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Visual Literacy

By Don L. F. NilsenAnd Alleen Pace Nilsen

Visual Past: Egyptian Hieroglyphics & The Rosetta StoneQUESTION: What is a cartouche and why is it important?

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Cartouche of Thutmose III

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Egyptian Hieroglyphics are alphabetic, not pictographic.

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The History of WritingPictographs

cave drawings () <> [] {} *Chinese, Japanese

Ideographs ! @ # $ % & ? . Chinese, Japanese

RunesMagic, SpellsNorth Germanic

SyllabaryISU, FUNEM?S, VFM.FUNEX?S, VFX.OK, LFMNX

LE, CD puppies?L, MNO puppies.OSMR puppies.CMPN?

Japanese Kanji

Phonemic AlphabetBDFHJKLMNPRSTVWYZSpanish, Latin

Morphophonemic AlphabetSee next slide

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The letters in a morphophonemic alphabetrepresent meanings (morphology) as well as sounds (phonology)

• Therefore, unrelated words are spelled differently even though they are pronounced the same: – cite-sight-site, marry-Mary-merry, pair-pare-pear, there-

their-they're

• And related words are spelled the same even though they are pronounced differently: – CONSONANTS: act-action, critic-criticize, medicine-

medication, part-partial, rite-ritual, seize-seizure– VOWELS: nation-national, obscene-obscenity, sign-

signature, go-gone– SUFFIXES: cats, dogs, horses / jumped, died, heated– HISTORICAL PRESERVATIONS: knight, hôtel

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Visual Ambiguities

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Letters vs. Numbers Literacy

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Visual Anachronism

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Anachronism

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Visual Analogies

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Alleen Nilsen & Friends

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Visual Antithesis

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Magritte’s Window

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Visual Aptness

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Quixote’s Mind

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Visual Distortion

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Picasso’s “Les Dmoiselles d’Avignon”

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Visual Impossibility

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Escher’s Waterfall

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Visual Metaphors

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Skeleton Words in English

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Visual Orientation

Upside-Down& Sideways

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Frog or Horse?

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Visual Paradoxes

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Paradoxical Colors

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LANGUAGE VS. IMAGE

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INVISIBLE BOX

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Paradoxical Circles

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Trapezoid Room

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Visual Parodies

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Parody of Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are

• With:– Bill Cosby– George Lopez– Ray Romano– Margaret Cho– Brad Garrett and – Bill Engvall

• As Wild Things

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Diego Velazquez: Las Meninas

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Pablo Picasso: Las Meninas

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Visual Personification

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Magritte’s “Tree with Ax”

Visual Perspective:Kissing the Sphinx

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Visual Repetition

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Magritte’s Bowler Hats

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Visual Subtlety

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Animal Face

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Visual Symbols

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Arrows

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Ribbons

Visual Future: Emoji

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Emoji Keyboard