Visual Pop

Why Visual culture? Why, out of all the atrocities in the world –did you make a blog regarding an un-graspable, steadfast boring topic?

Is it because I’m evil? Yes. Yes it is…

A wholesome educational answer may suggest that Culture is an intellectual and spiritual venture. Artists, designers, curators, some French guy named Francis educate themselves to deepen their understanding of visual culture through studying arts, music, literature and *gasp* science.

You know most of us aren’t that boring (I pray to Buddha that you are). You don’t necessarily have to graduate from a major institution to be a part of culture. There are major distinctions between high and low culture (which I’ll get into later) but — mainly the reason why Visual Culture is worth thinking about is because it’s everywhere, in everything. You can’t RUN, you can’t escape, it will find you!

GOLDEN RULES:

You might look at an image. Before you can even identify what it is –you’ve already gathered a shotgun reaction to it. So many things are happening in your mind it’s insane…well actually it’s through subconscious thinking but for today I will call the subconscious “insane” thinking. woha~

VISUAL
as in seeing; as in a physical, virtual or material thing that you can look at
Being Visual is all about perception.

QUESTION UNO!

Do you see this?

This is a test to prove that you are indeed NOT blind.

If you are not struggling at all answering this question, I believe we have reached a common understanding.

CULTURE
shared values, beliefs of a group of people; an interaction between product and viewer; it changes with time
Culture is where you came from, who you are and where you’ve been. Depending on how you grew up, it’ll influence the way YOU personally see and interact with the world.

REPRESENTATION
we see things; we give things a meaning; we express meaning
Funny thing about representation is that it can never be a right or wrong answer. The answers are within people! We intended things to carry a message and we also give meanings to images.

QUESTION DUEX!!

What does this sign mean?

If a Canadian person visits Japan without knowing the language– this sign might be a mystery to them.

If a Japanese person visits Canada (parts of Quebec for example) without knowing the language– this bilingual sign might not be fully understood.

But! If you decoded the deliberate meaning from these signs anyway, you were able to make further connections fairly easily!

Thank goodness for those things. Thinking comes in handy, especially for impaired street survival!
The fact that most signs all over the world look similar to the ones we use in Canada means that a STOP sign looks like a Stop sign in almost any language. Except for Japan. It makes us sad.
Red catches our attention. For those who grew up in Western Culture, Red traffic lights mean STOP. I suppose colouring all the signs the same way will carry its meaning!

I think that summarizes what Visual Culture is basically about. The rest of the information I’d like to share is far too redundant. We’ll pick it up any new terms on the way! I’ll post lots of interesting photos on contemporary pop culture, just so we can have some interesting conversations here!

Feel free to comment or *gasp* disagree with the stuff I post. I’m not an expert opinion but it feels nice pretending to be one…