In the first class of this semester, we were given the brief for our 2 main projects;
The briefs of both of these projects will be looked deeper into in later blogs. In this blog, I will reflect on an introductory lecture that my teacher Paul gave to our class. This lecture focused on the importance of pictures/images/art and how they can tell stories, this makes sense as the 2 projects in this semester focus heavily on the use of images.
One of the reasons why I believe that pictures/images/art is so important is due to the fact that it is the true universal language. I often hear that math is a universal language, with which I agree. However, while almost everyone in the world knows what 1 + 1 means, to understand this particular math equation, you still need to be taught what "1" means and what "+" means. With images, it is a "language" that comes naturally to the human brain.
"Art is the closest we can come to understanding how a stranger really feels.“ — Roger Ebert's "Living Testament" speech, Colorado Public Television (1994).
Images evoke emotional responses within us, and even though different life experiences might lead to different people having different responses, unlike most other languages out there that we use to communicate, it does not need to be taught. A real-life example of this is how most young children gravitate towards the pictorial elements in a book and hence why children's books are prominently filled with large images and illustrations. These picture books introduced children to the concept of reading, even if they still haven't grasped the concept of languages, they can "read" the pictures.
Relating back to what I looked at in semester 1, sadly, in the past we see often see images used for communications are during times of war for propaganda;
Similar forms of use art in conveying political/personal options are happening today;
Again, the illustration above demonstrates what is so powerful about images. We don't even need to read the title to know that the article we are about to read on Elon musk is not a positive one.
With the rise of social media, art and images have also given the minority a voice on the internet, there are now many ways
with communicate with the rest of the world via images and stories.
However, I feel that pictures/images/art are much more than just communication tools. While looking at the earliest cave paintings, I notice that a lot of these paintings weren't really focused on communication, by rather used as a form of self-expression/ to demonstrate a form of self-awareness in wanting to record life events for no apparent survival benefits;
( artistic depiction of animals)
One of my all-time favourite cave paintings is the handprints found in Cueva de las Manos, Perito Moreno, Argentina.