OUGD401 - The History of Image - Lecture

In this lecture we were introduced to a broad range of visual communication from different cultures and contexts. I was also introduced to a few philosophical and theoretical approaches to visual communication from such a large time scale. I was quite shocked at the sheer history of graphic design and that some key principles which we learn today come from over 17000 years ago.

Lascaux Caves France, is where the first recorded instances of visual communication in the west starts. These caves are predicted to be over 17300 years old and scholars believe that these are a way to communicate with the gods using visual representations of the spirits of the animals. These dots are interpreted as the spots which you get after hours inside a cave representing what they believed to be a connection between man and god. This is the key principal which graphic designers wish to achieve today by communicating a message to their audience using visual representations. I find this amazing that we can still understand these markings 17300 years later by using visual literacy even though the language of these native humans would have been so much different. This is the power of graphic design and the power of this universal language which we as graphic designers strive to be fluent in.

The artist Cy Twombly creates his work in a very similar style to this native way of painting which i personally find shocking that their are connections in visual art 17300 years apart.








Rothko was another artist which used similar principles to the Lascaux Cave paintings, he also uses a similar style of the dots and cave paintings but in a completely different context. Even though his images aren't believed to be a direct way of communicating with god, his images are still believed to have a spiritual connection due to the framing and the story behind the image. His images are located inside a chapel and the mostly black paintings are related with depression and his eventual suicide. People believe that these paintings were the artists way of communicating across his emotions, on many occasions, his emotions are perceived through his images and large amounts of people have been recorded to cry uncontrollably. This shows the power of what an image can do to its audience and that we as graphic designers can produce images to effect a viewer emotionally, change someones beliefs or even persuade someone to do something out of their own will.

This idea of Rothkos chapel then leads onto religious paintings in chapels all across the world. These paintings are another way to communicate to the gods and pray, much like the Lascaux Cave paintings. It is at this point that i realized that throughout all of history, the principles of visual language tend to be very similar. One example of spiritual paintings is the Papal Altar & Frescoes 1230 where many pilgrims travel each year to view the paintings and gallery's for a spiritual way of communicating through image.











However, it is very easy to get sucked into what somebody tells you to be spiritual, a great example of this is the Mona Lisa. Is it important and famous just because culture and propaganda tells you that it is? It is this use of media and propaganda which gives us a false sense that this is otherworldly and somehow spiritual. The Mona Lisa is also a great example of artwork which has been manipulated hundreds of times across the internet. When we can reproduce images on a massive scale their power can be shifted and changed to have different meanings. Banksys manipulation of the image harnesses this power and instead of being this powerful and auraful painting, it is now a piece of street art which challenges the hierarchy's of this modern day and age. By manipulating the image, Banksy has changed the target audience of the painting from being directed at the pretentious elite group of wealthy individuals to the everyday middle class man walking to work who can now view this without paying a penny.

The image above is an example of socialist realism from the 1920s in which Stalin banned all expressive culture and made people create art in a very strict real way. These was no abstract shapes or surrealism, it was just life like portraiture. This was a way of using artwork as a form of war by pinning the democracy of communism against the freedom of capitalism which was creating very abstract paintings at the time. This way of a dictator using image as propaganda to manipulate a country reminded me of South Korea at the moment where Kim Jong Un is convincing his people that he is almost like a god among men. I personally find it amazing that propaganda can manipulate someones mind so much, it seems unbelievable and almost alien to me.

The last piece of work which really inspired me was Nick Uts image from the Vietnam war which changed Americas opinion and pretty much single handedly brought down America in the Vietnam war. It was this powerful piece of photography which turned a whole nation against itself. I personally believe that no piece of graphic design could portray a message as strong as this which is why i am extremely interested in photography and constantly looking for ways in which i can incorporate photography into my graphics work.