Revista DIÁLOGOS com a arte

The Age of Simulation in the Eyes of Global Visibility

 

In the eyes of global visibility or Age of disposable people (Rey Chow, 2010), the presented articles focus on artistic process as contribute to society. In particular, imagery and screen making as acts of representation, becoming today a way of being. The major role of viewer´s perception and ability to decode visual narrative discourse and their system produce a way of seeing, is crucial to better perceive the impact of visual media on our collective and individual cultural identities, while stressing socio-political tensions.

According to Carl Jung there are four basic cognitive functions that “(…) determines and limits a person´s judgment.” (Jung, 1989: 207) In this regard, Contributions of Carl Gustav Jung´s Analytical Psychology to Artistic Practice, authored by Margarete Soares, aim to stress the relevance to debate authentic and its roots towards artistic practice. It becomes evident that pictorial turn understood as an Age of simulation (W. J. T. Mitchell, 1992) is deeply related with the literacy of memory, questioning mediation and “creator´s essence”. The relevance of “(..) the role of journalism, using Cinema as an Art (…)” according to Maria Celeste Cantante´s article entitled The Importance of Writing the Truth in Journalism on the Film: The Post, urges the need to address and debate uncertainties related to visual literacy and viewer´s perception, and the ability to decode narrative discourse. The territory of visual representation in the eyes of Implementing the Art of Screendance Making to Undergraduate Learners in a Midwestern University in the USA: Some Pedagogical Reflections, Suparna Banerjee and Janice Baker argue that involving dance and film are “(…) effective teaching strategies”. These methods based on screendance, wherein sentimental returns or sentimental fabulations, reflect community collaborative learning processes. Furthermore, João Cerqueira in his article – Art and Cancel Culture: the Case of José Guimarães - reinforces the need to debate cultural engagement since images possess a social value: to what extend “Cultural Appropriation” is misled today?

Towards spatial, social and ethnical segregation, Manuel Carlos Silva, Fernando Matos Rodrigues and António Cardoso focus their research in their article entitled Living Conditions, Social Representations, Social-Spacial and Ethnical Segregation in the São João de Deus Neighbourhood in Porto, on dismantling neighbourhood observation, and its community impact concerning “(…) the relationships and occasional frictions (…)”. In this regard, The Hands and the Fruits: Dialogues Among Poetry and Music by Eugénio de Andrade and Lopes-Graça authored by Helena Santana and Rosário Santana contend that images might speak of other images, namely poetry and music, when visuality understood as a global semiotic system produce a habitus. Susan Ogier´s article entitled Superpower of Looking: Enhancing Communication Skills in Young Children Through Visual Literacy focus on “(…) children´s abilities to creatively interpret images and to communicate their ideas and thoughts (…)”, highlighting the relevance of gazing as an educational skill to communicate with accuracy. In the eyes of the “Superpower of Looking”, the image it is, then, an act of cultural citizenship since it mediates the relationship with the world. Storytelling is “(…) scientifically correct and increasingly creative in the way they approach concepts”, based on Ana Peixoto´s article entitled Letters with Science: a Decade of Teaching Experiences with Pre-Service Teachers’ Education, once it impacts on a better learning outcome in the context of didactics. The (re)presented or (re)mediated collective memory of the image power is vital to promote childhood arts education. Ana Tudela, in her article entitled We See, Therefore We Are: Towards Thought-Provoking Arts Education Since Childhood, argues the relevance of urging “(…) the efforts and strategies developed to break with this tendency in the context of teaching visual arts didactics in initial primary teacher training (…)” towards a shift to be attained. Amanda Cunha, Marcília Pontes and Ana Beatriz Carvalho - Media and Information Literacy and Sustainable Development Goals: Documental Analysis and Educational Practices in the 2030 Agenda - carried out their research on aiming to observe how Media and Information Literacy (MIL) can contribute to promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) outlined in the United Nations (UN) 20230 Agenda. In other words, this article entitled - Media and Information Literacy and Sustainable Development Goals: Documental Analysis and Educational Practices in the 2030 Agenda - questions to what extend citizens today are “(…) capable of facing contemporary challenges and promoting sustainable development.”

In this regard, Images that Speak: Conversations With Images From 1st Grade Environmental Studies Textbooks” research conducted by Cristina Ferreira, and article written within the scope of FCT´s Exploratory Project, shows clear evidence of “(…) how images inhabit the pages, occupying more privileged areas in terms of visual perception or less prominent ones (…) to make visible that the role of images in school textbooks goes beyond the educational aspect (…)”. To conclude that the influence of being exposed to images at early age, may impact future at multiple dimensions, namely cultural identity mutation, as mentioned previously.

In brief, it is crucial to foster debate concerning the major role of viewer´s perception and ability to decode visual representation to better comprehend the construction of the image, and reflecting on the vision of the “world as a picture”. In others words, the relevance of questioning of its contours relates to visual literacy and consequently memory territory. In the eyes of global visibility, the Age of simulation today emphasizes the tension between belief and disbelief. Thus, what does the image mean to tell us? And what paradoxes and tensions does it raise?

​

References
Curtis, N. (Ed.) (2010). The Pictorial Turn. London: Routledge.
Chow, R. (2020). A Face Drawn in Sand. New York: Columbia University Press.

 

TOMÉ QUADROS

Escola Superior de Artes e Design (ESAD) /ESE-IPVC, Portugal

tomequadros@gmail.com