visual imagery essay

Learning Through Visuals

Visual imagery in the classroom.

Posted July 20, 2012

A large body of research indicates that visual cues help us to better retrieve and remember information. The research outcomes on visual learning make complete sense when you consider that our brain is mainly an image processor (much of our sensory cortex is devoted to vision), not a word processor. In fact, the part of the brain used to process words is quite small in comparison to the part that processes visual images.

Words are abstract and rather difficult for the brain to retain, whereas visuals are concrete and, as such, more easily remembered. To illustrate, think about your past school days of having to learn a set of new vocabulary words each week. Now, think back to the first kiss you had or your high school prom date. Most probably, you had to put forth great effort to remember the vocabulary words. In contrast, when you were actually having your first kiss or your prom date, I bet you weren’t trying to commit them to memory . Yet, you can quickly and effortlessly visualize these experiences (now, even years later). You can thank your brain’s amazing visual processor for your ability to easily remember life experiences. Your brain memorized these events for you automatically and without you even realizing what it was doing.

There are countless studies that have confirmed the power of visual imagery in learning. For instance, one study asked students to remember many groups of three words each, such as dog, bike, and street. Students who tried to remember the words by repeating them over and over again did poorly on recall. In comparison, students who made the effort to make visual associations with the three words, such as imagining a dog riding a bike down the street, had significantly better recall.

Various types of visuals can be effective learning tools: photos, illustrations, icons, symbols, sketches, figures, and concept maps, to name only a few. Consider how memorable the visual graphics are in logos, for example. You recognize the brand by seeing the visual graphic, even before reading the name of the brand. This type of visual can be so effective that earlier this year Starbucks simplified their logo by dropping their printed name and keeping only the graphic image of the popularly referred to mermaid (technically, it’s a siren). I think we can safely assume that Starbucks Corporation must be keenly aware of how our brains have automatically and effortlessly committed their graphic image to memory.

So powerful is visual learning that I embrace it in my teaching and writing. Each page in the psychology textbooks I coauthor has been individually formatted to maximize visual learning. Each lecture slide I use in class is presented in a way to make the most of visual learning. I believe the right visuals can help make abstract and difficult concepts more tangible and welcoming, as well as make learning more effective and long lasting. This is why I scrutinize every visual I use in my writing and teaching to make sure it is paired with content in a clear, meaningful manner.

Based upon research outcomes, the effective use of visuals can decrease learning time, improve comprehension, enhance retrieval, and increase retention. In addition, the many testimonials I hear from my students and readers weigh heavily in my mind as support for the benefits of learning through visuals. I hear it often and still I can’t hear it enough times . . . by retrieving a visual cue presented on the pages of a book or on the slides of a lecture presentation, a learner is able to accurately retrieve the content associated with the visual.

McDaniel, M. A., & Einstein, G. O. (1986). Bizarre imagery as an effective memory aid: The importance of distinctiveness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition , 12(1), 54-65.

Meier, D. (2000). The accelerated learning handbook. NY: McGraw-Hill.

Patton, W. W. (1991). Opening students’ eyes: Visual learning theory in the Socratic classroom. Law and Psychology Review, 15, 1-18.

Schacter, D.L. (1966). Searching for memory. NY: Basic Books.

Verdi, M. P., Johnson, J. T., Stock, W. A., Kulhavy, R. W., Whitman-Ahern, P. (1997). Organized spatial displays and texts: Effects of presentation order and display type on learning outcomes. Journal of Experimental Education , 65, 303-317.

Haig Kouyoumdjian, Ph.D. , is a clinical psychologist and coauthor of Introduction to Psychology , 9th ed. and the innovative Discovery Series: Introduction to Psychology.

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Definition of Imagery

Imagery is a literary device that refers to the use of figurative language to evoke a sensory experience or create a picture with words for a reader. By utilizing effective descriptive language and figures of speech , writers appeal to a reader’s senses of sight, taste, smell, touch, and sound, as well as internal emotion and feelings. Therefore, imagery is not limited to visual representations or mental images, but also includes physical sensations and internal emotions.

