According to the visual culture theorist Nicholas Mirzoeff (2015), we live in an increasingly image-oriented world. The proliferation of digital devices, combined with the flow of data, has transformed how we communicate and interpret meaning. Anyone who carries a smartphone is in possession of a device that can record and edit photographs and video, before sharing it to a potentially vast networked audience. We continue to exchange content and ideas through the spoken and printed word, but also now through memes, emojis, selfies and other visually- and digitally-mediated content. If you remain unmoved by the suggested significance of the image, compare a contemporary website with one made a decade ago and note how pictures have come to occupy much of the space previously occupied by text.
These changes taking place across society are also inevitably felt in educational contexts. Academic journals are slowly beginning to publish articles where images come to the fore, and there is also a growing openness to students taking a multimodal approach within assessment, as images work alongside words in presenting an argument or demonstrating understanding. At the same time, in what has been called the ‘visual turn’ in the humanities and social sciences, there has emerged a keen interest in research that places visual methods and materials at its heart.
The increasingly image-oriented nature of academic work, particularly within online settings, is clearly relevant to our work as students of digital education. Meanwhile, the theme of cyberculture, frequently represented through sophisticated images of a technological future, provides an excellent opportunity for us to tentatively venture into the world of visual methods. To help us achieve this, we have suggested two resources that help to make the case for visual methods and might open your eyes to new ways of undertaking research, interpreting meaning and representing your own ideas. There is a great deal more to be said about visual methods than we can hope to cover here, therefore we simply suggest that you look at the readings to get a feel for what is possible, beginning with the text by Gillian Rose. The different approaches and ideas might inform your participation in the Cyberculture Film Festival and will certainly contribute towards our visual artefact activity.
Rose, G. (2016). Chapter 2: Towards a critical visual methodology In Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials (pp. 24-47). London: Sage
Gillian Rose is among the most influential voices on visual research, particularly through this text which is currently in its fourth edition. In addition to the opening chapter which helps to establish the emergence of visual research, Chapter 2 is particularly helpful in proposing a series of ways that we might use images in a critical way.
Lackovic, N. (2020). Introduction: Why Inquiring Images in Higher Education? in Inquiry Graphics in Higher Education: New Approaches to Knowledge, Learning and Methods with Images (pp. 3-24). Cham: Springer International Publishing AG
Natasa Lackovic’s work fits neatly with our own focus in this block of the EDC course as she brings together interests in education, digital technologies and visual research. We recommend reading the opening chapter of this recent text for the way it specifically thinks about images in relation to educational practices and contemporary student experiences. Don’t worry if you find some of the more theoretical discussion challenging: all you need to take from this reading is a feel for some of Lackovic’s main observations about images and education.
Reference cited in the discussion above
Mirzoeff, N. (2015). How to See the World: A Pelican Introduction. London: Pelican.
The cyberculture visual artefact
This activity has two purposes. First, we want you to try your hand at producing and then interpreting a piece of image-oriented scholarship, in order that you can reflect upon the value of visual methods within digital education. Meanwhile, through the composition of your own artefact, and exposure to the work of others, we hope you are able to make broader and deeper connections between cyberculture and contemporary education.
This is your brief:
- Create a single image that conveys any aspect of what we are covering in this block. This might be an argument or concept featured in one of the readings, an idea that came up in conversation, or a more general reflection on any cyberculture theme. You could take a photograph, create an image on-screen, do a drawing by hand, make a collage, or anything that is a single image (i.e. not a video, composite or set of slides). Importantly, your idea must be entirely visually-mediated i.e. without words, spoken commentary or other sound. Don’t worry about producing a perfect image: we are interested in the concept rather than the polish.
- Add the image to your gallery space in the Cyberculture exhibition, accompanied by a short (single paragraph) explanation of what you have tried to convey.
- Visit the gallery spaces of other members of the group and, without reading the accompanying explanation, attempt to interpret what the author has tried to communicate, before adding this ‘reading’ of the image as a comment next to their work. Don’t worry about finding the ‘correct’ interpretation: what matters is the meaning that you draw from the visual artefact.
To reiterate, this exercise is about exploring how we can use visual methods within digital education research therefore although it is an expected component of your gallery, it is not being individually assessed or graded.