READING IMAGES:
Key Concepts
GE 6 – ART APPRECIATION
Prepared by: Dr. May Anne Jaro, LPT
Presented by: Dr. Nelida Orquinaza, LPT
Objectives:
By the end of the lesson, students are expected
to have:
1. defined the key concepts related to reading
images; and
2. analyzed an art work on various levels or
planes (basic semiotic, iconic, contextual, and
evaluative)
Introduction
• Visual Composition is a ‘grammar’ which allows
depicted people, places and things to be
combined into meaningful wholes
• Images and other visuals, such as diagrams and
the layout of magazine pages and interfaces,
have their own distinct potentials for meaning-
making, different from those of speech and
writing
The Semiotic Landscape
• a ‘semiotic landscape’
comprise the range of
semiotic means of
expression available in a
given society, together
with the ways in which
they are used and valued
The Semiotic Landscape
Historically, the visual
and the verbal started
out as separate and
independent modes of
meaning-making, but
the visual was then
subsumed by
alphabetic writing with
the result that the
representational
potential of the visual
itself declined
The Semiotic Landscape
Today, visuality is
becoming central
again though often
needing speech for
its completion, for
instance, in forms of
multimodal writing
such as tables,
diagrams and
PowerPoint slides
Narrative Representations
• Narrative visual representations are
representations that represent what they
represent as physical or mental actions or events.
• Narrative compositions consist of ‘participants’,
realized by visual volumes; ‘processes’, realized
by vectors; and ‘settings’, realized by
backgrounds.
• Participants can function as Actor, the doer of the
action, or Goal, the entity to which the action is
done or which undergoes the event.
What are vectors in design?
In the world of graphic design, vectors are shapes,
or more specifically lines and curves, that form an
image based on a mathematical formula. Due to
their nature, it is totally possible to re-scale them as
much as you want without losing quality.
Narrative Representations
Narrative visual
representations can be
unidirectional or
bidirectional – in the latter
case each participant
combines the function of
Actor and Goal.
They can also be
transactional or non-
transactional – in the
latter case they contain
only an Actor.
Narrative Representations
Five kinds of narrative
visual representations:
1. Actions
2. Events
3. Reactions
4. Mental Processes
5. Speech Processes
Any given subject matter
can be represented in
any of these ways,
resulting in different
interpretations of the
represented reality.
Conceptual Representations
Conceptual
representations
are
representations
that represent
what they
represent in
terms of more or
less stable and
timeless
essences.
Narrative visual representation--
The picture portrays an action that happens between a group of
star-gazers, the telescope and the night sky.
Conceptual representation—
There is no interaction between elements in the
picture, no vectors to visually create action. This
picture can only show the timeless concept of an
astrological tool—the telescope. There is no actor in
this picture.
Conceptual Representations: Three
major kinds of conceptual structure:
#1
Classification
al Structures,
which set up
hyponymical
(‘kind of’)
relations
between
elements
Conceptual
Representations
#2
Analytical Structures, which
set up meronymical (‘part
of’) relations between
elements and draw on the
capacity of images to
accurately map spatial
structures and relations
Symbolic Conceptual Representations
#3
Symbolic
Structures,
which set up
attributive
relations
between
elements and
are realized by
visually
emphasizing
symbolic
attributes or
overall
symbolic
Symbolic Representation Eternal Flame of Freedom –
Corregidor Island
Conceptual Representations
• These
structures
apply not only
to images, but The Flame of Abstract Visualization
also to abstract
visualizations,
chart and
diagrams,
where they
may visually
connect either
verbal and/or
Analytical Structure of the Social-
visual Ecological System Framework
Representation and interaction
• According to Halliday’s
metafunctional theory,
images not only allow
expressing the
representational meanings,
but also have resources for
creating ‘interactive’
meanings that can position
viewers in different ways
towards what is represented
on the page, canvas or
screen.
Representation and interaction
Three key resources:
First, the gaze of represented
people can create ‘image
acts,’ which either
symbolically ‘demand’
something from the viewer
through a direct look at the
viewer, or offer what is
represented as information, if
the represented people do
not look at the viewer.
Representation and interaction
Second, perspective can create
the horizontal and vertical
angles from which viewers are
made to see what is
represented, which may suggest
involvement (frontal angle) or
detachment (oblique angle), a
sense of power over what is
represented (high angle) or of
being powered over by what is
represented (low angle).
Representation and interaction
Finally, the distance from
which represented people,
places and things are viewed
(the range from ‘close-up’ to
‘long shot’) can suggest
degrees of ‘social distance’,
ranging from a sense of
intimacy and closeness, to a
sense of distance and
formality.