For example, in his novel   The Scarlet Letter , Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes imagery as a literary device to create a sensation for the reader as a means of understanding the love felt by the protagonist , Hester Prynne.

Love, whether newly born or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world.

By using descriptive language in an effective and unique way, Hawthorne evokes feelings and allows the reader an internal emotional response in reaction to his description of love. This image is especially poignant and effective for readers of this novel since Hester’s love, in the story , results in darkness , shame, and isolation–the opposite of sunshine and radiance. However, Hawthorne’s imagery appeals to the reader’s understanding of love and subsequent empathy for Hester’s emotions and actions, despite her transgression of societal norms, morals , and laws.

Common Examples of Imagery in Everyday Speech

People frequently use imagery as a means of communicating feelings, thoughts, and ideas through descriptive language. Here are some common examples of imagery in everyday speech:

• The autumn leaves are a blanket on the ground.
• Her lips tasted as sweet as sugar.
• His words felt like a dagger in my heart.
• My head is pounding like a drum.
• The kitten’s fur is milky.
• The siren turned into a whisper as it ended.
• His coat felt like a velvet curtain.
• The houses look like frosted cakes in winter .
• The light under the door looked buttery.
• I came inside because the house smells like a chocolate brownie.

Types of Poetic Imagery

For poetic imagery, there are seven primary types. These types of imagery often feature figures of speech such as similes and metaphors to make comparisons . Overall, poetic imagery provides sensory details to create clear and vibrant descriptions. This appeals to a reader’s imagination and emotions as well as their senses.

Here are the main types of poetic imagery:

• Visual : appeals to the sense of sight through the description of color, light, size, pattern, etc.
• Auditory : appeals to the sense of hearing or sound by including melodic sounds, silence , harsh noises, and even onomatopoeia .
• Gustatory : appeals to the sense of taste by describing whether something is sweet, salty, savory, spicy, or sour.
• Tactile : appeals to the sense of touch by describing how something physically feels, such as its temperature, texture, or other sensation.
• Olfactory : appeals to the sense of smell by describing something’s fragrance or odor.
• Kinesthetic : appeals to a reader’s sense of motion or movement through describing the sensations of moving or the movements of an object .
• Organic : appeals to and communicates internal sensations, feelings, and emotions, such as fatigue, thirst, fear, love, loneliness, despair, etc.

Famous Examples of Imagery in Shakespearean Works

Writers use imagery to create pictures in the minds of readers, often with words and phrases that are uniquely descriptive and emotionally charged to emphasize an idea. William Shakespeare ’s works feature imagery as a literary device for readers and audiences as a means to enhance their experience of his plays. Shakespeare’s artistic use of language and imagery is considered to be some of the greatest in literature.

Here are some famous examples of imagery in Shakespearean works:

• “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep.”  Romeo and Juliet
• “There’s daggers in men’s smiles.”  Macbeth
• “Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever,- One foot in sea and one on shore, To one thing constant never.”  Much Ado About Nothing
• “If I be waspish, best beware my sting.”  The Taming of the Shrew
• “Good- night , sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”  Hamlet
• “Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such shaping fantasies , that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends.”  A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”  The Tempest
• “And thus I clothe my naked villainy With odd old ends stol’n out of holy writ; And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.”  Richard III
• “By heaven, me thinks it were an easy leap, To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon”  Henry IV
• “If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.”  Twelfth Night

Writing Imagery

Writers use imagery to evoke emotion in readers. In this way, the reader’s understanding of the poetic subject , setting , plot , characters , etc., is deepened and they have a sense of how to feel about it. Ideally, as a literary device, imagery should enhance a literary work. Unfortunately, some writers try to use this literary device too often, which can lessen the impact of the description and figurative language.

