DIMENSIONS_OF_VISUAL_LITERACY

A point, as the basic element, is connected with the basic geometric fea- ture – to attract attention, to be centrical. This is the immaterial element that numerically equals to zero. „However, this zero incorporates various attributes that are human with regards to their character. We contemplate this zero – this geometrical point – in relation to the greatest possible conciseness, i.e. to the supreme level of restriction that can communicate. Therefore we view a geometrical point as the perfect combination of si- lence and speech,” W. Kandinsky says (2000, p. 25). A point can find its material form particularly in script, it becomes the part of speech, yet it also means silence. It has an important role in gra- phic expression, but its internal expression is suppressed by other charac- ters or graphemes. Its significance increases when it enlarges in space till remaining alone in the area and starting its existance as a separate phe- nomenon. A point may have many shapes and forms, its boundaries attain various forms, there may be endlessly many of them – with little pro- jections, sharp or round edges and it may resemble also other geometric shapes. From the internal point of view, a point symbolises the maximum reserve, it keeps the impression of a static solidness. It is a small world of itself, bounded from all sides, isolated from its surroundings; however, it is able to defend its place by „fixed” position. „The point is the most eco- nomical internal form of permanent communication and thus, in external and internal sense, it is the primordial element of painting” (Kandinsky, 2000, p. 28). From the formal point of view, we call the point the smallest elementary form. If it wants to take a certain portion of the basic area, it must grow to certain dimensions. The moment when the point ceases to exist and the area emerges as a form, it becomes the significant means of expression. The entire world is represented by a complex of geometrical points floating in the never-ending geometrical space in various compo- sition forms. It is worth mentioning that the original marks created by humans seem to be in the form of a point or variations of a point at first appearance. It is similar with a child’s scrawl, having its start in a par- ticular point (Kellogg, 1969, p. 15, Šupšáková, 2009, 2013, Šupšáková, Tacol, 2018). A point is represented in all types of fine art. Its autonomous power ap- plies also in graphics. The tools of fin-art (visual) creation give an infinite quantity of various forms, sizes and expressions to this „force” and they 49

change a point into a countless group of differently sounding phenomena. Even thoug the dimensions of a point are minimal, the way in which it is created is also notable. It is affected by colours, the used tool, material as well as the technique and technological procedures. A point is irreplace- able in classic and modern dance as a footstep on the floor or during the peak of the leap. Or as a hit on the drum, or any other musical instrument. „A piano creates closed compositions exclusively using the assemblies and subsequently sounding individual points” (Kandinsky, 2000, p. 38). The points are represented here by the individual notes and their size de- pends upon the length of the note duration. The theory of the first independent element of visual grammar is the proof that the wording of such simple element may appear and express itself in the abstract expression in various areas of the world, totally freely. The point is elevated to describe presence and absence. It is elevated to a visual language, even to a portrait in an analogic form: the main figure in the novel by James Joyce Ulysses is Bloom, impersonating the mystic entity, known as the average man”. Bloom wanders alone during a day, ignored by his surroundings and just little tolerated, but at night, his iso- lation reaches cosmic or mystic character. He is alone, surrounded by the infinite space. Bloom goes to sleep and our last view of him is graphic. In the first issues of Ulysses the author introduces Bloom as a single point (Kandinsky, 2000, p. 106). Wassily Kandinsky states every phenomenon of interior or exterior world has its linear equivalent – a transcription into a line. Thus there is a force not coming from a point but the source outside of it. This force redirects it from the area and moves it to another place. Its tension is immediately reduced, but at the same time, the point is changed to a new phenomenon – a line. A line originates by the effect of either one or two forces repeated after each other or acting at once. The line is invisible; it is the trace left by the moving point. It is created by a movement. The horizontal line that may be expanded to all directions induces the impression of significance and balance. The vertical line, perpendicularly directed to horizontal line, evokes tension and coldness. The diagonal, the internal expression of which represents the equable mixture of coldness and heat, represents the most distinctive opposite of a static point. 50

Which of the basic elements of picture design – the line, shape, colour, texture – is the most powerful one? Surely, the line! No shape may exist without the line, no form may exist without the shape, and there is no structure without the shape and form. And without the line or shape, no picture may be created. The line may be short or long, thick or thin. It may lead the attention of the perceiver to the centre of the picture or outside of it. It often has emotional connotation – it may evoke peace or move- ment, stability or uncertainty. Curvaceous lines prevail in nature – they are trapped in wind, rivers, surf, hills. We mostly comprehend the uneven lines as soft, calm and fine. Also „toothed” so called „zigzag” lines are visible, mostly in nature – in the mountains and their peaks. The diagonal lines evoke the feeling of movement, activity and speed. It seems improbable, but also musical instruments create various lines. The height of their tones corresponds to the width of a line. A violin, flute or piccolo all produce very narrow lines, while the lines performed by viola, clarinet or even a trumpet or violoncello gradually gain thickness. When dancing, a dancer also moves in lines that form his dance compo- sition. This composition is represented by his/her whole body at every moment. In poetry, the line acts as a straight line and an arc serveing for the expression of a rhythmic arrangement of verses. The musical-melodic line is usually demonstrated during the performance, it is the expression of raise and fall, tension and relaxation of the voice of the performer. In nature, we also perceive the lines in unusually manifold ways and in countless phenomena – in the world of minerals, plants and animals. The various shapes composed of such unobtructed lines are evident also in the abstract art. Even though the similarity among the linear construc- tions in nature and in art is apparent, their existence in nature is subject to external regularities. The process of line creation in art is more loose, free, independent and of an internal character. „A point – peace. A line – dynamic internal tension, from which a move- ment is created. Two elements through combination of which an inde- pendent language and exact painting expression originates. Form is pre- pared to carry the live contents” (Brittain, 1979, p. 34). The boundaries between line and area are unclear and unstable, therefore we may not exactly formulate them. In such a case, we may rely just upon emotions. However, the ability to create lines on the area (Figure 2) is apparent. 51

Figure 2: Drawing – Flying cat Its beginning is suggested in the circular line itself. Through the effect of forces on the line from various directions, as well as through tension, it is possible to create an inexhaustible quantity of smaller and greater shapes and areas. The shape has more principal importance in comparison to the point, since it is the basic element of identification. We may assume we can smell the scent of an exotic flower, but as long as we cannot see its shape we cannot correctly identify it. This is similar with voice communica- tion, we can hear a pleasant voice in telephone, but as long as we cannot see the speaking person, we may not assess his/her non-verbal (mimic) expression, and thus not to estimate his/her feelings and emotions. From prehistory till today, there have been the desire and at the same time the ability of a human to identify the objects by their shape. This ability, or on the contrary lack thereof, provides either assurance or uncertainty. The exactly demarcated part of a certain area has the form of a shape. Tri- angle, square and circle are geometric shapes we can reach either through immediate experience or on the contrary, by its abstraction. This is exac- 52

