VISUAL LITERACY AND DOMINANCE OF THE PICTORIAL WORLD

Abstract

The dominance of the pictorial world forms the beginning of the effect of new visual civilisation in the 21st century. Today, we already know that photograph, film and television are just fist stage of visual era. The modern phenomena of digitalisation and mass communication related to the development of information and communication technologies and Internet, dramatically saturate the pictures and pictorial messages to public space and thus also to our everyday life. Posters, billboards and various visual posts attack us every day with their pictorial messages, trying to influence us while going to the work or school as well as while being on the road for a joy or relax. The presence of visual impulses is perceived also in the public space, for example in shopping malls. In such an environment, their role is to affect our purchasing habits. The information lettering in pictorial form-iconograms-orientate us on the streets, at the stations of mass transport, at the airports, in shopping malls, in tourism regions. Today, Internet and social networks are mainly the source of information mediated in the form of pictures in multimedia form. We can not only watch but also create video messages and films on the biggest worldwide Internet portal YouTube we send MMS via smartphones, and we take photos and record videos using the intelligent mobile phones. Another example of digitisation and mass communication is web page Pinterest allowing the users to create thematic sets of pictures or photos free of charge. Of course, the contemporary visual expression may be disputable as long as its functionality is concerned. Many times, we are the witnesses of the origin of the world of ``hyper-reality{''} or virtual reality where experience, real pictures or products are replaced with the virtual ones. The immersion into the new ``world{''} is not investigated to such an extent that we would be able to assess the impact of ``hyper-reality{''} onto the emotional and rational world of a human. In the article we present a theoretical model of visual literacy and develop new personnel competencies of children for the 21st century, such as visual perception, visual thinking, visual language and learning visual literacy.