1) Visual communication happens in both “urban” contexts and in “natural” environments, and has both social and biological dimensions. In the city advertising, graffiti, and architecture impact our experiences. In more natural settings our receptivity to “fractal” patterns and proportions are immersive, desirable, and apparently quite healthy! With reference to TWO of the “urban” readings by Banet-Weiser (on convergence in the city), Cronin (on advertising in the
city), and Ro (on beauty and architecture) and TWO of the “nature” readings by Taylor (on fractals), Brielmann and co. (on fractals and architectural proportion), and Vitruvius (on symmetry from our bodies to our buildings), make an argument about how visual environments impact the ways we communicate and engage with urban and natural worlds and why this is important!
2) As we know, today’s world is increasingly under surveillance insofar as it’s being mediated and modulated by algorithms, metadata, digital technologies, and “dataveillance.” Whether we’re using mobile devices, surfing the web, using our credit cards, crossing borders, or posting to TicToc, Instagram, X, or LinkedIn we’re increasingly being watched, governed, dissected, sold, scanned, and searched. Of course, we’re also watching ourselves and each other using photography, social media, and images that allow us to “flex,” connect, and communicate in pictures. With specific references to at least TWO of the surveillance readings by Zimmer (on search 2.0) and Best (on digital screens and control), and TWO of the photography readings by van Dijck (on digital photography) and Thurlow (on social media and infinity pools) discuss the ways we’re watching and being watched in the present and how this might evolve in the future!
FYI: Weekly themes we have covered so far…
Week 7: Urban Visualizations
1) Cronin, A. M. (2006). Advertising and the metabolism of the city.
2) Banet-Weiser, S. (2011). Convergence on the Street.
3) Ro, B. R. (2022). Beauty and Transcendence: Four Ideals for the Secular Age.
Week 8: The Nature of Communication
1) Taylor, Richard P. (2021). The Potential of Biophilic Fractal Designs to Promote Health and Performance: A Review of
Experiments and Applications.
2) Brielmann, Aenne A., Nir H. Buras, Nikos A. Salingaros, and Richard P. Taylor. (2022). What Happens in Your Brain
When You Walk Down the Street? Implications of Architectural Proportions,
3) Vitruvius. (50BC). On Symmetry: In Temples and in the Human Body.
Week 9: Digital Screens & Visualizing Virtual Control
1) Zimmer, M. (2008). The Externalities of Search 2.0.
2) Best, K. (2010). Living in the control society: Surveillance, users and digital screen technologies.
Week 10: Photography and Me, Me, Me
1) van Dijck, J. (2008). Digital photography: communication, identity, memory.
2) Thurlow, Crispin. (2021). Liquid Power: Reading the Infinity Pool as a Global Semioscape