tly how Kandinsky´s shapes are reated: he assigns characteristic proper- ties to every form and connects them to the experienced feelings. A circle is open and has the tendency to enlarge. A round outline is soft and thus also the entire shape bears in it also the essence of softness, suppleness, smoothness, rotaty movement, whereby evoking pleasant feelings. A cir- cle is the form of several forms – unnoticeable and distinctive, inconstant and stable. A square is perfect in shape, it is „aesthetically the strictest” one of the geometric objects. Its hard, distinctive form and typical an- gularity is of a static character. Thirdly, triangle expresses tension and energy, it represents a piercing, sharp movement. In principle, the form may be observed in three dimensions. We are used to perceive the shape of the objects in two dimensions, however the expe- rience persuades us that the objects surrounding us have depth and they exist in the real space. Squares, rectangles, triangles and circles evoke various emotional responses when perceived by vision. The circular shape represents completeness. Three-dimensional forms of rectangles, squares and triangles are introduced into nature by a man. In his work, Wassily Kandinsky loves using the forms of either their original shape or those that originated absolutely naturally, spontaneously, on the basis of feelings. Loose, abstract forms, as well as the geometric forms, are typi- cal in their own internal expression. When they are displayed on an area, they have the character of external image, but at the same time, it is the expression of the interior of the artist – the internal concents of the piece of art. Shapes have power in themselves, penetrating to our consciousness and evoking an aesthetic experience, value, quality. „Each shape has its own internal contents. The form is thus the external manifestation of in- ternal contents. It can fulfil its function only when it exactly expresses the internal contents. The form is the means enabling me to achieve the ob- jective” (Kandinsky, 2000, p. 83). The contents and form are two integral parts of a single expression, the mutual cooperation of the contents and the form comes from the activity of both of them, therefore it is necessary to pay the reasonable attention to both of them. None of the visual elements intended for designing of a picture, object or another visual is able to induce such emotions as a structure. In common language, we use the term „structure” in order to express various proper- ties and characteristics. A soft voice may induce the feeling of tenderness, 53

gruff voice can induce the feeling of aggression and fear. However, as for the structure of the particular object, the problem of its seeing and pre- sentation depends upon a single critical moment – illumination. Colour is present in manifold forms, phenomena and tones. A person is able to recognise at least 2,000 different shades of the colour scale with his/her eyes. Approximately 87 per cent of all sensory perceptions are obtained exactly from the colour spectrum. „The world of colours” has its own imagination that is encoded in pictures. The basic (primary) co- lours – red, blue and yellow – are pure and they may not be originated by mixing the other colours, unlike the derived colours. By mixing two basic colours, secondary colours are created.This in practice means that for exam- ple by mixing red and blue, we get violet, orange is created by mixing red and yellow and green colour is produced by mixing blue with yellow. Colours are often mentioned also in relation to the effect of temperature, when red, yellow and orange (associated with sun) are called warm co- lours and on the other hand, blue, violet and green (related to water and shade) are called cold colours. By mixing these colours, the group of tertiary colours is produced. From the point of view of interrelations, we may speak of analogical, complementary colours. Also of monochro- matic, triadic, tetradic colour schemes. A special category is neutral co- lours, including white and black and their shades. Colours play a very important role in our lives, since they instantly influ- ence our feelings and mood. The perception of colours depends upon se- veral factors, including hue, type of light (daylight, artificial, intense, weak), the mood of the person who comes into contact with the colour, his/her biological rhythm, etc. The symbolism of colours thus has various positions and it is variable in the diachrony of the development of human society. It evolved from the first primaeval patterns (archetypes) of the meanings of colours in primitive human communities, where it expressed the basic semantic opposites resulting from biological, physiological, magical, psychological and other effects. According to Max Lüscher, the recognized psychologist, there are universal meanings of colours applica- ble on the majority of our population. Yellow colour is the symbol of wealth, nobility, fame and beauty. It is the colour of light and sun, au- tumn leaves and maturity. It is a bright colour, close to gold. It looks cheerfully, it invigorates surrounding colours, establishes the feeling of 54

freedom and space. It evokes stimulation, brings relaxation, the feeling of concord and harmony. Pale yellow (so called lemon) colour suggests the need to resist the release of tension. Orange colour symbolises sun flare, energy, joy, brightness, heat and maturity. It is warming, stimulating and joyful, it provides energy. It is very active, it invokes the feeling of warmth and pleasant atmosphere, it stimulates creative work. Green colour is the colour of peace, nature, silence and sometimes also coldness. It symbo- lises mainly nature, it is the colour of plants, spring, life, freshness, youth and perspective. In this regard, its meaning is also derived as the colour of hope, second life and immortality. It makes a stable, soothing impres- sion, it evokes friendship, life. Yellow-green colour evokes openness; it gives the impulse to the establishment of a contact. However, by adding larger quantity of yellow, it gives the obtrusive and smarmy impression. Pale green colour looks naturally, yet sometimes also poisonously; it is related to the feeling of cold, moisture, silence, (plant) nature, ecology and growth. Dark green colour calms and protects, but also restricts, it is friendly, and it gives the feeling of safety and hope. Dark green colour expresses self-esteem, secludedness and (self-) adoration. Blue-green pale colour is coldly abstract, sanitary sterile. Blue colour symbolises in- tellect, meditation, also calmness, trust and tradition. This is the colour of communication as well as of inspiration, peace and freshness. It opens a mind, it is inspiring, elegant, and it suppresses the feelings of solitude and abandonment. It is relaxing, but not as much as indigo blue colour. Blue colour is quiet, stable, passive and it looks cool, in particular in pa- ler shades. Pale blue colour seems to be amiable; it recalls the image of sky and air, silence and desire. It evokes the carefree joy, it places no de- mands and does not involve in anything. While blue colour represents order and harmony, resembles space or even emptiness, dark blue colour is heavy and mystic. It symbolises the sky, sometimes cold, sometimes shine, solitude, desire, fidelity. It evokes calmness, seriousness or even depression. It is the colour of far away places, depth, meditation and sad- ness, but also of peace and satisfaction. It calms and helps to develop in- tuition. Red colour evokes the feeling of excitement; it is energetic, sharp or even ardent, strong, powerful, related to the images of fire, blood, dan- ger, love, noise. At the same time, it is dignified; it is the symbol of brisk action, a change, pretence and getting forward, conquering, energy and self-esteem, as well as warning. In ancient history, it was often considered 55

in many cultures to be the most significant colour and it played an impor- tant role during ritual ceremonies together with black and white. Most of its meanings were metaphorically derived from its similarity to blood. In art, especially in painting, it symbolises dawn, sunset, love, as well as a storm, war and devil. In heraldry, it is considered to be the most impor- tant colour and it relates mainly to high-mindedness, bravery, victory, rule and power. Blue-red colour is the symbol of power suppression, inward concentration, an enforcement of temperateness. Purple colour gives an impression of dignity, pride, nobleness; it encourages and is related to the vision of justice and majesty, self-esteem without a contact, peace and truce. It is the colour of beauty, nobleness, dignity and justice. Violet co- lour is between the red and blue colour. It is the colour of mediation and balance between power and authority of red and the sanctity and wisdom of blue. Violet gives the uncanny or even mystic impression. It is heavy, it symbolises dignity and fame. It is also the symbol of sadness, disease, death, yet it may give also positive impression. It is melancholic, distinc- tive, demanding, it expresses the disguised excitement, hidden secret, in- ducing anxiety, restrained sobriety, humbleness and modesty. In profane symbolism, it is the colour of fidelity and stability. The Christian art often uses it as the symbol of the suffering of Christ. In the Catholic liturgy, it is the colour of seriousness and penitence, as well as of Advent and Lent. It calms both body and spirit. It helps to concentrate when thinking, con- templating and praying. Pale violet colour gives magic, ambivalent and wimpy impression. It is the colour of magic, melancholy and intoxica- tion. Pink colour means freedom and also energy – gentle activity. It sym- bolises love, affection and hearty dedication without the instinctive sen- suality. It is the colour of tenderness, delicacy, and fine way of life, decent elegance, ceremonial moods and sentimental feelings. Peach colour re- stores, invigorates and finely stimulates and it may dissolve and remove emotional blockages. This shade of colour is the closest to the colour of skin; it keeps life energy and softens skin. Brown colour is the symbol of silence, it is solid and solemn, realistic, related to the images of assu- rance and order, home, tradition and moderation. Brown-yellow colour comprises the dynamics of opening up, but instead of the shallowness of yellow it induces the expression of deeper ease of mind. White colour incorporates all colours. It is the symbol of perfection and cleanliness, virginity, light and also emptiness. It is the symbol of spirituality and ab- 56

