-there cannot be a text without a genre.

 In a similar vein, we can say that narrative pervades all of life-there
cannot be life without narrative. This is not because everyone’s life is
necessarily structured like a narrative.
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 The narrative is there not because it is inherent in life but because it

envelops us and structures our practice or practice experience.
 ‘good writing’ is mimetic (it shows’) and not diegetic (that is, it doesn’t
tell)
2.6 Image into Text
 Analyze this adage- “Pen is mightier than swords.”
 The visual texts that most obviously rely on verbal language-outside of

films and videos that is- are comic strips and graphic novels, which can be
defined as ‘open-ended dramatic narrative about a recurring set of
characters, told in a series of drawings, often including dialogue in
balloons and narrative text.

3. Visual Art, Visual Culture
What comes into your mind upon seeing these pictures?
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 In the general field of visual culture, paintings, sculptures, drawings, and art
photography are often seen as somehow outside or beyond that everyday
world of advertisements, television shows, magazines, and family snapshots.
 Art is generally an extremely visual field or set of practices, even if we look

outside the obvious painting, drawing, and sculpture candidates.
3.1. The Identity of Art
What does art mean to you?
 Art is peculiar to human culture; the word itself is etymologically

related to ‘artificial’ or produced by human beings.
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 The meaning of art evades firm definitions. In earlier periods, the

word ‘art’ means anything people did that required skill was an art.
Medieval or Renaissance writers, for instance, refer to the arts of war,
conversation, or smithing, and what we now call ‘artists’ were then
just artisans-ordinary workers who applied their specialized skills
within collectives or guilds.
(See pp. 105-106 of Reading Visual PDF for details)
3.2. Reading Artworks
 Appropriate literacies to read the artwork

A. Form - anything to do with its production that is not
associated with its meaning-making.
i. Medium
ii. Compositional elements
iii. Color
iv. Line
v. Shape
vi. Texture
 The technical aspects of its production allow us to begin

unpacking the work-classifying, categorizing, and critiquing it.
B. Examine the Content
i. What the work is about
ii. What it is saying
iii. Other issues to which it might be referring (including
intertexts)
iv. Its subject matter and;
v. Elements such as figure, genre, and narrative
C. The context in which it was made and disseminated
and is now being read.
Examine this picture using the appropriate literacies to read the artwork.
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(Read pp. 108-110 of Reading Visual PDF for details)
3.3. The Field of Artistic Production
What does this picture entail to you?
 Bourdieu states that art can be understood as comprising a cultural

field, which he calls the ‘field of cultural production.’
 Field means everything that is done, and everyone involved in doing it

within a discrete area of social practice.
 The following are the field of artistic production

1. Institutions (art museums, publishing houses, public relations
firms, government arts bodies)
2. People (artists, curators, directors, conservators, promoters)
(See pp. 110-112 of Reading Visual for more details)
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3.4. Aesthetic Judgment
Image of Immanuel Kant
 Immanuel Kant, who is closely identified with the discipline of

aesthetics, associated sound understanding with judgment (in The
Critique of Judgement 1790); in his estimate, the ability to judge
works of art depends on the clarity of thought and knowledge, and
not on the emotions.
 He reiterated beauty was not simply something that might bring

pleasure. In his book ‘Analytical of Beauty,’ he stated that “the delight
which determines the judgment of taste is independent of all interest.
 Seeing something as beautiful meant seeing it as an image rather than
as a real object.
 The aesthetic object was to be regarded as formal qualities (its

harmony and proportion) rather than practical desirability (as an
object to be consumed).
Would you judge a piece of art base on your heart or mind?
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(Read further pp. 125-127 for Reading Visual for more details)
3.5. Aesthetic Pleasure
What would you use, heart or brain, when judging beauty?
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 Aestheticists wrote expressly about the sensate elements of aesthetic

pleasure. The sphere of ‘sensation’ that was amenable to aesthetics
was somehow above and beyond actual sensation-it was committed
to process and reason.
 What this means in practice is that the art viewer, as a good

aesthetician, could not be personally and viscerally moved by a
beautiful object (or person): any pleasure taken must be pleasure in
the beautiful form, for instance, rather than an actual body-
something that leaves the pleasure of erotic imagery rather
ungrounded.
(For further details, see pp. 127-128 of Reading Visual PDF)
Self-Help: You can also refer to the sources below to help you further understand the lesson:
1. Baesa, S. (2015) The Aesthetic experience: An Introduction to Humanities. Metro

