Two short visual analysis essays, related to different genres of the visual and to different models of visual cognition. Each essay will meet learning outcomes 1, 2. The first essay will emerge out of a group research and discussion activity, and will also meet learing outcome 3.

This module concerns itself with some of the various models that have been suggested for how we should understand the cognitive capacity of visual images. Such models could include: visual semiotics and structuralism, phenomenological accounts, visual informatics and organisation, Cartesian and Freudian accounts of imagery, Bachelard, & etc.

The module will seek to explicate and analyse some of these approaches by practical application of them to visual images drawn from a variety of genres or periods.

Contact time will be divided into lectures and seminars. The lectures will be responsible for contextualising themes, describing models and exhibiting good analytical practice. The seminars will be for clarification, and for students to pursue and practice analysis.

Library, IT facilities

Alperson, ed. The Philosophy of the Visual Arts. Oxford UP, 1992.
Flusser. Towards a Philosophy of Photography. Reaktion, 2000.
Levin, ed. Sites of Vision. MIT, 1999.
Roskill, ed. Truth and Falsehood in Visual Images. U. Massachusets, 1992.
Warburton. The Philosophy of Photography. Routledge, 2007.