Intercultural Communication Institute

SIIC 2009 Description

10 | Visual Literacy: The Meaning of Images in a Multicultural World

The most influential language today is the lexicon of images in print, broadcast media, and the Internet. Photographs serve as a window, a mirror, a shaper of perceptions–and misperceptions–of cultures and intercultural relations. And yet our understanding of the use and abuse of visual images lags far behind our understanding of spoken and written language. This interactive workshop focuses on developing skills in the critical analysis of the images we see and on how to use cameras (and audio) to create responsible presentations in teaching and training.

Designed for
Educators, trainers, consultants, and others whose work in diversity and international intercultural relations involves visual images.

Objectives
Participants will have the opportunity to:

Deepen their critical appreciation of how contexts, values, and assumptions affect what we perceive and how we make meaning
Sharpen their creative, evaluative, and analytical thinking capacities required for visual literacy
Learn to “read” cultural and intercultural photographs with a more critical eye
Recognize the impact of photography as it affects intercultural relations today and its increasing significance in a digital era
Explore the role of photos in each person’s visual memory and outlook on intercultural relations and cultural identity
Improve skills in using photographs in teaching and training presentations, including PowerPoint and other computer-aided means

Learning Activities
These will include:

Developing hands-on skills in using 16 elements of seeing, composition, and design in order to recognize the influence of these in the pictures we seek and make
Exploring the use of photographic images in ethnography and in auto-ethnography
Participating in a variety of exercises that heighten appreciation of the role of images that express cultural and personal values and identity
Sharing and discussing the significance of personal and public images (participants will be asked to bring one or two photos that are significant in their lives)
Learning effective ways to develop and disseminate visual stories on the Internet
Expanding our awareness of resources, in print and online, for continued learning

(As part of the learning activities, participants should bring one or two photographs that hold particular significance for them, a digital camera, and an iPod; for those who do not have these, some will be available.)

Faculty: John Condon and Miguel Gandert

Dr. John (Jack) Condon is a founding faculty member of the Summer Institute, and an award-winning educator. Jack has resided and taught at colleges in the U.S., Latin America, Africa, and Asia. With publications in seven languages, he is author of more than 20 books in the field of intercultural communication, including the first authored textbook. Scheduled for publication is The Goose in the Bottle: Things Which Seem to Exist But Don’t and Things Which Don’t Seem to Exist But Do. In 2009, on the silver anniversary of The Silent Language, written by E.T. Hall, a friend and former colleague at Northwestern University, Jack is presenting lectures and seminars in the U.S. and Japan. Valuing learning outside of the classroom and library, Jack conducts intercultural field trip seminars in New Mexico where he resides. He is founder and editor of the Cultural Confluence Press and professor emeritus of communication, and Regents’ Professor (the school’s highest honor) at the University of New Mexico.

Miguel Gandert, a documentary and fine-art photographer, is a professor of communication and journalism at the University of New Mexico where for many years he taught, with John Condon, the university’s advanced graduate seminar in intercultural communication. Formerly a network news cameraman and documentary filmmaker, Miguel regularly teaches courses in photojournalism, film, media, and visual communication. He has taught for the American Folk Life Center of the Library of Congress, and at institutes in Europe, the U.S., and Latin America; his work is archived at Yale University. Miguel’s documentation of cultural identities and intercultural relations is found in museums and galleries throughout the world, including the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian, and through his public presentations and publications, including his award-winning Nuevo Mexico Profundo.