Manila: Grandbooks Publishing
2. Cooper, C.(n.d)Movie/film review lesson plan. Date retrieve, April 7, 2020, from
3. Jacob, S. (n.d) Framing pictures: film and the visual arts.
https://search.proquest.com/docview/2130930522/30522/307F71C614DDOPQ/7?
accountid=31259&gototoc-true
4. Schirato, T. & Webb, J. (2004) Reading the visual. Date retrieved, May 2, 2020, from
https://www.monoskop.org/images/1/15/Schirato_Tony_Webb_Jen_reading_the_Vis
ual.pdf
5. Valli, M. (2013) Walk the Line: The Art of Drawing. London: Lawrence King
6. _____.(n.d) Edward Munch Painting, Biography, and Quotes. Date retrieved April 5,
2020, from https://www.edvardmunch.org/link.jsp.
7. http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/definition/visual-art.htm
8. PROQUEST BOOKS
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Let’s Check
Activity 1. Now that you have a better knowledge of visual narratives and culture let us
check how well you understand the topic. Identify the answer to the following questions.
1. Who said that ‘the ability to judge works of art is dependent upon the clarity of
thought and knowledge, and not on the emotions”?
____________________________.
2. Who painted the work Madonna and Child with Infant John the Baptiste?
_______________________.
3. Is something peculiar to human culture or produced by human beings, is called?
________________.
4. Is the actual sequence of events in a text known as? _____________
5. In the simplest sense, are stories that take place in time, although it is difficult to
think of a story that does not take place in time, is known as?__________________.
6. The most important design tools as stated by the theorists of narrative, is?
______________
7. The point of view from which it is told, is?_____________
8. Is usually a shorthand way of saying that some representation is true to life, is
commonly known as _______________
9. He defined human voice as ‘significant sound’ or sounds that make
meaning,__________________
10. Considered to be the ‘windows to the soul.’______________
Let’s Analyze
Activity 1. To further understand visual narratives and visual art and culture, explain the
following phrases.
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1. Eyes are windows to the soul.
2. The Pen is Mightier than Swords
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In a Nutshell
Activity 1. Based on the definition of the essential terms and concepts of visual narratives,
art and culture, and the learning exercises you have done, please feel free to write your
arguments or lessons learned below.
1.
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2.
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Q&A List
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Keywords Index
Visual Narratives Art Reality
Field Aesthetics Seeing
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Visual Art Visual Culture Aristotle
Let’s us begin!
Week 7-9 : Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO-c)

ULO-c. Demonstrate deep knowledge on normalizing vision and selling the visual art.
Week 6-7: Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO-c)
A. Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of normalizing vision.
B. Enable to show mastery of the technique on selling the visual arts.
Metalanguage
For you to exemplify ULO-c, you will need to have an operational understanding of the
following terms below. You will encounter these terms as you go through this topic. Please
refer to these definitions in case you encounter difficulty in understanding some concepts.
1. Visual regime - refers to the process whereby a particular field or group of fields
(say, the sciences) manages to export its ways of seeing to most or all other fields.
Which in turn, leads to a universalizing of the authority of different forms, genres,
mediums, and practices of the visual to provide access to what we could call ‘visual
reality.’
2. Normalization is associated with the fields of science, bureaucracy, and

government.
3. Capitalism is part of the economic field.
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4. Biopower refers to knowledge, techniques, mechanisms, and operations

developed for analyzing, defining, controlling, and regulating behavior.
Essential Knowledge
To accomplish the aforementioned Big Picture Unit Learning Outcome (ULO-c) for
weeks 7-9, you are required to fully deduce the following vital knowledge that will be laid
down in the succeeding pages.
1. Normalizing Vision:
Introduction: Read the Synopsis of the Marx Brothers’ film Night at the Opera
• What is
this film all
about?
1.1. Modernity as a Way of Seeing
What are your views on the modern world?
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• Jonathan Crary argues that the advent and development of discourses, ideas,
perspectives, and practices define normalization as potential resources.
• Institutions, bureaucratic apparatuses, and their functionaries in fields such as