straction, it enlightens thoughts. It is the „colour of understanding”. It is the symbol of both beginning and end (the celebration of birth and wed- ding, the ceremonies and sometimes also of funerals). White colour is indeterminate, unsure, related to the images of innocence and serenity, liberation, absolute freedom, new starts. It adds luminance factor to the other colours. Black colour is the opposite of white; it is also an expres- sion of the absolute condition. It is not considered to be a colour. In Eu- rope, it represents rather sadness and death. The terminal point of the dark spectrum represents the final decision, the aggressive defiance, the denial of variegated life, nothingness, absolute austerity; it is the expression for combative „no”. At the same time, it symbolises style and elegance. Since it is a solid, hard and in particular serious and ceremonial colour, it sup- ports radiance in other colours. Grey colour is indifferent, sad, related to the image of poverty, humility and neutrality, it is the boundary between spaces. Golden colour symbolises the feeling of radiant happiness. It is the colour of correct, right centre, the colour of universal love and the supreme values; it represents idealism, generosity and nobleness. Golden colour represents anything valuable, valued and desirable. It transforms cognition to understanding, it helps in the control of mental uncertainties, and it supports the spirit on the way to the universal wisdom. An artist perceives a colour as the attribute of higher quality and at the same time as the expression of activity. He/she assesses all the feelings of colours as something that cannot be expressed by words. He/she believes that what remains unsaid is in fact the true essence of colour. Colour, identically as the above described elements of visual language, partici- pates on the expression of a picture; it provides it with necessary atmo- sphere. It stems from feeling; its mission is to give the external expression of „internal inevitability” to the picture. Thus it is the carrier, visuali- sation of the internal contents of the piece of art. It powerfully acts on a human, his/her emotions. The same colour has different effect in any form; it is radiated differently from the shape. The efficiency, power of the colours, just like the power of musical tones, affects every individual, his/her internal life, induces the manifold feelings. The cognisance that seemingly empty formal elements of visual language have their own power of expression, internal and external meaning, is rather essential for Wassil Kandinsky and some other giants of fine art. 57

Just like the knowledge of the development of grammar, which he be- lieves to have general validity for art as a unit. „This abstract compliance with laws, valid for any of the arts, finds a constant, more or less con- scious application in that art which may be compared to the observation of natural regularities and that in both cases – in art and in nature – brings a very special satisfaction to the interior of a human. In principle, the same abstract ability to comply with law is surely the property of other artistic expressions. The spatial elements in sculpture and architecture, the tone in music, movement in dance and a word in poetry – all of them require similar revelation and similar elementary comparison in relation to their external and internal characteristics, which I call „sounds” (Thorn, Braun, 1974, p. 33). The above mentioned text clearly declares that the visual language(s) exists. Just like the verbal language, with its specific functions. It proves that as it is possible to interconnect the alphabet letters in many ways and create meaningful words, it is also possible to interconnect visual forms in many ways and thanks to the visual language to create particular relations and express feelings – in an area or space – during the process of creation. However, we cannot claim today that visual language is universal. In the context of the theory of visual literacy, it is necessary to learn the visual language so that it could serve as the basis for the development of verbal language. It is necessary to concurrently develop abilities, to use visual language in the interaction between the perceiver and pictures in the broad sense of the word, considering that the level of the development of visual language depends upon the abundance and variety of pictures that are in an interaction with the perceiver, as well as upon the level of interaction. 58

LEARNING THE VISUAL LITERACY The well-known exchange of opinions between Piaget and Vygotsky about the origin of language and thoughts represents their extreme posi- tions, yet it also points to the development of thinking. Whether we can agree with the opinion that „the language is the creator of a thought” or that „the thought is the predecessor of the language”, both processes are non-disputable in their interaction and they mutually complement each other” (Kim, 1980, p. 142). Interface between Verbal and Visual Language Language is examined in its receptive and expressive form; the need of first form for the other one is adequately proven. Vygotsky claims that language enables the individual to internalise his/her cognitive processes. He considers language to be really necessary since „we can schematical- ly imagine thoughts and speech as two intersecting circles. The thought and speech form something in their intersection what is called the verbal idea” (Piirto, 1999, p. 364). Piaget states that the language itself is not necessary for the develop- ment of ideas, but the concepts of thoughts are developed in the interac- tion with environment. Similar conclusions are suggested also by recent studies about vision and visual intelligence. They relevantly prove that reading is not a passive, receptive process, but on the contrary, very ac- tive process. When looking for the meaning of the visual text in front of our eyes, readers usually view the „unit” or meaning, not the individual pictures, such as letters. A good reader uses visual information in very selective way, which suggests that he/she pays not too much attention to every „segment” of information, to every letter on the page. The simi- lar situation occurs in the case of writing (unless it is a pure copying 59

or recording of text from spoken statement, that is also an active process and in fact includes information processing. A good writer has a „good eye” not only to be able to describe what he/she can see in his/her vicini- ty, but to be able to see better „inside” and to be able to express his/her feelings. John Gardner characterises creative writers as the persons with great „verbal sensitivity” that varies in the case of poets, story-tellers and novelists. Poets are more into details; story-tellers have a talent for a „ly- ric compression” and novelists have the talent to adjust the language to the character and situation. Another positive feature is that they have a „good eye” since a „good writer” can see things sharply, vividly, accu- rately and selectively” (Paivio, 1983, pp. 307-332). Literature, music, theatre, fine art, architecture, medicine, machine engi- neering as well as some other artistic, natural science and technical fields are often reffered to as the „combined disciplines” and they are a clear example of the existence of strong bonds between the visual and verbal language. The majority of theoreticians incline to the opinion the term „visual literacy” emerged from the interface between verbal and visual language. Despite that, some questions are the subject of discussion: • The identification and differentiation between symbols is possible only in such an extent, in which they belong to the field of visual language or the field of verbal language. • The extent to which the visual language has a parallel with verbal language affects our perception and thus also the visual literacy. • The possible consequence of visual literacy is necessary for the de- velopment of verbal literacy. Dual-coding Theory The model of dual-coding of memory or the theory of dual coding pro- poses a verbal system for processing and storage of linguistic information and a separate, non-verbal system for spatial information and the develop- ment of mental imagination (Sadoski, Paivio, 2004, pp. 1329-1362). These systems may function independently of each other, yet they are interconnected. The Canadian psychologist Allan Paivio (Ibid) comes 60

