Subject: Film studies

Visual Culture and Ideology Reflection

According to John Berger, visual culture forms part of a larger “way of seeing” that structures our interaction with the world around us; that is, visual culture shapes the ways we know ourselves and our position within the larger world.

What are the principle visual images that you encounter? For images here thing of things that are representations (movies, photos, paintings, computer graphics etc).

Start to notice and catalog, in your daily life, what is the main source of images that you encounter?

What is the category of images that you most interact with? How do you interact with these images –for instance, is it photographs that you see on Instagram? That you hold in your hand and have a close connection to?

Or is it film, something you sit back and “consume” at a remove? Or something else entirely? How would you describe your interaction with images?

This is pretty open-ended. Perhaps you want to generate a list of the images you encounter in the course of an afternoon, writing them all down, and then, from that, determine which type you encounter most and how you do so.

Following up on (one of ) Berger’s points: we can becomes so accustomed to images that we stop seeing them as images and just part of life. But in doing so, we risk overlooking how they impact our interaction with and understanding of the world around us. As per the earlier scope, this is a reflection, and designed to get you to start noticing how you consume images.

Aim for 1.5-2.5 pages (about 500 words). Include images.