Optical Illusions?©
The Unitarian Society of
Ridgewood, Sunday, April 1, 2007
Edward Scott Michael,
Ministerial Intern
I am the oldest of five children, and the first grandchild on both sides of my
family. Needless to say I received quite
a bit of attention. I could read by the
time I was four, in large part because of all that attention. Yet when I was nine, I struggled in an art
class so much I cried. I still am
challenged by visual literacy. Today’s
address is about Visual literacy.
Visual images are a language. Visual Literacy is the set of skills involved in the interpretation,
creation and criticism
of images. Visual literacy is a field of study that
draws on art history,
psychology,
philosophy,
and graphic design. Visual literacy includes rhetorical
analysis of the ways different visual media convey their messages. Visual literacy - this set of
skills involved in the interpretation
and criticism
of images
- is something learned, just as reading
and writing are learned. It is important
to understand the impact images have on us.
Many
times when we watch a program, we are aware of what the story is. We follow the plot as it unfolds. The language in the dialogue tells us one
story. Yet the parade of images in the
program may say something very different than the script. Many scientists believe the language of the
image is much less open to interpretation than words. For instance, a program may have a main
character with whom we do not identify, so whatever “message” or theme the show
intends may not be embraced by all the viewers – we may reject the message when
we reject the character, or if we find the plot unbelievable we get another
message or tune out of the story. Yet
the same program’s images may allow fewer possible interpretations. For example, consider the very popular “Crime
Scene” shows now on Television. Every
time I tune into one of these it seems there is a mangled woman’s body. Now this woman’s body is the impetus for the
“heroes” of the forensic team to work extra hard and find the killer. That is
the script’s message. But the images so frequent in these shows – women’s
bodies routinely defamed, scantily clad, displayed
graphically, with mood lighting, and lush music -
What do these images tell us? That women are
expendable? That people like to
disfigure women or at least view women who have been disfigured? Even if the images tell us that it is a
heinous crime to disfigure a woman –do we need to SEE the body in order to be
OUTRAGED at the crime?
I think of other programs. The movie
“Save The Last Dance,” a movie about an inter-racial
high-school couple in Chicago who fall in love and teach one another their
respective styles of dance – ballet and hip-hop – this movie seems to be about
all the right things – Love, integration, having the courage to face your
fears. And on one level that IS what the
movie is about. But on the level of the
image, the movie is about much more. The
images of this film perpetuate racist stereotypes. Over and again the gestures, the fighting and
weapons, the clothing, lighting, camera angles, the setting - all work against
the “plot” that the language of the
film establishes. (If you are
interested, join me in here after service and I will demonstrate.) Gladly, there is an easy way to read the
“image plot” of films. I learned this
technique in seminary, a class with UU theologian Thandeka. The class was “Theology and Film: Analyzing
Race in American film.” Thandeka showed that the best way to analyze a film is to
view a VHS tape or DVD at home. First
view it with the sound. Then turn the
sound off and view it again. As you view
it this second time with the sound off, try and forget the language of the
film, and see what plot the images present. Feel free to pause and step-view
parts of the film. Be prepared for a
very different experience. This is in
part because Language and images are processed in very different places in our
brains. Often we become influenced by
images in ways that escape our rational processes, and we become more accepting
of the “story” the images tell us because the images are not examined by our
reason. Think about how we speak about
movies - we criticize the acting, the believability of the plot, the character
development – but most of us are not taught to critique the “image plot” of a
film.
Now I do not want anyone to leave
here thinking I suggest that we throw out our televisions or stop watching
movies. Indeed that is the last thing on
my mind; I Love Film. I believe strongly
that we must remain connected to our world, and I also believe that technology
is value neutral. I myself used video technology
today for this worship service. The
projector is but one more tool, one means of engaging more of the brain in a
holistic worship experience. My point is
simple. We must teach ourselves - and
our children- visual literacy. We must
be intentional about how we engage our media, and we must be critical of how
that media affects us and our culture.
We must examine what kinds of images we are willing to proliferate,
tolerate and celebrate.
Now I am sure most everyone in this
room is aware of this. Yet it becomes
hard to stay vigilant. So I ask you,
some time this week try the technique I described to you - take a film you
really like, one you believe has a good message, and view it first with sound
on and then sound off, and reflect on the difference.
The concern over images is also an
age-old religious discussion. The Second
commandment Moses brought down from Sinai was an injunction against making
images, though Christians, Muslims and Jews interpret this commandment very
differently. Unitarian Universalists
have long been concerned with using religious symbols intelligently. Our religious tradition has been described as
a marriage of rationality and revelation.
For Centuries Unitarians and Universalists have
applied intellectual analysis to our religious experiences. Indeed a rational approach to religion has
been the hallmark of our faith since it’s founding. In light of today’s cultural preference for
image-based media, to not have training to analyze that media is like having
revelation without the rationality, experience without reflection. We are left grasping for context, and we
become vulnerable to being influenced by the images with which we are
bombarded.
Consider
this: We are taught verbal literacy every year of school. In school we encounter the magic of words by
reading, silently and aloud, and we learn to compose this magic by writing
essays and book reports. Our better
schools teach us to craft poems, carefully considering meter and rhyme,
searching for the perfect word, staying conscious of line breaks, of the titles
we give, and even typographic elements.