with the dual-coding theory, according to which words and images are stored in the brain in the form of specific mental representations (verbal ones, i.e. logogens) and non-verbal (pictorial) in the form of imagens. The information may be memorized better when they are presented not only verbally but also non-verbally (Table 2). In principle, this is about respecting the principle of clearness while the particular information can be memorized better than abstract information. Dual-coding Theory Verbal System Non-verbal System Verbal codes represented by language Projection on the basis of senses Linguistic aspect Information in the form of pictures and illustrations Listening Imagination Speech, speaking Emotions Texts Action, movement, acting Table 2: Dual-coding theory (Winn, W. D. Perception principles, 1993, pp. 55–126) A picture has the central importance for the majority of perceivers from the point of view of facilitation of long-term preservation. A general opi- nion holds true that the information presented in pictorial form is encoded two times, once as a picture and once as the verbal designation in the name of the picture (Arnheim, 1969). Redundancy in memory implied by this double-coding means the information may be obtained either from the pictorial or speech memory. We know from history that pictures as the means of communication were used sooner than the written texts. It is possible to express ourselves in the language of pictures to the extent of information processing. The pictures or other visual forms are more primitive than the non-pictogra- phic language or conventional writing. Today, due to the technological development, in particular of Internet and new technologies of digital re- cording and displaying of reality (smartphones, cameras, etc.), we are the witnesses of a huge increase in information in the form of pictures. Now it holds true more than ever that a picture may represent ten thousands of words. Finally, the verbal communication in itself is often transferred 61

through a picture or a gesture which also have a visual form. Afterwards, the visual expression is a higher form of communication than the alpha- numeric (alphameric) expression since it originated sooner than the ver- bal and gesture forms and it helps to determine the development of the written form. „Before this century, the visual picture was often consi- dered to be the critical element of thinking and it is still considered to be central in some types of thinking” (Arnheim, 1974, p. 35). The importance of visual communication increses in proportion to the increase in the number of decisions a society makes based on visuals and pictorial symbols (Scheme 6). The majority of pictures can be inter- preted in several ways. The pictures of less informative character require a legend, i.e. description, comprehensible and unambiguous comments since they influence our interpretation of the contents of the picture. The objective of any communication is to eliminate or minimise the impact of external interfering effects and thus to maximise the efficient communi- cation. It is necessary to bear in mind that the interfering elements in the presentation, such as inconsistent or excessive use of colours, graphs or typographic characters, also reduce the efficiency of learning. The previous experience is very important in both verbal and visual lan- guage. Even more since the pictures, multi-modal texts and visual com- munications have become the part of common life. Print and electronic media are full of photographs and graphs and we also spot the changes in their design more frequently. In the electronic texts, dominating on web, we can find still more and more various language styles. In many cases, they are the main source of information and communication. The „rea- ding” of pictures may take various lengths of time – several minutes or just several seconds (Midalia, 1999, pp. 27-32). Naturally, it takes us much longer when we should read also the verbal description under the picture, compared to the situation when such additional information is missing or is not available. Similarly it is in the field of advertising. The advertising industry focuses more and more exclusively on children, since it can see the opportunity to attract and influence a young indivi- dual, often immature recipient. With regards to the fact that children are unable to perceive, or they do not pay attention to, the factual information in advertising, but they rather devote to the peripheral stimuli, such as the colour or shape, they have the tendency to process the advertising rather 62

Strategy of visual design Design of visual elements Visual pattern design Visual design arrangement Visual elements Verbal elements Additional elements Distance Realistic image Script style Recall of emotion Direction Image contrast Analogy Number of script Texture Position Consistency styles Interaction Shape Script type Organisation Colour Balance of visual Size Style (graphs, maps, etc. Layout Colour scale Colour attractivity Scheme 6: The strategy of the visual design with visual and verbal language (Paivio, A. The empirical case for dual coding, 1983, pp. 307-332) through emotions than thinking. The creators of advertisements are well aware of this and they attempt to persuade children through pictures in their advertisements. Strategically, it is therefore very important to deve- lop the cognition of visual codes at least so that we would be able to in- terpret the displayed (published) information. „Visual pictures are never a neutral reflection of reality. They often don’t depict, reflect the world, but they interpret it” (Stefano, 1996, pp. 42-43). 63

„Reading” the Pictures with Comprehension Visual literacy is the cognitive quality, yet it draws also from the affective area. We have to learn how to critically and creatively think, communi- cate the contents as well as to create meanings. This is not the congenital property. Thus we need to master the ability to observe, deduce, and re- veal stories. Also to find the information and analyse the arguments why they appeared, to think about details, to formulate an opinion. Simply put, we must learn how to „read” visually in order to understand the contents (Figure 3). This suggests answering the questions of the following type: What am I looking at? Where is it? Who is it? What happened? What feeling this picture evokes in me? What this picture means to me? What story is hidden behind the picture? Figure 3: Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937, oil on canvas, 349.3 x 776.6 cm. Picasso made forty-five preparatory drawings and he worked on six versions of the canvas till he created the final version for the Paris International Exposi- tion in July 1937 (Avgerinou, 2001a, pp. 17-26) On April 26, 1937, the Nazi bombers, supported during the Spain ci- vil war by fascists, led by General Franc, made the aerial attack on the Basque city of Guernica at the North-east of the country and they totally destroyed it. The horror of the event is recorded in Picasso´s canvas he started to paint immediately after it and completed it with- in one month. The piece of art radiates the fixedly anchored belief of Picasso in freedom for everyone that placed him on the side of the 64

suppressed ones and the victims of violence. Nevertheless, the pic- ture does not comprise any specific details that could relate with the bombed Guernica. It is the symbol of destruction caused by any con- flict of war. Since the artist did not use any particular mention of the given event, he imprinted the generally valid message to the canvas: a war is insanity. We can see the symbols of animals on the canvas: Bull and horse, traditionally satisfied with bullfighting, symbolise the Spain victims of suppression. Colours: In order to create the scene where fight and death rule, Picasso used just white and black colour and the shades of grey. Portrayal: All the figures, tortured by the force of suppression, are expressed in drawing, brokenin to irreg- ular shapes. Crying: Persons and animals on the canvas have their mouths wide open, they are the expression of crying and dread. The longer and the more thoroughly we „read” the canvas, the more it would reveal to us. Different level of cognizance, different views (one can see it this way, someone in another way) can eventually complement each other (Figure 4, 5, 6, 7). The scope of possible interpretations of pictures, objects, visual events, photographs related to other pictures and related information, surely affects the organisation of thinking of the perceiver. The concept of visual literacy leans on the statement that there is a visual language or visual aspects Avgerinou (2001a, 2009), Avgerinou, Petters- son (2011), Barry (1997), Moore & Dwyer (1994), Pettersson (1993, 2019), Šupšáková (1999, 2000, 2013), Šupšáková (2015), Šupšáková, Tacol (2018), etc. The visual „reading” of pictures or any other visual forms gives us the opportunity to better perceive and learn the basics of visual thinking and of visual language (Figure 8 a-i). The visual lan- guage is a complex code and we must learn it in order to understand it. This is a specific (distinctive) process of learning which happens nonstop, while its decisive factor is the quality of vision. This is an active process of reception and delivery of information that requires one’s own contem- plation as well as the application of the principles of creativity. By perce- iving and interpreting visual pictures in internal and external environ- ment, all types of information of visual character, we look for answers to the asked questions, we discover stories and messages. In communica- tion, we support the development of critical thinking, at the same time we create the space for creation itself. 65

Figure 4: Transformations. Mosaics from a café in London (photo B. Šupšáková) 66

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Figure 5: Transformations. New York City street (photo R. Šupšák) 68

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Figure 6: Transformations. New York City street (photo R. Šupšák) 70