education, health, and military looked at people not as individuals but
predominantly how they might contribute to the state's well-being.
• Being disciplined did not simply mean being punished-rather; it referred to a process
whereby people’s bodies would be disposed to behave in a manner consistent with
the state and its various institutions considered normal, healthy, and productive.
• Foucault identifies two significant processes of disciplinarity and normalization:

a. Panopticon- a tower placed in a central position within the prison.
b. Self-surveillance-subject would be disposed to make themselves the
objects of their gaze, constantly monitoring and evaluating their bodies,
actions, and feelings.
Liposculpture:
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 What can you tell about this picture?
• Machine for recording the pace of work in factories, stadiums, and barracks meant
that knowledge, in the form of exact and specific measurements of normality, was
now disseminated for the population to use against itself.
1.2. Subjective Vision and the Scientific Gaze
• Vermeer’s “The Music Lesson”
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 What is this picture all about?
 Don Quixote
 What is Miguel Lopez de Cervantes’ novel all about?

• Science will only see through and believe in analysis, evidence, and trained
perception.
1.3. Knowledge, Technology and the Trained Eye
• Foucault suggests that this new (scientific) knowledge supposedly allowed people to
see ‘truly’- or at least, it claimed to be able to train and discipline the eyes to
distinguish truth from illusion.
 Holmes and Watsons
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 How could you differentiate the knowledge of these two personalities?
 The eyes could then provide an accurate picture of the world, but only if modern
knowledge and techniques were directed and looked through those eyes.
 Compare and contrast both pictures.
• Figure A captures a considerable amount of detail that can be used to describe and
categorize the snail. It is limited precisely in that it isolates and, in a sense,
decontextualizes that information (in that it removes, for instance, the contexts and
relationships of movement).
• Figure B, the idea, and the process are more detailed.
2. Selling the Visual
Introduction:
 What does this picture portray?
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 Foucault reiterated that the ‘attitude’ of liberalism that ‘the free enterprise of
individuals’ was the best principle for producing greater wealth and prosperity.
2.1. Capitalism and Culture
 What does this picture say?
 What does this mean to you?
• Values and hierarchies are influential
 What makes this scene influential?
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• The sense of values determines how things are viewed in the market has been
dismantled.
• The notion of art provides an insight into and critique that culture and society are
irrelevant since the link between what the work is and where it came from now
effectively severed.
2.2. Commoditizing the World
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 What makes these pictures touching?
• Commoditization refers to the situation where a thing or person is viewed predominantly in

terms of its or its exchange value.
2.3. Every Day as Commodity
 What do these pictures project?
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• In human sight, binocular vision is seamlessly transformed into what seems like
monoculars.
Self-Help: You can also refer to the sources below to help you further understand
the lesson:
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• Baesa, S. (2015) The Aesthetic experience: An Introduction to Humanities.

Metro Manila: Grandbooks Publishing
• Cooper, C.(n.d)Movie/film review lesson plan. Date retrieve, April 7, 2020, from
• Jacob, S. (n.d) Framing pictures: film and the visual arts.
https://search.proquest.com/docview/2130930522/30522/307F71C614DDOPQ/
7?accountid
=31259&gototoc-true
• Schirato, T. & Webb, J. (2004) Reading the visual. Date retrieved, May 2, 2020,
from
https://www.monoskop.org/images/1/15/Schirato_Tony_Webb_Jen_reading_t
he_Visual.pd f
• Valli, M. (2013) Walk the Line: The Art of Drawing. London: Lawrence King
• _____.(n.d) Edward Munch Painting, Biography, and Quotes. Date retrieved April
5, 2020, from https://www.edvardmunch.org/link.jsp.
• http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/definition/visual-art.htm
• PROQUEST BOOKS
Let’s Check
Activity 1. Now that you have a better knowledge of normalizing vision and selling visuals,
let us check how well you understand the topic. Define the following terms.
1. Capitalism
2. Commodity
3. Normalization
4. Liberalism
5. Biopower
LET’S ANALYZE
Activity 2. As you understood the topics of Normalizing vision
and Selling the vision, explain the following pictures vividly.
1.
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2.
3.
IN A NUTSHELL
Activity 3. As you understood the lesson of selling the visual, you are expected
to.
1. Create your brochure promoting the tourist attractions of your place.
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Let’s us begin!
WeekULO-d.
7-9 : Demonstrate
Unit Learning Outcomes
a deep knowledge(ULO
on -c)
the media as spectacle.
Weeks 8-9: Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO-d)

A. Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the media as a spectacle
B. Design a TV interview and present it in front of the class using the PWA approach.
Metalanguage
In this section, the essential terms in this course, specifically in this unit, will be
operationally defined to demonstrate a typical frame of reference as to how the text works.
Please refer to these definitions in case you will encounter difficulty in understanding some
ideas.
Terms and operational meaning of Media as Spectacular
1. Contemporary Art, it means “the art of today,”
2. Imagine Community meaning is a group of people who belong to a community with

similar interests, even if they have never met.
3. Interpellation means to use in almost every aspect of our society, especially in the
marketing of merchandise.
4. Media refers to the communication channels we disseminate news, music, movies,

education, promotional messages, and other data.
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5. Society is a group of people with common territory, interaction, and culture.
6. The spectacle is something exhibited to view an unusual, notable, or entertaining
Essential Knowledge
To accomplish the aforementioned Big Picture Unit Learning Outcome (ULO) for Weeks
8-9, you are required to fully deduce the following vital knowledge that will be laid down in
the succeeding pages.
4.0. Media as Spectacle
In this unit, we consider how contemporary visual practices are influenced by a field
whose primary function is arguable to provide, in Claude Lefort’s words, “the constant
staging of public discussions as spectacle. Include all aspects of economic, political, and
cultural life”.
4.1. Society of the Spectacle
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 Look at the pictures above.

What do you see?
What can you say about it?
What comes to your mind now?
* People commonly believe in the spectacle as extravagant, over-the-top, and larger-than-

life performances. Nevertheless, it is quite different according to an expert in the arts. The
spectacle is not primarily concerned with looking at images but with constructing
conditions that individuate, immobilize, and separate subjects (Crary, 1999: 74-75).
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Jonathan Crary is an art critic and essayist and is Meyer Schapiro

Professor of Modern Art and Theory at Columbia University in
New York. His first notable works were Techniques of the
Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the 19th Century (1990)
and Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle, and Modern
Culture (2000). He has published critical essays for over 30
Exhibition catalogs, mostly on contemporary art. His style is often
classified as observational mixed with scientific, and a dominant
theme in his work is the role of the human eye.
* Contemporary Art in today's art was produced in the second half of the 20 th century or 21st
century. Contemporary artists work globally influenced culturally diverse and
technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic combination of materials,
methods, concepts, and subjects.
The Society of the Spectacle
The self-proclaimed leader of the Situationist

International, Guy Debord, was undoubtedly
responsible for the longevity and high profile of
Situationist ideas. However, the equation of the SI
with Guy Debord would be misleading. Brilliant but
autocratic, Debord helped unify situationist praxis
and destroy its expansion into areas not explicitly in
line with his ideas. His text The Society of the
Spectacle remains today one of the great theoretical
works on modern-day capital, cultural imperialism,
and the role of mediation in social relationships.
* Debord defines the spectacle as the “autocratic reign of the market economy.” Though
the term “mass media” is often used to describe the spectacle’s form, he derides its
neutrality. People, instead of talking about the spectacle they often prefer to use the term
media. So, Debord portrays the spectacle as capitalism’s instrument for distracting and
pacifying the masses. The spectacles take on many more forms today than they did during
Debord’s lifetime.
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* SPECTACLE can be found on every screen that you look at. The advertisements plastered
on the road and the pop-up ads that appear in your browser (Refer to Reading Visual PDF,
pp. 169-170).
4.2 The Media and Imagined Communities
* This picture is a young Negro in a French uniform is saluting, with his eyes uplifted,
probably fixed on a fold of the tricolor.
* What can you infer about the image?
* Media - a channel or system of communication, information, or entertainment
- a mode of artistic expression or communication
(Merriam Webster Dictionary)
 The term media, which is the plural of medium, refers to the communication channels
through which we disseminate news, music, movies, education, promotional messages,
and other data. It includes physical and online newspapers and magazines, television,
radio, billboards, telephone, the internet, fax, and billboards.
 It describes the various ways through which we communicate in society. Because it refers
to all means of communication, everything ranging from a telephone call to the evening
news on television can be called media.
 When talking about reaching a vast number of people, we say mass media. Local media
refers to, for example, your local newspaper or local/regional TV/radio channels.
 Imagined Community, Anderson interpellated that this procedure was often essential to
creating the nation-state, where various groups of people frequently culturally,
ethnically, and geographically disparate.
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 The imagined community is sovereign because its legitimacy is not derived from divinity
as kingship is—the nation is its authority, it is founded in its name, and it invents its
people, which it deems citizens
Benedict Anderson is one of the most important theorists of modern