For imagery to be effective and significant, whether, in poetry or a story, it should add depth and meaning to the literary work. Overuse of imagery can feel tedious for readers and limit their access to and understanding of the writer’s purpose. Therefore, it’s essential for writers to balance presenting information in a straightforward manner and using imagery as a literary device.

Difference between Literal Imagery and Figurative Imagery

There is a slight difference in literal and figurative imagery. Literal imagery, as the name applies, is near in meanings and almost the same thing or exactly what the description says. For example, color like the red rose implies the same thing. However, in figurative imagery, a thing is often not what it implies. There is often the use of hyperbole , simile , or metaphors that construct an image that could be different from the actual thing or person. For example, his cries moved the sky is not an example of literal imagery but of figurative imagery as the skies do not move with cries.

Tips to Analyze Imagery

Analysis of imagery is often done in poetry and short stories. However, imagery is present in every literary work where description becomes of some significance. Whenever there is a description in a literary work, a reader first analyses different figures of speech such as metaphors, similes, personifications , images, and hyperbole, etc. There are four major steps in analyzing imagery in a specific description.

• Identify the type of figures of speech, types of images, and their roles in the description.
• Compare and contrast the types of images and their accuracy in the description.
• Compare and contrast the role of the specific figures of speech, their meanings, their roles, and their end product.
• Critique the description and see how it demonstrates its actual meanings in the context and setting.

Use of Imagery in Sentences

• Iwan’s sweaty gym clothes left a stale odor in the locker room; so they had to keep the windows open.
• The tasty, salty broth soothed her sore throat as Simran ate the warm soup.
• Glittering white, the blanket of snow -covered everything in sight and also blocked the street.
• The tree bark was rough against the deer’s skin but it did satisfy its itch.
• Kids could hear the popping and crackling as their mom dropped the bacon into the frying pan, and soon the salty, greasy smell wafted toward me.

Examples of Imagery in Literature

Though imagery is often associated with poetry, it is an effective literary device in all forms of writing. Writers utilize imagery as a means of communicating their thoughts and perceptions on a deeper and more memorable level with readers. Imagery helps a reader formulate a visual picture and sensory impression of what the writer is describing as well as the emotions attached to the description. In addition, imagery is a means of showcasing a writer’s mastery of artistic and figurative language, which also enhances the meaning and enjoyment of a literary work for a reader.

Here are some examples of imagery in literature:

Example 1:  Goblin Market (Christina Rossetti)

Early in the morning When the first cock crow’d his warning, Neat like bees, as sweet and busy, Laura rose with Lizzie: Fetch’d in honey, milk’d the cows, Air’d and set to rights the house, Kneaded cakes of whitest wheat, Cakes for dainty mouths to eat, Next churn’d butter, whipp’d up cream, Fed their poultry, sat and sew’d; Talk’d as modest maidens should: Lizzie with an open heart, Laura in an absent dream, One content, one sick in part; One warbling for the mere bright day’s delight, One longing for the night.

In this passage of her poem , Rossetti uses all forms of poetic imagery to appeal to the reader’s physical senses as well as their experience of motion and internal emotions. The reader can visualize the actions taking place in the poem along with a sense of orderly movement paired with disordered emotion. As the sisters Lizzie and Laura go about their maidenly and pastoral tasks, the poet’s description of their divergent mindsets and feelings creates an imagery of the tension between darkness and light, innocence and temptation. These contrasting images evoke unsettled and contradictory feelings for the reader, undermining the appearance of the sisters’ idyllic lives with a sense of foreboding.

Example 2:  The Yellow Wallpaper  (Charlotte Perkins Gilman)

The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others. No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long.

