Visual Literacy as a tool to explore what lays behind and beyond our anticipations

Abstract

Visual Literacy enriches the field of anticipatory assumptions and Futures Literacy by taking into account basic biological premises of our brains and minds related to images. It explores why our individual and public spheres act as sources of authority conditioning assumed realities and ‘staging’ a limited world in our consciousness. The study unravels where our perceptions originate from, their ramifications with our cultural frameworks, memory mechanisms and ensuing identities, and their direct effect on how we assume and anticipate. Visual Literacy workshops broaden the alternative storytelling Futures Literacy Labs apply. They provide the tools for user-friendly iconological analysis that make explicit and ‘visible’ the role of culturally mediated visuals in the construction of thought patterns. The experiential process of the workshops make tangible the ‘subtexts’ behind the visuals, and answers, as well, why and how they shape perceptions and regulate deriving assumptions and anticipations.