Gradation of size and direction
Representation and interaction
produce linear perspective. Gradation
of color from warm to cool, and tone
from dark to light produce aerial
These three perspective. Gradation can add
interest and movement to a shape. A
parameters not gradation from dark to light will cause
only allow for the eye to move along a shape.
infinite gradation,
but can combine
in different ways
that range from
classic art works
to contemporary
websites, social
media images,
infographics and
computer games.
Modality and Validity
The validity of images is a topic, which
traditionally, has been dealt with
under the heading of ‘realism’.
In images and other visuals, validity is
signified by the degree to which
particular means of visual expression
are used –
• the degree to which detail is
represented,
• the degree to which background is
represented, and
• the degree to which color, depth
and tonal variety are used and so
on.
Modality and Validity
•In different contexts, different
‘coding orientations’ favor
different validity criteria, based
on different definitions of ‘reality’.
•While in contexts that value
photorealism, simple line
drawings may have low validity,
in scientific contexts they may
have high validity.
•Such criteria change over time,
and contemporary computer-
generated images value a
‘sensory’, affect-laden orientation
that makes maximum use of all or
most of the parameters that
express visual validity.
The Meaning of Composition
A set of
compositional
principles apply
equally to
images and to
the multimodal
layouts of, for
instance,
magazine pages
and computer
interfaces.
The Meaning of Composition
Three major principles commonly observed in determining the meaning of
compositions:
#1
Information value, in
which the placement
of compositional
elements in the
visual space endows
them with specific
values in relation to
each other and to
the viewer
#2
Framing, which divides compositions into sections that must
somehow be understood as separate
The Meaning of Composition
#3
SALIENCE, which
uses visual means
such as
foregrounding, size
and tonal contrast
to attract the
viewer’s attention
differentially to the
elements of the
composition
The Meaning of Composition
• Today, according to Kress and Leeuwen (2020), there is
an increased emphasis on center-margin compositions,
hence on static and conceptual, rather than dynamic
and sequential representations, and a greater
emphasis on generic templates, rather than on flexible
uses of the resources of visual composition.
Materiality and Meaning
• Most of the principles apply
across different media, for
instance to paintings as
well as to photographs,
and to images as well as to
layouts that use visual PENCIL SKETCH OIL PAINTING
design to combine text and
image.
• However, the medium used
also contributes meaning.
• A painting of a tree does
not mean the same thing
as a photograph of a tree
or a tree drawn with a PHOTOGRAPH WATERCOLOR
Materiality and Meaning
The meanings of
different media are
either based on the
meaning potential of
the material attributes
of the relevant media,
such as that they are
coarse or smooth, soft
or hard and so on, or
on connotations that
derive from well-
established earlier
uses of the relevant
media (e.g. the sepia
photograph as
‘historical’).
The Third Dimension
Many structures can be
applied to three-
dimensional objects such
as sculptures, toys and
everyday objects, with the Sculptor Napoleon V. Abueva
important exception that
three-dimensional objects
do not build in a point of
view but leave the viewer
free to explore the work
from different angles,
provided the display of the
work does not prevent
them from doing so. Child with a toy
The Third Dimension
The narrative processes in moving
images that are, of course,
represented by actual movements,
rather than by vectors and moving
images, can also realize a range of
conceptual processes, especially in
animation; but they do so in a
dynamic fashion, for instance, by
actually assembling an analytical
structure in front of the viewer’s
eyes.
The Third Dimension
Interactional and
compositional
structures are
dynamically
represented in moving
images, as the camera
can move to a different
angle or distance
during a shot, and as
actors can turn to the
camera during a shot,
so changing ‘Offers’
into ‘Demands’.
Exercise: a
Reading Images.
Identify which d
picture best
represents the
following:
1. Narrative
visual
representation b e
2. Conceptual
representation c
3. Vectors
4. Salience
5. Framing
Exercise: a
Reading Images.
Identify which d
picture best
represents the
following:
1. Narrative
visual
representation b e
2. Conceptual
representation c
3. Vectors
4. Salience
5. Framing
READING the
IMAGE:
Basic Semiotic
Iconic
Contextual
Evaluative
Link to the video on reading the
image:
[Link]
?v=g9wi3cp8eJo&t=32s
Assignment:
Choose an artwork and
analyze it in terms of the
following planes of analysis:
1. Basic Semiotic
2. Iconic
3. Contextual
4. Evaluative
Reference
Kress, G. and Leeuwen, T. (2020). Reading images: The
Grammar of visual design, 3rd Ed. Routledge.
[Link]
Principles of Composition.
[Link]
Introduction_to_Art_History_I_(Myers)/
03%3A_The_Visual_Elements_and_Principles_of_Composition/
3.02%3A_Principles_of
_Composition
[Link]