In this passage of Gilman’s short story , the narrator uses poetic imagery to describe the yellow wallpaper which eventually ensnares her mind and body. The narrator’s imagery effectively appeals to the reader’s sense of sight, smell, and touch so that the reader is as repulsed by the wallpaper as the story’s protagonist. By utilizing imagery as a literary device, Gilman is able to evoke the same feelings of sickness, despair, fear, claustrophobia, etc., for the reader as she does for the narrator. In addition to this emotional effect, the artistic language used to describe the yellow wallpaper also enhances its symbolic presence in the story.

Example 3:  The Red Wheelbarrow  (William Carlos Williams)

so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens

This poem by William Carlos Williams features imagery and, in fact, is an example of Imagist poetry. Imagism was a poetic movement of the early twentieth century that veered away from the heavy description that was characteristic of Romantic and Victorian poems. Instead, the purpose of Imagism was to create an accurate image or presentation of a subject that would be visually concrete for the reader. Imagist poets achieved this through succinct, direct, and specific language, favoring precise phrasing over set poetic meter .

In Williams’s poem, the poet uses simple language and clear expression to create imagery for the reader of a red wheelbarrow, lending beauty , and symbolism to an ordinary object. By describing the wheelbarrow with sparse but precise language, the reader can picture an exact visual image of what the poet is trying to convey which, in turn, evokes an emotional response to the image. This imagery enhances the meaning of the poem’s phrasing such that each word becomes essential, and the poem and its imagery are nearly indistinguishable.

Synonyms of Imagery

Imagery has several synonyms with slightly different meanings. They are imagination, picturing, mental imagery, vision, imaging, and dreaming are almost near in meanings but evocation, chimera, pretense, and mind’s eyes.

Related posts:

• Auditory Imagery
• Visual Imagery
• Gustatory Imagery
• Tactile Imagery
• Olfactory Imagery
• Kinesthetic Imagery
• Examples of Imagery in Poetry

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, using imagery in college essays: tips and importance.

As I start drafting my essays for college applications, how crucial is it to include imagery, and does anyone have strategies for incorporating it effectively without overdoing it?

Imagery can be a powerful tool in your essays, creating an immersive experience for the reader and showcasing your writing abilities. It's important to use it to bring your story to life, painting a vivid picture of experiences, settings, emotions, or actions. However, the key is balance. You want to enhance your narrative without detracting from your message or making the prose feel forced.

One strategy is to choose moments where detailed descriptions will add value, perhaps when setting the scene or emphasizing a pivotal moment in your story. It's often more impactful to illustrate one memorable instance in detail than to use flowery language throughout.

For example, instead of describing a general passion for nature, you could describe the intricate patterns of frost on leaves during an early morning hike. This paints a picture while telling something meaningful about your appreciation for detail and beauty. Keep it natural, and let your own voice shine through. Best of luck with your applications!

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Essay: Essay on Visual Imagery | Psychology

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Essay on Visual Imagery | Psychology

Much research in recent decades has attempted to answer the question as to whether imagination of, for example, visual imagery , involves the same brain mechanisms as actual visual perception . How do images differ from actual perceptions, and how are they alike? This paper will summarize evidence which shows that visual imagery not only involves brain activity, but many of the same brain structures that are involved in visual perception are involved in visual imagery as well. A computer model of the cortical visual system and the effects of damage to that system are discussed in some detail. The interaction between visual perception and visual imagery is also briefly discussed, and its implications for perceptual disorders, such as hallucinations in schizophrenia .

