Reflection
on:
“The Anatomy of a Visual Message.”
Coexisting
cooperatively, rather than aloofly are three levels of receiving and expressing
visual images. These are the representational, abstract and symbolic levels.
When messages are viewed "representationally", there is a recognition of common
things viewed from experience. Abstractly viewing objects, on the other had
involves judging objects viewed based on their outright outlook, rather than
their use, while symbolically viewing messages involves alluding meaning to the
codes and symbols present.
This book’s
insightful nature enabled me to pick up on the fact that in the process of
learning, vision is a factor which is extremely depended on. This is because
vision is particularly important for both learning and survival, and hence
plays an integral part of our ability to make messages. This book excerpt,
therefore emphasized this concept vision in terms of its representation,
symbolism and abstraction,
When trying
to technically portray/ represent a visual image as accurately as possible, as
I understood from this book, a photograph is the best means of doing so. As a
result of the various possible effects which can be created through a
photograph such as light intensity, level of “zoom” and tone, photographs are
indeed preeminent, as they are a very effective means of capturing moments, as
they appear in time and space.
Visual
images can also be utterly reduced and simplified in order to pass across
messages. This involves the concept of “symbolism”. The audiences symbols are
targeted at may be unaware of its meaning and hence, may need to be adequately
educated depending on how abstract the symbol is. Symbols are applicable in
several walks of life including engineering, music, architecture and folklore.
The process of this “degradation” of images into pure and simple symbols
involves abstraction. Abstraction, however, apart from being just about
conversion into symbols, also involves the shifting away from obvious/
realistic visual representation, so as to represent messages more intricately.
The levels
of expressing visual images, namely representationally, symbolically and
abstractly, each have their own profound and unique characteristics. They,
however can be defined, as complimentary to one another.
