COURSE INTRODUCTION AND APPLICATION INFORMATION

Course Name
Visual Theory
Code
Semester
Theory
(hour/week)
Application/Lab
(hour/week)
Local Credits
ECTS
MCS 360
Fall/Spring
3
0
3
5
Prerequisites
None
Course Language
English
Course Type
Elective
Course Level
First Cycle
Mode of Delivery -
Teaching Methods and Techniques of the Course Discussion
Group Work
Q&A
Critical feedback
Jury
Lecturing / Presentation
Course Coordinator -
Course Lecturer(s)
Assistant(s) -
Course Objectives This course is an introduction to theoretical debates in the interdisciplinary field of visual culture. The course engages with the production, reception, appropriation and commodification of images and the ideologies of the visual. The contemporary world is saturated with visual images. This introductory course explores the visual from an interdisciplinary perspective across cultures and in various media. Its objective is to sharpen the gaze of the student by learning to look carefully at the visual world in the past, present, in remote as well as approximate places. Through this course we will define visual theory, communication, explore it’s history and gain insight understanding of visual advertising.
Learning Outcomes The students who succeeded in this course;
  • Will be able to demonstrate an understanding of key concepts in visual culture.
  • explain theoretical approaches to visual perception
  • identify and use basic graphic elements helps in the analysis and production of images
  • demonstrate an understanding of how theoretical debates in visual culture interrogate the gaze across different fields of visuality across local, national and the transnational visual landscapes
  • demonstrate an understanding of various components and uses for gestalt, constructivism, semiotics and cognitive theories of visual communication,
  • demonstrate an understanding of the discourses regarding questions of visual culture such as representation; advertisement, art.
  • explain some of the historical influences including are movements upon today’s graphic designs.
Course Description This course combines theoretical work and its application to images. Students are responsible for the preparation of presentations of each week’s key reading. Each week, we will summarise key points and arguments made by a visual theory scholar on a particular topic (see syllabus) and use examples that relate closely to the text.
Related Sustainable Development Goals

 



Course Category

 Core Courses
Major Area Courses
Supportive Courses
X
Media and Managment Skills Courses
Transferable Skill Courses

 

WEEKLY SUBJECTS AND RELATED PREPARATION STUDIES

Week Subjects Required Materials
1 Introduction of the course & course schedule/Welcome to the World of Advertising Introduction to Visual Communication
2 What is visual culture? Nicholas Mirzoeff, “What is visual culture?” in An Introduction to Visual Culture p13-35
3 TECHNOLOGIES, Visual technologies and reproduction Nicholas Mirzoeff, “Picture definition: Line, color, vision’’ Nicholas Mirzoeff, “Visuality” in An Introduction to Visual Culture p37-55
4 Visual Technologies and Reproduction Jean Baudrillard, “The Precession of Simulacra’’ Walter Benjamin, ‘’Art in the age of mechanical reproduction’’
5 Visuality and the urban space Giuliana Bruno, “Site-Seeing: The Cine City,” in Atlas of Emotion: Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film
6 Visual culture, consumer culture and advertising Anne Marie Seward Barry, Visual intelligence: perception, image, and manipulation in visual communication. chapter 6 Robin Landa, Advertising by design: creating visual communications with graphic impact. Chapter 9 Group Project proposal Due
7 Midterm
8 Vision and science * the concept of the cyborg Name theoreticians that have analyzed the role of the cyborg in postmodern society. Discuss the relevance of the cyborg in shaping contemporary visual culture. Describe the role played by contemporary representations of dystopia. Define the concept of the Matrix Describe the interrelation between vision and art, science and technology in visual culture Donna Haraway, “The persistence of vision,” in The Visual Culture Reader, Nicholas Mirzoeff ed. (London: Routledge, 1998)
9 Images, power and politics Roland Barthes, “Myth today,” in Visual Culture: the Reader, Stuart Hall and Jessica Evans, eds. (London: Sage Publications, 1999), 51 – 58. Anne Marie Seward Barry, Visual intelligence: perception, image, and manipulation in visual communication. chapter 7 Robin Landa, Advertising by design: creating visual communications with graphic impact. Chapter 6
10 Vision, power and knowledge Michel Foucault, “Panopticism,” in Visual Culture: the Reader, Stuart Hall and Jessica Evans, eds. (London: Sage Publications, 1999), 61 – 71.
11 How to analyze a visual message using six perspectives Robin Landa, Advertising by design: creating visual communications with graphic impact. Chapter 8 Group Project Presentations 1
12 Globalization and visual culture Diana’s death: Gender, photography and the inauguration of global visual culture,” in An Introduction to Visual Culture (London and New York: Routledge, 1999), 231 – 254.
13 The gaze, the body and sexuality * Laura Mulvey, “Visual pleasure and narrative cinema,” in Visual Culture: the Reader, Stuart Hall and Jessica Evans, eds. (London : Sage Publications, 1999), 381 – 389. Otto Fenichel, “The scoptophilic instinct and identification,” in Visual Culture: the Reader, Stuart Hall and Jessica Evans, eds. (London: Sage Publications, 1999), 327 – 339. Sigmund Freud, “Fetishism,” in Visual Culture: the Reader, Stuart Hall and Jessica Evans, eds. (London : Sage Publications, 1999), 324 – 326. Judith Halberstam, “The transgender gaze in Boys Don’t Cry,” in The Visual Culture Reader, Nicholas Mirzoeff, ed. (London: Routledge, 1998), 669 -676.
14 Course review
15 Review of the Semester
16 Final Exam
Course Notes/Textbooks