Figure 7: Transformations. New York City street (https://www.flickr.com/photos/pepsiline/4247882387) Learning and teaching focused on the development and cultivation of visu- ality in the broad sense of the word, the imaginary experience, aesthetic perception and creative thinking at onece, provide the space for the de- velopment of visual literacy, including the following fields: the history of art, form, iconology, ideology, semiotics, hermenuetics. Fine (visual) art, through its visualisation and title stimulates the fantasy of an individual in order to get him/her to various situations, stories and destinies in his/ her imagination in cultural and historical context. • History of art covers the study and analysis of pictures, objects and other visual forms in the historical context. • A form is an aesthetic category with manifold meaning. It represents the unit of the individual parts of the piece of art, their harmony and inconsistency, their internal order and system of mutual relations. The harmony of the individual parts of the piece of art or their transforma- 71

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Figure 8a–i: Learning the visual language: Line, Space, Texture, Emphasis, Harmony, Diversity, Proportionality. Figure 8a: Transformations. New York City street (photo R. Šupšák) tion in aesthetic understanding. The external expression of the contents and topics in the piece of art. Sometimes it is assessed as an indepen- dent phenomenon without any relation to the contents of the piece of art (as the shape of the piece of art), other times as a system unified with the contents of the piece of art, because it is a certain organisational principle of the arrangement of contents. The external form (material, for example canvas and paints on the painting, space, size, etc.) is the external shape of the piece of art (or just of the object of art). The inter- nal form (composition, structure of the piece of art, rhythm, contrast, the similarity of elements, the balance of elements, etc.) represents the arrangement of contents components. Within the internal form, its va- rious levels are sometimes differentiated (from topic, through cha- racters up to the meanings). The category of form thus may designate the external and internal arrangement of the piece of art. In principle, 76

a form is the organisation of contents and it is often just the conse- quence of a certain character of contents. However, many times the piece of art is created as a result of the artist’s effort to create form in a certain way. Strict differentiation of form and contents complicates the interpretation of the aesthetic perception. Upon such differentia- tion, it is not clear what affects the resulting aesthetic experience more – the form or contents. It is also not clear which parts of the aesthe- tic experience are affected by form and which ones by contents – and whether they separately affect different parts of the experience at all. • Iconology is an artistic-historical discipline dealing with the study of the systems of characters, images, various layers of meanings, thus with the study of iconography in cultural and historical context. Iconological interpretation is the analysis of various layers of mea- ning and characters in the piece of art in relation to the cultural tradi- tion and on the process of creation. Ideology is the system of meaning understood either as a general science about ideas focused on under- standability and improvement of public discourse or as a systematic and all-embracing political doctrine serving as the basis justifying the program of political action. Ideology may mean learning the complex overview, through detachement (by comparison of the world view), common sense (by seeing ideology in everyday society) and other philosophic tendencies (for example seeing the political ideology). The main purpose of ideology is to offer a change in society through the process of thinking. Ideology is the process of abstract thinking applied in the public matters. The artistic groups used them for the presentation of their intentions. • Semiotics (from Greek sémeiótiké = determination of a symbol) or semiology is a general theory about (usually linguistic) characters. It is a philosophical and linguistic discipline investigating symbols and systems of symbols starting with signalisation systems up to the natural languages and formalised languages. Semiotics took over a lot of terms from linguistic, as well as from literary science. The ba- sic terms include in particular: character, meaning, also bringing the meaning, connotation, denotation, paradigm, syntagm, designation, code, text, textuality, intertextuality, structure, symbol, discourse, representation, narration and interpretation. Semiotic analysis is the 77

analysis of the piece of art from the point of view of its structure of characters and meaning. It analyses various types of characters in the piece of art, their denotations and connotations, the ways of expression and marking, the means of expression. It often analyses the piece of art as a part of the art communication. It is divided into semantic analysis (the analysis of the relation between meaning and denotation), syntactic analysis (the analysis of relations between the characters) and pragmatic analysis (the analysis of the relations bet- ween the characters and a spectator, or community). • Hermeneutics is the theory of interpretation and explication of phe- nomena and processes in wider civilisation, social and cultural con- text. In addition to the process of interpretation, which monitors the due understanding of the text in the sense of the assignment of correct meanings to the lexical units of a foreign text, it includes also the process of exegesis which strives for the accumulation of all avai- lable historical data, explaining the text also in the light of external connexions. In our case, it is the theory of interpretation and explica- tion of cultural characters, artefacts and texts. Hermeneutics attempts to find the original intentions of the author in the artefact, cultural and historical connections of the artefact, it reveals prejudices and schemes in its interpretation. It uses the understanding of the artefact, its explication and incorporation in the cultural and historical context. We can develop and cultivate vision, related to visual literacy and visual intelligence, when we competently teach the history and presence of art, when we take particular inspiration in the field of art. History proves that art in all its forms is the universal means of communication between the author and the perceiver. It creates the mechanism for mediation and un- derstanding of culture amongst generations. It is the means for the expres- sion of emotions, emotional experience in verbal and non-verbal form. It serves also for understanding of the basic concepts in many other fields, thanks to the visual language and its individual elements – lines, shapes, colours, mass, structure, angle of view, space, sound, movement, etc. Art has the integrating power and it is the important integrating element in the education process. It is connected with playing and childhood; it creates the space for (self-) cognition and (self-) realisation, also for the percep- tion and expression of standpoints and projections by means of visual 78

language. A certain group of pedagogues still does not consider the fact that even though the visual language in its essence is holistic and has no universal validity, we must learn, develop and improve it in order to be visually literate and in order to be able to use it in synchrony with verbal language. The Effect of Visual Superiority, Image – Word Relation The non-verbal communication between a child and his/her surroun- dings precedes the verbal communication and it forms the basis for later learning and development of a language, which means that the skills of visual communication in this case are not secondary but they are deve- loped sooner than the verbal ones. A child can remember images (pic- tures, illustrations, and photographs) better than words Šupšáková (1999, 2000, 2013), Šupšáková (2015), Šupšáková, Tacol (2018), Haber, Myers (1982, pp. 57-64). We call this the effect of visual superiority. The con- tents mediated in the image-word harmony, can be remembered by the child much faster and for longer time than the word itself, or the image alone Images and texts represent different languages that are supplemen- ting each other when used together. Visual messages are preferred to ver- bal expressions mainly because their contents are mediated emotionally, holistically, instantly, in a spatial expression. According to Boeren (Bo- eren, 1994), Zimmermann and Perkin (1982, pp. 119-134) illustrations or other image expressions, as long as they are intended for learning the visual literacy, are understandeable supposing: • That what is displayed (the object) is close to the one who is being educated. • That the object is displayed in a realistic way. • That the missing details, meanings may be deduced on the basis of the main features of the unit, • That the style of the displaying of the object or phenomenon is close to the viewer, perceiver. 79