nationalism. Nationalism, argues Anderson, is a story of national
origins that creates imagined community amongst the citizens of the
modern state. Here, he explains the sense in which the nation is an
‘imagined community. ’
 The most famous samples of what we can call the individual's visual interpellation as a
member of a nation-state are the Roland Barthes’ analysis, in Mythologies, of a
photograph from the French magazine Paris-Match. (Refer to the picture above and
Reading Visual PDF pp. 170-172)
4.3 The Imperative to Communicate
(A)
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How do the images communicate to you?

Do these pictures give you something to ponder? Why or why not?
Do these pictures arouse your emotion? Why or why not? If yes, how?
 Lefort’s point is not that the mass media simply take on the task of circulating and
reinforcing these capitalized ideas.
The New Communication Imperative
Communication is not an opportunity; it’s a necessity.

-Andrew Sher
 The go-to tools of communication for most of the 20 th century were landline telephones.
But now, in the 21st century or the contemporary period, cellular phones, radio, TV,
newspaper, and magazines. The internet changed all that. It atomized the information
ecosystem and shook up the economy, politics, and culture.
 Communication in today’s generation is not just an opportunity; it’s a necessity (Sherry,

2015). It is the most powerful communication that creates narratives that help the media
and society make sense.
 This exhibit of communication and representative is always loaded or deviated in terms

of who speaks, who is chosen to represent different points of view, the kind of
interrogated questions, or background information or commentary supplied or withheld
(Refer to Reading Visual PDF pp. 178).
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Self-Help:You can also refer to the sources below to help you further understand
the lesson.
 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spectacle
 Kellner, D. (2004). Media culture and the triumph of the spectacle. Retrieved May
11, 2020 from www.razonypalabra.org.mx
 Schirato, T. & Webb, J. (2004). reading the visual. Retrieved April 15, 2020, from
https://monoskop.org/images/1/15/SchiratoTony
 Koh, A.(2016). American Association of University Professors. Imagine
a community, social media, and the faculty. Retrieved May 11, 2020
https://www.aaup.org/article/imagined-communities-social-media-and
faculty#.XstY22gzbIU
Let’s Check
Activity A: Vocabulary Enrichment. Arrange the following jumbled letters to form a
workable word. You are guided by definition.
1. CEITYSO - a group of people with common territory, interaction, and culture.
2. RATRARYPOMETCON - it means “the art of today,”
3. CEPSELCTA - is something exhibited to view an unusual, notable, or entertaining
4. PELINTERNOITAL - is a means to use in almost every aspect of our society, especially in