Nicholas Mirzoeff (2009) An introduction to visual culture. ISBN: 978-0-415-32759-6

Anne Marie Seward Barry (1997) Visual intelligence: perception, image, and manipulation in visual communication. ISBN 0-7914-3436-2

 

Robin Landa (2004) Advertising by design: creating visual communications with graphic impact ISBN 0-471-42897-3

 Philip B. Meggs (1998), A History of Graphic Design. ISBN 0-471-29198-6
Suggested Readings/Materials

Rudolf Arnheim (2004) Visual Thinking. University of California Press. ISBN-10 : 9780520242265

 

Paul Martin Lester(1994) Visual Communications. ISBN: 0-534-63720-5

 

Steven Heller & Seymour Chwast(1988) Graphic Style. ISBN: 978-1-4197-3236-2

 

EVALUATION SYSTEM

Semester Activities Number Weigthing
Participation
1
10
Laboratory / Application
Field Work
Quizzes / Studio Critiques
Portfolio
Homework / Assignments
1
20
Presentation / Jury
-
-
Project
-
-
Seminar / Workshop
Oral Exam
Midterm
1
30
Final Exam
1
40
Total

Weighting of Semester Activities on the Final Grade
3
60
Weighting of End-of-Semester Activities on the Final Grade
1
40
Total

ECTS / WORKLOAD TABLE

Semester Activities Number Duration (Hours) Workload
Course Hours
(Including exam week: 16 x total hours)
16
3
48
Laboratory / Application Hours
(Including exam week: 16 x total hours)
16
Study Hours Out of Class
14
2
28
Field Work
Quizzes / Studio Critiques
Portfolio
Homework / Assignments
2
9
Presentation / Jury
-
-
Project
-
-
Seminar / Workshop
Oral Exam
Midterms
1
24
Final Exams
1
32
    Total
150

 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES AND PROGRAM QUALIFICATIONS RELATIONSHIP

#
 Program Competencies/Outcomes
* Contribution Level
1
2
3
4
5
1

To be able to critically discuss and interpret the theories, concepts and ideas that form the basis of the discipline of new media and communication.

 X
2

To be able to critically interpret theoretical debates concerning the relations between the forms, agents, and factors that play a role in the field of new media and communication.

 X
3

To have the fundamental knowledge and ability to use the technical equipment and software programs required by the new media production processes.

 X
4

To be able to gather, scrutinize and scientifically investigate data in the processes of production and distribution.  

 X
5

To be able to use the acquired theoretical knowledge in practice.  

 X
6

To be able to take responsibility both individually and as a member of a group to develop solutions to problems encountered in the field of new media and communication.  

 X
7

To be informed about national, regional, and global issues and problems; to be able to generate problem-solving methods depending on the quality of evidence and research, and to acquire the ability to report the conclusions of those methods to the public.

 X
8

To be able to critically discuss and draw on theories, concepts and ideas that form the basis of other disciplines complementing the field of new media and communication studies.  

 X
9

To be able to develop and use knowledge and skills towards personal and social goals in a lifelong process.

 X
10

To be able to apply social, scientific and professional ethical values in the field of new media and communication. 

 X
11

To be able to collect datain the areas of new media and communication and communicate with colleagues in a foreign language ("European Language Portfolio Global Scale", Level B1).  

 X
12

To be able to speak a second foreign language at a medium level of fluency efficiently.
13

To be able to relate the knowledge accumulated throughout the human history to their field of expertise.

 X

*1 Lowest, 2 Low, 3 Average, 4 High, 5 Highest