Fransecky and Debes define the basic objectives in learning and teaching of visual literacy as the „ability to read the visual images made for intentional communication, the ability to design visuals for intentional communica- tion, to make the images for intentional communication, to combine visual and verbal languages for intentional communication” (Fransecky, Debes, 1972, p. 12). However, the development of visual literacy depends upon the interaction of the child with images, objects or other visual forms. Visual language must be developed purposefully in the early childhood, to direct the child and create the conditions for these creative activities. All this with the aim to develop his/her imagination and the „reading” of pictures with understanding, as well as the visual (self-) expression (Figure 9a-e). If the pictorial information is accompanied with text information (legend, bubble, mark), it is easier to read the picture, it is also more comprehensi- ble. Texts and images represent different languages that are supplementing each other when used together. Both text and images may be designed, presented, perceived and interpreted in many ways. The possibilities for the use of typography and graphic design and for the combination of texts and images are unlimited in practice. There are always several options how the message can be expressed. Children are mostly able to create the bonds between verbal and visual expression, supposing the text and images are associated in memory at the same time. It usually happens when text and images of various characters are on the same page in the book (the so called cognitive principle) or when a child has experience with creation of associations while reading the text (Mayer, 2002, pp. 85-139). However, it is necessary to bear in mind that images may also have a negative impact on the child; they may associate a wide range of emotions, from enthusiasm to fear. Too many images may distract the attention of the reader and to flood his/her memory capacity, therefore he/she starts ignoring them. The quality and design of a visual undoubtedly depend also on the used media – the traditional media, new media and multimedia. It results mainly from formal, or technological, as- pect of the creation of an image and the preferences of media which pre- determine the design. The requirements for design are different in the case of print formats and electronic formats and thanks to them also the method of perception and interpretation of images is different. 80

The visual ability and skills of visual literacy cannot be isolated from other sensual properties. The visual communication, visual thinking and visual learning are integrally related to the visual literacy, „They belong among the main constructs of theory of visual literacy” (Avgerinou, 2003). Since other theoretical imperatives from other fields and areas are incorporated in its contents, its main intention should be also the targeted communication in educational contexts of curriculum. 81

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Figure 9a-e: Texts and images represent different languages that are supplementing each other when used together (Watterson, B. 2009. Calvin a Hobbes. Nakladateství Crew s.r.o.) 85



VISUAL COMMUNICATION IN CONCEPTS AND CONTEXT Abstraction. In art, it marks the non-representing styles focused on the ma- terial and formal qualities of a piece of art, such as line, shape, colour, com- position, texture, not on the entire representation of reality that is secondary with regards to the meaning of the piece of art. Adobe Acrobat. A group of programs by Adobe Systems intended for vie- wing, creation, editing and other work with PDF files. The program for rea- ding documents without the possibility of editing is free of charge, available under the name Adobe Reader. The commercial program enabling many adjustments in the documents is marketed under the name Adobe Acrobat Professional. Adobe Illustrator. A commercial vector graphic editor developed by Adobe Systems. Adobe Photoshop. A bitmap graphic editor intended for the development and adjustment of bitmap graphics (mostly photos) from Adobe Systems. Audio. A computer-generated information with acoustic output. A human ear is capable of hearing the frequencies from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Bit. The smallest unit of digital information. Bit appears in two conditions – on and off (in fact it expresses the conditions as yes-no, true-false, low voltage-high voltage, etc.) expressed by numbers 0 and 1. The string of 8 bits makes the information unit known as „byte”. Bit-mapped graphics. (Bitmap graphics. Sometimes also called raster gra- phics.). It is one of the two basic ways computers store and process pictorial information. The other one is vector graphics. By the term raster graphics, we understand such a type of pictures in which each point has an assigned value which corresponds with its colour, and in which editing is made point after point. The entire picture in bitmap graphics is described using the individual colour points (pixels). The points are arranged into a grid. The number of displayed points is calculated by multiplying rows with columns in the ima- ge grid. Each point has its exact assigned location and colour (for example 87

RGB). This method of description of pictures is used for example by televi- sion or digital camera. The quality of picture record is affected particularly by resolution and colour depth. The layout and number of colour points usu- ally corresponds with the device on which the picture is displayed (monitor, paper). As long as the picture is displayed on monitor, the resolution of 72 dpi would be enough; at least 300 dpi would suffice for printing on a printer. The advantage of bitmap graphics lies in the great amount of formats, in which it is able to save files and easily edit them (for example photographs). The dis- advantage is the size of files and the problem when enlarging the pictures, since raster – i. e. the network of points, is noticeable at the excessive zoo- ming. In such case the picture looses its quality. Bitmap graphics may be re- cognised for example according to the file affix, with which the graphic is saved. The most frequently used bitmap formats are .jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp, .tif, etc. Bitmap editor. The type of a program designed for editing raster (bit-map) files – pictures. Bitmap editor is intended for retouching pictures, the ge- neral modifications, cutting. The most frequently used professional editor is Adobe Photoshop, but also CorelPaintShop, as well as any free editors, such as GIMP, etc. Bits per inch. (BPI, the number of bits per inch). The unit of physical den- sity of data on a recording media. It expresses the maximum number of bits saved per one inch (2.54 cm) of the length of recording area. Blog. A web page that is de facto a personal diary of an individual, its author (the blogger). This term originated from the English expression web log – literally: a web diary. It is an authentic, personal statement of the particular author or wider community. The posts are usually arranged in the reversible chronological order (from the newest ones to the oldest ones). BMP. (Bitmap file .bmp). A graphic format used by Windows. It uses very simple, but inefficient compression. Its disadvantage is a conside- rable data size of a document. From this point of view, JPEG format is more suitable. Byte. A unit of information composed of 8 bits. The eight-character string made of numbers „0” and „1”, enabling 256 possible combinations. The information comprised in one byte may thus represent one of 256 diffe- 88

rent conditions or values. For example, 8-bit graphic card enables displaying of 256 colours, while 24-bit one enables displaying of 16.7 million different colours. Click. A click, pressing of a button (left or right) of the mouse on any of the positions on a screen. Clipart. A set of pictures, graphs, maps and other illustrations in digital for- mat that may be freely distributed with any software. CMYK. A colour model. Its acronym derives from the letters of four pri- mary print colours (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK), in fact it is the ab- solute opposite of RGB model. While RGB model is additive, CMYK model is subtractive. While colours in RGB add light to darkness, and thus they create a colour, colours in CMYK subtract colours and when all of them are of 100%, the result is black colour. Of the three CMYK co- lours, any other color existing in the corresponding model can be created (similarly as from RGB, HLS, HSB). Code. The implicit rules through which meanings appear in the social space and thus may be „read” by us. The codes require systematic organi- sation of characters. They may be transfered from one media to another, while various groups of codes may penetrate into a single media. For exam- ple, painting codes used in the Renaissance chiaroscuro or in perspective may be used in film or photograph. Comment. Such form of a note which is most frequently used in blogs or social networks. Blogs enable the readers to add their comments under the published posts and thus enrich the contents by discussions, opinions and polemics. Computer literacy. Computers, notebooks or tablets are the must in both homes and schools. Their user control is rather simple, intuitive. Copyright (The character of letter „C” in a circle – ©). It expresses the copyright protection. It should be placed in front of the name of the author, publishing house, organisation owning the copyright. 89

Desktop publishing. Complete processing of text documents for printing on a computer, from graphic design up to the export of the file for print. The main element of DTP assembly is a computer with input and output devices connected to it, such as scanner, printer, digital camera, cine-camera, etc. Decoding. To decode means to transfer something from its encoded form to the original form. In the cultural industry, it is the process of interpreta- tion and assignment of meaning to cultural products in accordance with the shared cultural codes. The term is used by Stuart Hall for the description of what is done by consumers when they view and interprete the cultural pro- ducts (films, entertaining television programs, advertisements, etc.), encoded by their authors. Digital divide. The term describes the fact that the world may be divided into people who have and people who have not the access and capacities to use the modern information technologies, such as mobile phones, Internet, etc. This may have several causes: cultural ones (the members of the com- munity have banned and restricted access to technologies), physical ones (they have physical restrictions and handicaps in computer using) or eco- nomical ones (they may not afford a computer) and educational ones (they do not know how to use the computer). Digital literacy. The ability to understand and use information in various electronic formats from manifold sources, that is published in a digital form nowadays by means of e-books, e-journals, e-newspaper on web pages, in databases, on social networks. Digital literacy includes not only the ability to work with the new digital media, but also the ability to create the digital contents. DPI. (Dots per inch, the number of points per inch). This parameter expres- ses the resolution of input (monitor) or output devices, most frequently of a printer. It specifies the amount of points the printer is able to „place” next to each other at the width of one inch (2.54 cm). The higher the dpi number, the better the printing. High quality printing requires at least 300 dpi, or more. eBook. (E-book). The electronic version of a traditional hard copy book, the contents of which may be downloaded from Internet and read on the com- puter, notebook, mobile devices, most recently also on the special purpose 90