Role of the Visual Cortex in Perception. The human striate cortex (called V1 or “primary visual cortex”) in the occipital lobe of the brain has been long known to be an indispensable component of form perception in the visual system. In a classic study, Hubel and Wiesel (1968) showed that the V1 area in cats (primary visual cortex or striate cortex) is composed of cells that respond to definite qualities of stimuli, such as a point or line. The experimenters identified cells as “simple”, “complex”, or “hyper-complex”, depending on the complexity of the stimulus to which they responded, with “hyper-complex” cells often responding only to lines in a certain orientation, for example. Few deny therefore that the V1 or striate cortex (Brodmann area 17 in humans) is involved in the ‘nuts and bolts’ of visual perception, with more subtle qualities of the visual stimulus, such as color, shading, etc. being covered by V2 and higher or “secondary” visual areas (Brodmann areas 18 and 19). When looking at an object, information is passed from the retina through the brainstem and the thalamus to the visual cortex. From the primary visual cortex (V1 or striate cortex) the information is passed to many distinct areas within the occipital cortex. All of the above areas are “retinotopically organized” (Ochsner and Kosslyn, 1999), meaning that the spatial structure of the object represented corresponds approximately to the image on the retina itself. A disproportion-ate area of the retina represents the center of the visual field, and this disproportion is represented in all of the other areas to which the information is passed. Pollen (1999) argues that the human striate cortex (V1) is not just a relayer of visual information from the brainstem and thalamus, but an “indispensable component” of a neural pathway concerned with achromatic form perception.

A Computer Simulation of the Visual System (Introduction)

Kosslyn et. al. (1990) theorized that a series of subsystems must be involved in processing visual object recognition and identification. They used knowledge about what the visual system can do as a jumping off point. For example, we can recognize a human form in many different postures, such as standing, sitting, squatting, etc. these abilities had long go been postulated to rule out simple template theories of shape recognition (Neisser, 1967). We can also identify objects when they appear in different parts of the visual field, when they subtend different visual angles, when they vary in shape (eg. oak leaves), or when they have optional parts (eg., some chairs have arms, others do not). Their task was to produce a computer model that could perform all of these perceptual tasks. Research had shown that many cognitive processes could be modeled with neural networks. Kosslyn et. al. set out to model the visual recognition process using processing components each of which might correspond in the brain to a separate neural network. A second goal of the project was to consider numerous neurological syndromes which affect vision, and see if doing damage to the system at various points could shed some insight onto the problem of how lesions or dysfunctions of the brain could produce various neurological syndromes. Using computer simulations, they were able to show how dysfunctions can arise from the disruption of the various subsystems. To understand their model, it is first necessary to understand their theory of how the visual system of the brain functions, much of which is articulated in other studies.

A Theory of the Functioning of the Cortical Visual System

Kosslyn and his colleagues have attempted to form a theory which could explain how the brain processes both perceived and imagined visual data. A set of retinotopically organized mapped areas are postulated to work together to separate figure from ground, and all of these areas grouped together have been designated as a single structure with a specific function, and have been given the name “visual buffer” (Kosslyn, 1994). This area consists of many more specialized components, one sensitive to wavelength (area V4), another to motion, and so on. Only a small amount of information in the visual buffer can be processed at one time. Thus an internal “attention window” selects patterns in the “visual buffer” for further processing. (Ochsner and Kosslyn, 1999; Kosslyn, 1994). Information selected by the “attention window” is sent over two parallel pathways in the cerebral cortex, the ventral, so-called “what” pathway in the inferior temporal lobe, which is concerned with properties of the object, thus determining what the object is, and the dorsal “where” pathway in the posterior parietal lobe, which is concerned with spatial properties of the object, thus determining where the object is with respect to other objects in the field (Ungerleider and Mishkin, 1982). In order to recognize an object (or to imagine it), we must have stored some sort of representation of that object in our brains. These representations are stored in perceptual encoding systems that store properties of an object from various sense modalities (Kosslyn and Koenig, 1992, Schacter, 1990). Visual perception and imagery are both postulated to use these mechanisms. The simplest form of perception is often referred to as a “bottom-up” process because it is essentially stimulus driven, whereas operations involving imagery are sometimes referred to as “top-down” mental processes, because they involve and are driven mainly by representations or images stored in higher visual or extravisual cortical areas, i.e., they are essentially image driven (Kosslyn, 1994). As will become apparent later, more complex forms of perception involve “top-down” as well as “bottom-up” mental processes. Moreover, both mental processes make use of the dorsal, parietal “where” pathway and the ventral, inferior temporal “what” pathway (Kosslyn et. al., 2001).

