I have altered my topic for my final term paper on “value” to be more geared towards visual literacy, which is what I was trying to express in the first place, but the term was eluding me. The “value” topic was becoming so massive and what I was trying to cover was becoming more and more expansive that I just couldn’t handle it. I will be including my reading on value when talking about visual literacy, but the paper will be split into to parts. The first part will be analyzing the applicability of the following theories from textual to visual collections: Schellenberg’s infomational and evidential values, Greene’s MPLP and post-modern thoughts. The second half of the paper will be exploring visual literacy, its impact on archives (how it could be used as outreach, perhaps?), and how archivists can learn to read visual materials (VM).
In looking at the art database and the available literature there, I was surprised to find aritcles dealing with museums and curation, mostly because in the seminar course, we are using the Museum Strategy and Marketing text by Kotler and Kotler and I would have thought that library, archival and museum literature would be in the same same database for searching. I digress.
This particular article is from the Curator magazine, issue 45, no. 4 from October of 2002. While this looks like a promising article, I was sorely disappointed in its execution. The author continues to pose questions which she doesn’t follow up with answers or suggestions. The best feature about the article is the section with the definition of “visual literacy” and the providing link to Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC). I was hoping from such a title that this would be more than just a call to action. It seems as if the author is promoting visual literacy as a cheerleader helps its team to victory. There are few examples of visual literacy awareness in various musuems, but then the author seems to belittle their use in other locations:
How can visual literacy be applied to the interpretation in natural history museums? In the past, discovery rooms, hands-on carts and other staffed programming somewhat addressed these questions [...] On the practical side, many small institutions financially cannot afford adequate staff to conduct the programs or manage floor staff. Even large institutions that have many offerings still do not reach the majority of vistors with programming but rather through exhibits. What are some ways for large numbers of visitors to experience visual analysis methods?
The beginning question is fine, it is answered, but then she seems to undercut the answer she just gave with mentions of impracticality and another question which she poses no answer to. This leaves me with a feeling of hopelessness and some frustration. I would have liked to see more on “the art and science of seeing.” While it is a catchy title, it is very misleading. For promoting visual literacy, this article would need to explain on a more broad level what visual literacy is OR go into more detail on a few of the examples of what the program was and what technique was used to make visitors aware of the clues from the item itself. The author seems to be hovering between these two versions and neither is expressed clearly.