E-readers, such as Amazon Kindle, Prestigio, PocketBook and others. E-Book Reader. A mobile electronic device of A5 format or derived for- mats that is primarily designed for reading digital books and periodicals. It uses electronic paper which facilitates comfortable reading also in worse light conditions, in the sun or in low light. Emoticon. A graphic symbol usually composed of punctuation and special characters, expressing the momentary mood of the writer or his/her attitude or emotions. This is a special form of ASCII art. It is used in particular in electronic communication, such as Internet chats, e-mails, IRC and texts. It does not appear in official communication. Emoticons are usually com- posed of the characters in one line and they could usually be seen with head inclined to the left. The basic emoticon is a schematic drawing of a smiling face made of characters – colon (:) and a brac-ket ), where the colon repre- sents eyes and the bracket represents a smile (mouth). The most frequently used emoticons: :-) the most used one, the author smiles :-( the author is sad :-| the author expresses his/her independent attitude :-> a sarcastic emoticon, the author submitted a sarcastic comment. Encoding. To encode means to assemble, set according to the code. It is the creation of cultural products in the industry of culture. Stuart Hall uses the term to name the activity of the creators of cultural products when encoding the products with the preferred meaning (for example advertisements, films, etc.) that should be afterwards decoded by spectators. E-Zine, electronic magazine. A magazine that is spread out just in electro- nic form, on Internet. Facebook. A phenomenon among social networks. This network, with more than 1.4 billion active users, is the biggest social network in the world. It enables us to find old and current or future classmates, friends. Each user has his/her own „blog”, the basich profile is supplemented by many mi- ni-applicatios. The most interesting and popular application is publishing and sharing photos and videos among friends, planning different events and 91

meetings (inviting friends). Each user has his/her own profile on the net- work, where other usesr may respond, write different messages. Flickr. The community web for photograph sharing. It is one of first ser- vers of Web 2.0 type enabling the use of tags, so the labels for efficient search. The users may place their photographs to a map and so provide the photograph with geographic dimension too. In 2010, Flickr disposed of the database of more than 5 milliar pictures. Font. The complete set of script characters of the same size and style. The typical feature of script is its serif-free character (SansSerif) or the letters with serifs (Serif). Font size. The size of font. The basic typographic characteristics of a script specified by the height of characters in points. Forum. The open discussion in Internet environment, where the indivi- dual discussion groups send messages in the form: from one to all. And identically, also responses comes from each discussing person to everyone, or just to the person they are intended for. There are thousands of discussion groups existing in the Internet network on various topics. GB. (Gigabyte). One billion of bits of data (exactly 1,073,741,824). 1 byte = 8 bits. Gbps. (Gigabits per second). The rate of data transfer. GIF. (Graphics Interchange Format .gif). The graphic pictorial format. With its maximum amount of 256 colours, it is suitable in particular for drawing, i.e. the pictures with small number of colours, also for animations on web. It has great advantages over the other formats, since it enables the insertion of very economical and compressed animations, which predetermines it for web. It is the format that unlike JPEG does not allow an efficient loss com- pression, so the size of the file increases with the number of used colours. Graphics. A general term expressing usually computer useage of the sym- bolics of the real world and other graphic elements, such as colours and animations. It serves for the creation of composite graphic outputs, either in electronic or printed form. The computer processing leans on two concepts: bitmap (raster) and vector graphics. 92

Graphics format. We know several graphic formats. APNG (Animated Portable Network Graphics) is a graphic format extending PNG format by animation feature. BMP is used mainly in operation systems Microsoft Windows and OS/2. This is very simple, non-condensed, lossless format (it supports compression, but it is not used in practice). GIF (Graphics In- terchange Format) is the graphic format intended for raster graphics. It is used for lossless compression (unlike JPEG format). Thus it is suitable for saving the so called pen-and-inks (headings, outlines, logos). GIF fa- cilitates also simple animations. However, it has one great limit, i. e. the maximum number of colours used at one time – 256 (8 bits). JPEG is the standard method of loss compression, used for saving the computer ima- ges in photo-realistic quality. The most wide spread extension of the for- mat is .jpg, .jpeg, .jfif, .jpe, or extension written in capital letters. It belongs to the most frequently used formats and it serves for transfering and sa- ving photographs on the web. However, it is not suitable for line drawing, text displaying or icons. PNG and GIF are mostly used for such purposes. Since GIF has just 8 bits, it is not suitable for colour photographs, PNG may be used for saving photos, but the resulting size of the file is not suit- able for publishing on the web. JPEG 2000 facilitates the use of loss and lossless compression method. With the same compression ratio, it provides better quality than the older JPEG standard. On the contrary, when using the lossless method, better compression ratio is achieved by PNG format in majority of cases. File extension: .jp2 or .j2c.JPEG XR (originally Win- dows MediaPhoto and HD Photo) is image compression algorithm and file format intended for photographs, developed by Microsoft. It supports both loss and lossless compression, the extension of the format is .hdp (originally .wdp) .MNG (Multiple-image Network Graphics) is the graphic format for animated pictures, closely related to PNG. The format can be recognized by the extension .mng. However, it is not very popular in practice. PCX (the official name is PC Paintbrush File Format) is the computer file format for saving raster graphics. PNG (Portable Network Graphics; the official pronunciation of the acronym is „ping“) is the graphic format intended for lossless compression of raster graphics. It was developed as the improved replacement of GIF format. PNG offers the support of 24-bit colour depth, it has no restriction to maximum number of 256 colours at one time, as it is in the case of GIF. To a certain extent, PNG replaces GIF, it offers more 93

colours and better compression. The disadvantage of PNG over GIF is the absence of a simple animation. PNG has assigned .png extension, it is, si- milarly to GIF and JPEG formats, used on the web. RAW format, its name comes from English word raw. Expensive professional digital cameras en- able saving photographs in this format. A photograph comprises just raw data from the scanner, not modified in any way (not focused, without added colours, etc.). It must be processed in the computer at first, and then it may be seen and saved in another practical format, for example JPEG. RAW does not use compression, thus it is rather large and its processing is demanding for the computer performance. It is recommended to use it only for pro- fessional photographing, when the author seriously cares about the quality and realistic character of the image. The extension of the file is .raw. SVG (from English Scalable Vector Graphics) is a marking language and format of a file which describes the two-dimensional vector graphics using XML. SVG format should become the basic open format for vector graphics on the Internet. While there are sufficient formats (for example GIF, PNG and JPEG) for raster graphics on the Internet, an open vector format has been missing on the Internet till now. TIFF (Tag Image File Format), one of the file formats intended for saving for raster computer graphics. TIFF format represents the unofficial standard for saving the shots intended for press. The format facilitates saving several pictures or layers in a single file. It is extensible, which means the applications may insert their own data in it without interfering the legibility of the file in another application. A great flexibility of data representation is characteristic for graphic format TIFF, which has adverse effects in some cases. The problems with file processing in another computer may occur, for example, the computer may consider it to be an “unknown data format”, etc. WBMP (Wireless Application Pro- tocol Bitmap Format, in abbreviated form Wireless Bit-map) is the format of monochromatic recording of pictures, intended for economical graphic presentations in mobile phones. XPM (X PixMap) is the computer format of a file for saving raster graphics. It is based on ASCII text that is massively used in the graphic environment of X WindowSystem. It has a very simple text structure derived from the graphic format XBM. Thanks to it it may be created and edited in any text editor. 94