A Computer Simulation of the Cortical Visual System (Description)

Having described the theory of Kosslyn and his colleagues of the functioning of the visual system, it will now be attempted to describe further, if only briefly, the computer simulated model of Kosslyn et. al. (1990), and what conclusions the experimenters were able to draw from it. A computer model was built to try to simulate using neural networks the known areas associated with visual perception in the macaque brain and their connections. A ventral and dorsal system (“what” and “where” pathways) were simulated just as are known to exist in the real primate brain. It is known that all connections in the visual system are two-way; that is to say that every structure in the visual system of the brain that sends information to another area also receives information from that area. A “visual buffer” is encoded to simulate, roughly, the two-dimensional geometry of the projection of the “object” (actually a 60 x 60 pixel array or crude “picture” of an object) on visual brain structures. An “attention window” represented the selective aspect of perception, since it is thought that the brain can only attend to one spatial region at a time. (Cave and Kosslyn, 1989: Posner et. al., 1980). “Objects” are encoded by the visual buffer as a 20 x 20 pixel array. Features of an encoded “object” are compared to other “objects” stored in memory. As one might expect, the program was very limited (in comparison to a primate brain) in what it could do. Obviously it could only identify two dimensional pictures, not three dimensional objects, and only a very limited number of pictures could be identified. The system was capable of performing only highly simplified versions of tasks. The “what” and “where” systems of the primate brain were divided into subsystems in the model, to enable a crude simulation of their functioning. Is the construction of two separate pathways the most efficient way to program these functions into a model? Interestingly, Rueckl, Cave and Kosslyn (1989) had previously produced computational models which showed that a single structure or neural network that identifies both the object’s form and location is far less efficient than two separate neural networks, one for each computation. Thus the dual pathway system in the primate brain was simulated in the model.

The dorsal “where” system consisted of the following components: 1.) Spatiotopic mapping – “where” information in the visual buffer is retinotopic; i.e., determines “where” in relation to the center of the retina (fovea). 2.) Categorical relations encoding – codes spatial information into a long term associative memory, where it can be combined with information about object properties from the ventral system. 3.) Coordinate relations encoding – some objects can be identified only by noting subtle distance ratios, eg., distance between eyes, distance between nose and mouth, etc.

The ventral “what” system consisted of the following components: 1.) Preprocessing – To recognize objects from different visual angles, vantage points, etc., the model must find a way to process the data so that aspects of the object that remain the same under these conditions are recognized. 2.) Pattern activation – object identification is accomplished by comparing new objects against previously stored information. This subsystem contains visual representations that specify visual properties of previously seen shapes. 3.) Feature detection – makes judgments about characteristics of objects. 4.) Associative memory – stores information associated with previously seen objects: name, facts about object; the category to which it belongs, etc. A third major system of the model was programmed for “top-down” hypothesis testing. It consisted of the following subsystems: 1.) Coordinate property lookup – looks up in associative memory the properties the object should have. 2.) Categorical property lookup – looks up properties of categories. 3.) Categorical conversion – when a categorical spatial relation is looked up, the category must be converted to a specification of a location in space, which proved to be very complex. 4.) Attention shifting – adjusts the attention window as appropriate.

The “where” information from the dorsal pathway and the “what” information from the ventral system are transmitted into associative memory where they are stored in a short-term memory bank and compared to long-term memory banks containing information about the objects. The system, when functioning properly, could name and classify familiar objects shown in the pictures. There were only two categories, foxes and faces, and only eight pictures, including a partially occluded face and an unfamiliar twisted fox. The program looked for distinctive features, such as paws, or a human nose. If the picture was occluded or distorted, the program would not be able to match as many familiar features, but could still make the classification, although with somewhat less confidence.

