visper Tiffany Medler
In In Cartwright & Sturken’s Practices of Looking: Images, Power, and Politics subjects such as representation, myths of photographic truths, images and ideology, negotiating image meanings, an image’s value, and an image’s icon are discussed as a part of the practices of looking. By reading, discussing, and learning the material in this chapter and on the mirror neuron video, an artist can better classify how and why individuals choose to look at images, help identify how images may be interpreted, and explain how viewers physically interact with the image created.
The subject of negotiating image meanings is a huge contributing factor in learning how to identify how people will interpret and react to images. As discussed in this section, within a decision to look at an image, an unconscious judgment, in a sense, is established after one examines what the images means to themselves. Though there is no right or wrong way to establish what the image’s purpose is, there are tools that are involuntarily used to help us understand what the image is trying to communicate. Clues that hint how to denote the image include elements of: color, shades of black and white, tone, contrast, composition, depth, perspective, and style. For instance, in advertising sales or a less expensive product, neon and primary colors dominate a feeling that a customer will react to as “cheap”. That example establishes how a consumer has used the thought process to generate ideas towards expectation of price and quality. The process of making the association with the colors to the customer expectation is interpretation. Another example would be an image containing a lone person standing in a distance as a focal point. The image would interpret a feeling of loneliness or isolation as well as other implications that the viewer would create from personal experiences and ideas.
By understanding that an image is a signifier that through meaning creates a signified message, what the outcome is is a sign, or an interpretation. Understanding this concept helps the studio process as a designer because it exemplifies how an individual involuntarily looks to draw a judgment on an image. This means that in the studio, the designer can predetermine obvious feelings that the viewer will interpret by using the clues listed above. When the basic message is offered and interpreted, the viewer can then make associations to their personal experiences and how they further trigger other ideas and experiences with the message. If the designer can control or guide the assertions of their works, then a clear message about the intention of the image will be created as well as a personal interpretation by the viewer.
In addition to intending a meaning for the image, an association on how to do a function can also be communicated. With mirror neurons in the brain, the very essence of doing something and mimicking a watched movement can be imaged without moving a muscle. In terms of the studio, this means that we can communicate functions and make people literally take action. By “showing” rather than “telling”, an image or message can be communicated with physical interaction.
By understanding how and why people create judgment of an image, we as designers can develop creative ways for individuals to look, interpret, and interact to our works from the studio.
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- Tiffany Medler last edited on 21 March 2007 at 9:52 pm by 148.61.212.226
- Studio Writing: Perception, Culture, and the Studio last edited on 1 April 2007 at 10:32 pm by 148.61.228.95