Google. The most used Internet browser in the world, operated by Google. It responds to more than two billions of asked questions every day, it covers approximately 50 per cent of all searches in the global network. Homepage. The introductory page on the particular web server, it is the en- trance page to other pages. For example: http://www.artmediaeducation.sk. Hyperlink. (Link, reference). A part of a text or picture in hypertext docu- ment (at www page) referring to another document, picture or file. We can recognize it by its graphically adjusted form, as an underlined text. Hypertext. The format of text and picture presentation which represents the essence of the Internet. The viewers/visitors are enabled to move bet-ween texts, pages and web portals by means of interconnected links (hyperlinks). It is the non-linear method of text structuring. Character. The term used in semiotics, it describes the relation between the tool of meaning, for example of a word, picture or object and its specific meaning to a certain context. In practice, this means the interconnection of the denominating one (word/picture/object) and the denominated one (the idea concept) for the purpose of character (meaning) creation. It is impor- tant in semiotics that the meaning of the denominating one differs depen- ding upon context. For example, a cigarette in a classical Hollywood film may stand for a friendship or romance, while it means a disease or death in an anti-smoking campaign. Icon. A small raster image or graphic symbol depicting a certain function or program (usually on the desktop of a monitor or in another user interface). It has not only informative, but also practical function. By double-clinking the mouse button while pointing to the icon, the corresponding program shall be activated. The icon fulfils also the function of generally comprehensible symbol since in comparison to the written text, it is supranational and it is easy to remember. Image. The planar depiction of someone or something through a dra- wing, painting, engraving, drafting, etc. It is usually an artistic expression. 95

Information literacy. It relates to the ability to functionally see and effi- ciently work with information, to be able to search, select and further com- municate it. Information literacy is based on the use of information and com- munication technologies and their availability. As long as one cannot use the information technologies, he/she cannot achieve information literacy. This literacy requires substantially more than just the ability to use internet browsers such as Google for information digging. The information literacy is the ability to recognize when and what information is needed by the user, the ability to efficiently and purposefully search for the necessary informa- tion, to localise the information and information sources, to master the wide range of searching strategies, methods and techniques, to critically asses, evaluate information, to compare the information and subsequently select, obtain (excerpt, dig, select) it from the information sources. Instagram. It is a free application for iOS (Apple), Android and Windows Phone, which enables its users to share photographs. The application does not compete with other social networks, on the contrary – it offers easier sharing of photographs on other social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or even on the publishing networks Posterous and Tumblr. The appli- cation is primarily designed for iPhone and most of the mobile devices using Android, but it is compatible also with iPod Touch and iPad. Internet. (informally the Net). It is a publicly available global system of  interconnected computer networks which transfer data through pack- et switching by the means of the standardized IP suite (internet protocol) and many other protocols. It consists of thousands of smaller commer- cial, academic, government and army networks. It serves as atransmission medium for different kinds of information and services, such as electro- nic mail, chat and a system of interconnected webpages and documents call WorldWide Web (www). The word Internet is an abbreviation of the Eng- lish term „interconnected networks”. The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often wrongly used interchangeably, as synonyms. However, there are formal and technological differences. Internet is a network of networks, while web is only one of a large number of Internet services. Another exam- ples of such services are electronic mail, data transfer (through File Transfer Protocol), or Newsgroup – an Internet service which enables distribution of messages in thematically focused discussion groups. 96

JPEG. The standard method of loss compression, used for saving compu- ter images in photo-realistic quality. The most wide spread extension of the format is .jpg, .jpeg, .jfif, .jpe, or extensions written in capital letters. It is the most frequent format for transferring and saving photos on the web. JPEG is not suitable for line drawing, text displaying or icons. PNG and GIF are mostly used for such purposes. Since GIF has just 8 bits, it is not suitable for colour photographs, PNG may be used for saving photos, but the resulting size of the file is not suitable for publishing on the web. Media literacy. The ability to obtain, analyze, critically assess and generate a large amount of media texts. This is also the ability to understand how media work, how they are organised and how they can be purposefully used. If one wants to be media literate nowadays, he/she must be able to decode, understand, assess and write using all the forms of media, to read, create text, pictures and sounds or any combination of the elements. The media li- terate people should be able to use internet for searching for information and to be aware that sometimes what they find does not represent the objective reality but rather a certain subjective opinion. Megabyte. (MB). The unit designating the quantity of information units (byte). 1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes (exactly 1,048,576 bytes). While 1 byte = 8 bits. Megabite. (Mb, Mbit). The unit designating the quantity of the smallest information units (bit). 1 Mb = 1,000,000 bits (exactly 1,048,576 bits). Multimedia. Several media in one. The integration of media and the con- tents in various forms – text, pictures, sound, video, animations. The multi- media system is composed of the set of technical means: computer, sound and graphic card, camera, DVD drive, utility software, etc. The multimedia applications are the combination of text, sound, pictorial and animated data. The contemporary web is characterised by a heavy representation of multi- media (YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, etc.) Offline. (Off-line). It means the absence of connection, mostly to the Inter- net network. 97

Online. (On-line). It means to be connected, mostly to the Internet network. Informally, „on-line” also refers to the Internet or web (the WorldWide Web) as such. Picture. A smaller painting, drawing, illustration or photography. Pixel. (Px). A point – the smallest continuous pictorial or printing element. It represents one shining point on a monitor or one point of the picture speci- fied by its colour, for example in RGB or CMYK format. The greater num- ber of pixels is on the given area, the greater is the resolution of the picture or screen. Polysemy. A feature designating the possesion of many potential mea-nings, sometimes of all of them at once. A piece of art having unambiguous mean- ing is polysemic, since it may represent several various meanings for one spectator or several spectators. PNG. (PortableNetworkGraphics; the official pronunciation of the acro- nym is „ping”). A graphic format intended for lossless compression of ras- ter graphics. It was developed as the improved replacement of GIF format. PNG offers the support of 24-bit colour depth, thus it has no restriction to the maximum number of 256 colours at the same time as GIF has. To a certain extent, PNG replaces GIF, it offers more colours and better compression. The disadvantage of PNG over GIF is the absence of a simple animation. PNG, similarly to GIF and JPEG formats, is used on the web. PNG has as- signed the .png extension. PPI. (Pixel per inch). The number of points of a given image per 1 inch (2.54 cm). Let us illustrate this for example on photography: Digital 6 meg- apixel (6 MPix) makes the digital image composed of 2,000 x 3,000 pixels. When we print such a photograph on the paper of 90 x 13cm, there shall be approximately 225 pixels for 1 cm of the photograph. In other words, the density of printing is 225 pixels per cm or 570 pixels per inch. QR Code. Two-dimensional barcode. The acronym „QR” comes from the English name QuickResponse, since the code is designed with regards to fast decoding. The principle of its use lies in the scanning of the QR code printed on a paper or an object with a cine-camera or camera and software 98