Visual Culture Art Education

Since this is the final monthly mentor entry for me I want to thank all of you who responded to this topic. For those of you who have not had the opportunity to respond more dialogues need to occur, as visual culture is here to stay. Art educators are the ones that have to bring this issue to the forefront. As a discipline that is based on the visual we as art educators are trained to see things with a critical eye that others may not possess.

Therefore, we as art educators are accountable socially to do whatever we can to counteract the negative imagery that many adolescents seem to gravitate to. Whether we acknowledge it or not visual culture affects all of us in one way or another. Sometimes it affects us in ways that we don’t even realize. One example of this is when you see the hamburger commercial and then all of a sudden feel compelled to go to purchase one. Are we buying it because we are hungry or are we beckoned by the up close visual image of the burger?

Subliminally, many of us are influenced to take a different perspective on important issues after seeing short commercials or infomercials over and over again. Visual repetition is a powerful mechanism that intensifies our memory of a situation as the brain records the things we see and hear. This was evident to me as I conducted research. The participants were able to verbally rap out the lyrics and describe the imagery that was associated with them explicitly.

Thanks to Linda Scott for posting the information, as I know that it is a lot of work for someone who has so many other responsibilities. In closing, possibly something was said on this blog to inspire educators to take a hard look at the visual culture that seems to have control on many adolescents. Take care all. I enjoyed serving as your monthly mentor for April 2010.

-Zerric Clinton ABD
Art Teacher
Cairo High School
Cairo, GA 39828