Critical seeing http://www.flickr.com/photos/coincoyote/

Contradictions: 45,000 more women killed than men in Boxing Day tsunami, 2004

I first became interested In visual studies when I

encountered contradictions between

images of the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004 and women’s lived

experiences.

Contradictions: Women aren’t strong enough to be fire fighters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adjourned/

I also encountered contradictions between the hard physical labour

of women in the majority world and negative attitudes

towards the capabilities of female firefighters

We make the road by walking

We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change by Myles Horton, Paulo Freire 1990

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26609376@N00/sets/72157594290816252/show/

This presentation reflects a conceptual

space that photographs construct meaning,

through representation; rather than capture

“reality”.

And by seeing http://www.flickr.com/photos/lecercle/

Photographs provide an opportunity to explore what is shown , how

and by whom? What is absent and why?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaseanton/

Through photo essays

The following slides provide an overview of different approaches to

visual studies:

Through creative collection and curation

http://www.postsecret.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amyflemingphotography/

Through postcards of meaning

Through visual artefacts

www.thewhitecardgame.com.au

Visual artefacts such as this enable a researcher

to explore representations of gender, race and

sexuality in virtual spaces used to educate

others

Through visual images

Curating and analysing Google images provides

insight into how lived experience (in this case female firefighters) are

represented at a moment in time

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cromonna/

Through photo-elicitation in its many forms

Through personalized & cultural maps

An alternative to the linear verbal interview – create maps, drawings, doodles, sand lines, real

mud maps….

Through data visualisation

http://www.flickr.com/photos/soulcookie/

Data visualisation has become very popular,

but they are themselves representations of data

– that is itself often “objective” and

representational.. They are worthy of critical

analysis, as well as use.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/springm/

Through critical content analysis

Visual data provides a mechanism for critical

analysis – but this analysis also needs to be applied to

images in order to interrogate representation

. What is seen and not seen, and by whom, shapes

our way of seeing and making ‘the road”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/springm/

Through collaborative mapping…

“Seeing” visually can be a process of crowd

sourcing and collaboration

And collaborative timelines

And new media storytelling

Visual studies provides one way of encountering and interrogating beyond words by exploring the

contradictions that can exist between words and images.

Analysis of visual representations can be used as a basis for problem

solving, by expanding the social imagination.

To imagine a