the
marketing of merchandise
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Activity B: Answer the questions with justifications. (20 pts)
1. Can social media cause revolutions? Explain.
Answer:
2. How can media attract the attention of the public?
Answer:
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Let’s Analyze
Activity A. From the most recognizable national icons, give the meaning or the message
that you read from them. Your answer should be in paragraph form, and observe proper
writing mechanics.
1.
USA’s Statue of Liberty
Answer:
2.
Singapore Merlion Statue
Answer:
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3.
Answer:
P
hilippine Carabao
4.
Australia Kangaroo
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Answer:
Activity B: Scrutinize the two pictures properly. How do they express society's spectacle and
architectural design?
1.
Answer:
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2.
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Answer:
In a Nutshell
Activity A. Based on the topics presented in the Metalanguage and Essential Knowledge
sections, write what you have learned.
1. ______________________________________________________________________
2. ______________________________________________________________________
3. ______________________________________________________________________
Q & A-List
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Keywords Index
Contemporary Art Interpellation Society
Imagine Community Media Spectacle
Online Code of Conduct
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(1) All teachers/course facilitators and students are expected to abide by an honor code of
conduct, and thus everyone is encouraged to exercise self-management and self-
regulation.
(2) All students are guided by professional conduct as learners in attending OBD or DED
courses. Under existing guidelines in Section 7 (Student Discipline) in the Student
Handbook, any breach and violation shall be dealt with appropriately.
(3) Professional conduct refers to the embodiment and exercise of the University’s Core
Values, specifically in the adherence to intellectual honesty and integrity; academic
excellence by giving due diligence in virtual class participation in all lectures and
activities, as well as fidelity in doing and submitting performance tasks and
assignments; personal discipline in complying with all deadlines; and observance of
data privacy.
(4) Plagiarism is a serious intellectual crime and shall be dealt with accordingly. The
University shall institute monitoring mechanisms online to detect and penalize
plagiarism.
(5) Students shall independently and honestly take examinations and do assignments
unless collaboration is required or permitted. Students shall not resort to dishonesty to
improve their assessments (e.g., examinations, assignments).
(6) Students shall not allow anyone else to access their personal LMS account. Students
shall not post or share their answers, assignment, or examinations to others to further
academic fraudulence online.
(7) By enrolling in OBD or DED courses, students agree and abide by all the provisions
of the Online Code of Conduct and all the requirements and protocols in handling
online courses.
Course prepared by:
RUBEN C. FAJARDO, Ph.D

Faculty, Language Discipline
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Reviewed by:
EDWIN L. NEBRIA, Ed.D.

Chair, Languages Discipline
Approved by:
KHRISTINE MARIE D. CONCEPCION, Ph.D.

Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Education
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College of Arts and Sciences Education

Matina Campus, Davao City

Physically Distanced but Academically Engaged

Self-Instructional Manual (SIM) for Self-Directed Learning (SDL)

Course/Subject: GE 20 - Reading Visual Arts

Name of Teacher: Prof. Ruben Fajardo

THIS SIM/SDL MANUAL IS A DRAFT VERSION ONLY. THIS IS NOT FOR

Matina Campus, Davao City

Course Outline Policy 5

Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO-a) 10

1. Reading the Visual 12

1.1. Seeing as Reading 13

2.1. Tacit Seeing 20

Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO-b) 31

1. Communication and the Visual 31

1.1. Seeing and Sense 31

Matina Campus, Davao City

1.5. The Reality Function 36

2.1. What is Narrative 32

3. Visual Art, Visual Culture 44

3.1. The Identity of Art 44

Unit Learning Outcome (ULO-c) 56

1.1 Modernity as a Way of Seeing 57

2. Selling the Visual 62

2.1 Capitalism and Culture 62

Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO-d) 68

Matina Campus, Davao City

1.1 Society of the Spectacle 69

Online Code of Conduct 84

Course Outline: GE 20 – Reading Visual Arts

Course Coordinator: Fajardo, Ruben

Matina Campus, Davao City

Course Outline Policy

Areas of Concern Details

Matina Campus, Davao City

students will either opt to redo her/his paper or explain

Please note that academic dishonesty such as cheating

However, if the assessment paper's late submission has

For group assessment tasks, the course coordinator

Matina Campus, Davao City

grounds such as academic literacy standards or other

Final exam – 40%

Matina Campus, Davao City

You can also meet the course coordinator in

Matina Campus, Davao City

CASE Guidance Facilitator

Course Information: see/download course syllabus in the Blackboard LMS

Matina Campus, Davao City

Week 1-3: Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO-a):

At the end of the unit, you are expected to:

a. Demonstrate in-depth knowledge on the definition, importance, and elements of

Big Picture in Focus:

Terms and operational meaning of Reading Visual Art

1. Reading. A particular form of visual practice; is both an active and a creative

Matina Campus, Davao City

4. Visual studies. It is an interdisciplinary field with close links with humanities

6. Spectatorship – is the production of social media, especially digital media.

7. Visual matter. It is considered beautiful or appealing.

8. Semiotics. It is an analytical approach and a research methodology that

9. Sign. It is a basic unit of communication; it is just something that has some

10. Text. The name of a group of signs- a collection of signs organized in a

Matina Campus, Davao City