In this way I was taught in the tenth grade how using the word “grave”
instead of “serious” could alter a poem I was composing. The same cannot be said for film. We are not taught, for example, how the
choice of a long shot versus a close up constructs meaning -a long shot evokes
emotional distance or indifference, a close-up implies intimacy and
connection. We are not taught how
Hollywood discourages directors from commenting on film’s artificiality – our
movies are not supposed to remind the audience we are watching a composed piece
of art; we are to be flies on the wall observing the action, or better yet - be a part of the action. Directors can make us a part of the action by
using what is known as shot/reverse shot technique, the most commonly used shot
in American Film. (demonstrate) This shot is done over
the shoulder of the main characters; we identify with these characters strongly
because we see the world as they do. When one adds music, sound, lighting –
then what happens to them happens to us.
This
is just a small taste of the visual literacy education I believe is vital for
us all. Newspaper readership is at an
all time low; our culture prefers its information and entertainment be
delivered visually. At the same time, we
are not encouraged to see the man behind the curtain or know how he operates.
And our visual media are the primary purveyors of Pop culture. Our ideas about how a house should look, what
kind of car one should drive, what kind of clothes to wear, who to fear- Even our ideas about what constitutes a good
relationship – all these values are formed, in part, with input from Pop
Culture.
Now
it is very tempting for me to say, “I’m not like that - I am not susceptible to
pop culture manipulation”- But that would be a lie. I mean, I wanted to be a Rock Star. I wanted to play drums in stadiums, stay up
until dawn, and never cut my hair. I
always told myself “I don’t want the fame and the money – I just want to be
able to follow my artistic passion without having to work some crummy job – and
never cut my hair.” But where did I get
the idea that such a life was possible?
Pop Culture taught me it was good and possible to be a rock star.
I
offer here observations about Pop Culture: Pop culture elevates consumption
over conservation. Our economy is built
on manufacturing needs, creating desires to have things that we really do not
need for survival or well-being. Wedded
to this culture of consumption is the cult of personality, our love of
celebrity. Today, Celebrities are no
longer created because of accomplishment or achievement – they just are revered
for being well known, or notorious, beautiful, nasty, or rich. Our culture loves people who everyone else
seems to think is worthy of being loved or watched. Americans long to be like celebrities, to
have what they have, to look like they look, to live as they live. These are values that Pop Culture
reveals. Indeed, our culture is intoxicated
by images – we cannot escape TV, billboards, the Internet, pod-casting.
Yet,
despite this proliferation of images, we do not teach our children visual
literacy, and that is a problem. Think
of your education, or your children’s education. What are we teaching about images? About advertising and the
economy?
And
here we encounter a paradox. When we
watch television it becomes difficult to be critical of the culture it creates
because we are influenced as we watch. If we do not watch, we risk not understanding
the culture in which we live. As a sixth
grade teacher I struggled with this dilemma, and eventually realized I had to
watch videos and a couple television programs my sixth graders watched just so
I could get a grip on where they were coming from and what was influencing
them. It was the most difficult homework
I ever had.
I
love to say I hate “bad” TV – but I watch it like everybody else. And truly, television is not inherently
bad. Think about the images I shared
with you. I first saw them on TV. Both films attempt to allow the visual to
speak without the interposition of words.
Godfrey Reggio’s images from the Serra Pelada gold mine in Brazil,
workers tirelessly going into and out of that huge hole in the ground, carrying
one of their comrades out, it’s an image of human community. The Volcano clip from Baraka
illuminates Nature’s majestic beauty without someone yammering on; it is nice
to just look. Think of how different
both clips were once the music was turned down.
Now Fricke and Reggio use the technology -
airplanes, helicopters, 70 mm film projectors – as they critique our
culture. The technology is not the
problem; education is.
The
world changes and we change with it, incorporating our reflections into our
actions, human creativity coordinating all our latest inventions into profound
art of spiritual depth. So I wonder –
how do we monitor the culture without frittering away our time watching bad
TV? Can we influence what our culture
values without using the very media that seems to propagate so many
problems? How do we transform ourselves
while resisting unwanted influence?
There are things we can do - Education and experimentation. It is so important to teach kids visual
literacy. There is no better way to
teach kids about film than to have them make their own films. Some of you here do just that –Tom and Kass
Day-Seiter encourage their kids to make films.
Their daughters, Cecilia and Blanca, take great pride and joy in getting
their friends together to compose their fantasy worlds into short movies. Such experiments in film-making demystify the
other side of the lens, helping kids learn that what we see on the screen is
something created by people using certain tools and techniques so arranged to
produce a desired effect. Right now our
educational systems lack such instruction.
Few schools offer any thorough visual literacy training. Nowhere I ever taught in public school or
college – 7 different schools – none incorporated
visual literacy into its curriculum. If
we do not see the man behind the curtain, we may assume there is magic working
and we may do his bidding. This is a
religious concern because our media help construct our values, and our values
inform our actions.
No,
I do not want to be a Rock star anymore.
But I do want help knowing the dancer from the dance. I long for ways to be in the world and yet
remain completely Myself. We nurture this community, searching for
truth and meaning together. With increased visual literacy and time away from the screen. May we find a clearer vision and bring richer
meaning to the world. May we change
what’s on the channel and not let the channel unreflectively change us.
Benediction
Amid all the fret and fever of
the day
We are well served when we are well
informed
Since our values lead us into
action
May our Sources of faith and
learning encourage wisdom and visual literacy
May we find time away from the
screen to hear our soul’s calling and to connect with one another
And when we do watch, may we change
what’s on the channel and not let the channel unreflectively change us
So we may bring richer meaning to
the world again