The Cognition of a Society of Visual Imagery
On the other hand, visualization media need not be passive. It can easily be both active and interactive as well as an efficient method of transmission of valid data and the interactivity can be intentionally structured to require and enhance critical thinking. Unfortunately, that effort to create cognitive tools lags behind the power and range of our aesthetic tools to create the images themselves. What Dave is asking for is an effort in futurism but I’m not certain the present moment is a valid baseline given the speed with which new technologies are emerging and evolving.
To answer Dave’s first question, I think visual imagery is overtaking the written word, given that Americans reportedly watch about 8 hours of TV a day on average and newspapers are dying off for lack of new readers – though I think it is unlikely in the case of academic or scientific definitions of ” new knowledge”, where peer-review journals still rule. I also will grant Dave that a visually-oriented society, at the intellectual level of current television programming, trending toward celebreality shows and infotainment “news” is one sliding toward an anarchic mob – and not a very bright mob at that – one easily swayed by charismatic demagogues and charlatans but more likely, simply uninterested in their own governance. A dystopian Brave New World of sheep-like proles of limited attention who can articulate their interests, much less press them, only with the greatest difficulty. It’s not a vision that I find appealing.
However, I think that a visual imagery society can probably develop along the same continuum of conceptual complexity that characterized previous eras of oral tradition and the written word. Not all ancient Greeks sat with rapt attention through recitations Homer and the Romans scrawled scatalogical graffitti that would make a Marine sergeant blush more frequently than they wrote like Ovid or spoke like Cicero. Except for scholars of the mundane, we’re much more cognizant of the great cultural achievments of past civilizations than we are of their versions of bathroom humor, comic books and trashy romance novels.
Bright people will always be attracted to complexity, abstraction and depth regardless of the medium and are better placed to weigh the relative value of their choices; the less intelligent will gravitate to simpler fare and will be oblivious to what they are missing. The rub is the demographic segment of the population who have the intellectual potential, which goes wasted for lack of stimulation and engagement in serious thought. If we took greater effort as a nation to invest in and repair a declining system of public education we would have far less to fear in a future society that was more reliant upon visual imagery.
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Dave Schuler:
November 27th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Thanks, Mark.
The concern is that hasn’t always been true. People, regardless of intelligence, in a primary oral culture just don’t think that way. Abstraction is demonstrably an artifact of literacy.
Zenpundit:
November 27th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
"Abstraction is demonstrably an artifact of literacy"
What about religion and creation myths ? They predate literacy and often have a metaphoric quality.
historyguy99:
November 27th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Another great post! Kudos to both you, and Dave for making it possible for readers across the world to comtemplate your thoughts. Dave’s point about becoming a society of visual imagery is well taken. Along side it I would offer, the advent of the very type of forum that we are communicating on, helps to counterbalance the effects of over stimulis of the visual effect. I would submit a little slide show that has bounced around the past few months to support the idea that communication is becoming a combination of visual, text and sound.
http://www.glumbert.com/media/shift
This little slide show provides several bullet points that seem to support the blending of conduits of information, in order to process the explosion of information now available to humans today.
Two hundred and eighty years ago, Benjamin Franklin founded the Juno Society to meet and discuss important topics among friends. It was a small group, but it lasted forty years. Today, I submit that we have the technology to include anyone with Internet access into discussions on important topics. The result is a society that has evolved to use every source of information to keep informed and in touch.
Robert Paterson:
November 27th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Very intriguing – couple of thoughts came to me as I read your post – it seems that speech itself – as a structure allowing complex though – emerged about 45,000 years ago. The time of the cave paintings at Lescaux and burial – so maybe the cycle youi point to began a bit earlier? What then was communication like before complex language?
Moving to today – The Wire is quite a bit more complex than I Love Lucy – – is there always a path of further complexity no matter where we are?
Who knows how complex our visual renaissance may become?
fred lapides:
November 27th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
…and that is why the eagle may be the symbol of our nation but PEOPLE magazine is the national register of all we hold dear and sacred. The folks hangin outt in caves drew pictures on walls long before they began to read Good Night Moon.
Ski:
November 28th, 2007 at 1:17 am
How about the ancient Egyptians or Mayans – with heiroglyphic based "alphabets" – how do they play into this?
JoseAngel from Monterrey:
November 28th, 2007 at 4:14 am
This is great stuff. I am bookmarking and printing your article as well as Dave´s for further and careful reading with some cabernet sauvignon, hoping it will probably help me understand this better.
zen:
November 28th, 2007 at 5:07 am
Much thanks Historyguy99 – see above postings.
Hi Robert
Glad you stopped by – I’ve lurked on your blog previously. You ask some great questions; my recollection is that paleontological/archeological evidence demonstrated that our relatives, the neanderthals, buried flowers and other items with their dead. Kurgan culture peoples were mound-builders. Fred referenced Cave paintings which were probably secret/sacred/"magick" So, my guess would be that, while Dave is right that the brain is wired by environmental influences, the potential for critical thought existed once the brain structure "hardware" came online in an evolutionary sense.
Hi Ski,
Great to hear from you again! Dave Schuler did address that briefly in his post – ideographic/hierioglyphic systems are more primitive forerunners of alphabetic systems.
Hi JoseA.
Much appreciated, thank you! As I have aged, I find myself drinking more wine… and whiskey (with select rum and vodkas) and beer has become a very occasional drink. Stout makes you stout.
Fabius Maximus:
November 28th, 2007 at 5:38 am
What, no mention of Marshall McLuhan? Comic books and TV are cool, movies and books are hot, and society is evolving to something or other. He told us this in 1964, so we have 40 years to test his forecasts. Does anyone recall how his predictions worked out?
A.E.:
November 28th, 2007 at 5:40 am
Ditto with Baudrillard—his stuff about "hyperreality" is off the hook.
Daniel:
November 28th, 2007 at 5:54 am
Marc, there is a recent slate article that coalesces the thoughts of violence and visual imagery. It’s entitled “Sucker Punch: The art, the poetry, the idiocy of YouTube street fights”.