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05: Visual Perception 2: How the Mind Sees

Sight dominates the way we 'see' the world. It also dominates our descriptive vocabulary. Just as there are components and common meanings for the elements of verbal literacy, there are components and common meanings for the elements of visual literacy. Experience, and personal and collective knowledge, as well as physical ability, frame this literacy. Understanding the human visual experience is keenly linked to understanding cultural and experential contexts. As knowledge grows, so does visual perception. The greater this visual understanding, the greater the ability to navigate and interpret the complexities of the visible world. We all understand that as contemporary modes of communication expand in literally, visually, and experentially, we are challenged to convey knowlege and discovery with depth, accuracy and simplicity. Developed visual literacy requires practice and apprentiship. Many contemporary educators believe that visual thinking skills are underemphasized in many academic curriculums and critical to human communication in the 21st century.

Robert E. Horn : The Visual Language and Information Design Project
Visiting Scholar, Program on People, Computers, and Design
Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University

XPLANE | xblog (The visual thinking weblog.)
See subject: Visual Thinking

ACD | American Center for Design

The Joy of Visual Perception

MAA.org: Proofs Without Words - Exercises in Visual Thinking.

VUE: A Model of Aesthetic Development in Education. Abigail Housen.

The Visible Language Journal

AAA (Archives of American Art) Collections: Visual Thinking:Sketchbooks

Entropy and Art. Rudolph Arnheim. 1971.

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