Educational articles

G. Šeputis / personal photo

We live in an era dominated by visuals. Whether we like it or not, understanding through images is becoming a new literacy—traditional sentence structure is replaced by visual syntax (the sequence of

Historically, humanity originally had a civilisation of Memory, which valued the ability to remember long texts, to quote them, to communicate orally what was important. There were even memory competitions of sorts. Then came the Book Civilization, which changed the whole course of human development: there was no longer so much to remember, but written sources - vast amounts of information that could be read and passed on. The civilisation of books became the impetus for the development of universities.

In the new Media Civilization in which we live, the basic skills we teach our children to read, write and do mathematics are declining. It could be that they will become a kind of atavism, as children are increasingly "fed" by media images. On the one hand, visual culture is a powerful stimulus for innovation and creativity; on the other hand, the enormous flow of media images that we are exposed to today has a negative impact on our psyche - we become addicted to them. Here are some examples:

- Hundreds of millions of photographs are uploaded to Facebook every day, selfies in the most unlikely places have become commonplace - a phenomenon that scientists ironically refer to as "image diarrhea".

- The vast majority of Netflix users watch 2-6 show episodes in one sitting, which produces dopamine in the human body and makes it addictive.

- A person sees over 100 adverts every day, often with conflicting messages.

All of this engages humans in a constant state of unconsciousness, a kind of "informational fog," and this state is a significant challenge for humanity.

In 2014, I chaired a committee that selected applicants for visual arts studies. In the entrance exams, 18-year-olds had to write a script about silence. I reviewed 80 entries. The results were astonishing: the neutral image of silence evoked negative associations for more than half of these young men and women: they associated silence with sadness, anxiety, suffering, death, routine, violence, escape... I began to ask the question: where do these frightening images come from, how do they enter the children's consciousness? I carried out my research using a comparative analysis of schoolchildren's drawings and television images*. Most of the drawings correlate with images from TV programmes and films. There was no trace of creativity in these works. These young people did not create anything new.

The great artists of the Renaissance were inspired by nature, by man, by images that corresponded to the 'golden ratio', but what images inspire today? Viral - memes. They travel through social networks and other media channels, infecting those who ignore the quality of the content.

Let us be responsible for what we give our attention to.

Excerpt from G. Šeputis‘ lecture "Hidden/unread meanings of images, 2020

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