Effects of Damage to the System To assess the effects of damage, processing could be disrupted within a system, or connections between systems could be broken. There were often competing subsystems or memory representations within the system, so that damage often resulted in a disruption of the normal balance between them, and “compensations” could often result by causing the subsystems to be used in different circumstances after damage. For example, a lookup function tries to find the best fit between the current picture and a stored memory of an object. If a connection is damaged, the system might find the second best fit instead. Considering complete damage to a subsystem, or the severing of data lines, there were 44 distinct categories of damage that could be done to the system, and the authors calculated that there were trillions of possible combinations of damage. Many combinations, however, produce the same result, because damage upstream often causes the system to fail before downstream connections even occur. There were two categories of damage according to the authors’ classification: 1.) failure in the ability to represent and interpret perceptual units, and 2.) failure in the ability to represent and interpret spatial relations among units. In both categories there were deficits that the authors felt mimicked deficits seen in brain damaged or stroke patients.

In category 1 were the following deficits, which the authors contended were analogous to deficits seen in human patients: 1.) Visual object agnosia – the program lost the ability to name objects. 2.) Prosopagnosia (literally means “face blindness”) – the program can classify the object but not name specific objects. A person with prosopagnosia can see individual features, but cannot put them together to identify a particular face (or fox). 3.) Metamorphopsia – Objects appear larger, or fragmented and compressed. This would occur in the program if the spatiotopic mapping system did not compute size correctly.

In category 2 were the following deficits: 1.) Simultagnosia – Inability to perceive more than one shape at a time. The model displayed this when the spatiotopic mapping system was partially damaged, so that all stimuli were assigned to the same location. 2.) Visuospatial disorientation – patients who fail to localize objects in space. Such a malfunction would occur in the program following damage to the visual buffer that results in degradation of the input so that perception is registered, but shape recognition is not possible. 3.) Disorders of visual search – Patients who have “paralysis of gaze” or visual scanning disorders – fixation on a stimulus without being able to release their gaze. This can be caused in the model by damage to the property lookup system, causing it to look up properties again and again, or by damage to the attention shifting subsystem. 4.) Hemineglect – Patients who ignore everything on one side of space, usually due to damage to the opposite parietal lobe. The model does not have bilateral symmetry, but a partial neglect of the visual input would be possible, which could be caused by a disorder of the attention shifting system.

The authors noted that many combinations of damage could produce similar deficits, and concluded that neurological testing may therefore have to be more subtle in the future to take into account and identify the many types of damage that could produce a given deficit.

Do Visual Perception and Visual Imagery Involve the Same Pathways?

How does the process of imagining an image compare with the process of perceiving the image? It has long been known that imagery involves the activity of brain structures, because lesions that affect perception also affect imagery. For example, the “neglect syndrome”, which is defined as the failure to perceive or attend to stimuli on the side of space opposite a parietal lesion, was shown by Bisiach and Luzatti (1978) to apply to imagery as well as perception. Two Italian patients with left hemineglect were asked to imagine the famous Piazza del Duomo in Milan when facing the square while standing at opposite sides of the square; first at the north side of the square facing south, and then at the south of the square facing north. When asked to imagine themselves in the first position, they described only objects on one side of the square, whereas when asked to imagine themselves facing in the other direction, they described only objects on the opposite side of the square. In both cases they were describing only objects that would be on their right side. Moreover, Farah (1989b) showed that lesions to brain areas involved in specific aspects of visual functioning, such as color or localization, tend to affect imagery as well as perception. Mental visual imagery as measured by asking subjects to imagine taking a route involving several turns to a particular destination, was found to change the regional cerebral oxidative metabolism as well as regional cerebral blood flow in 25 cortical fields. (Roland et. al., 1987).

Experimenters have differed, however, on whether the primary visual cortex is equally involved when we simply imagine a stimulus. It may be that when we imagine a stimulus, the brain activates all of the brain structures that were involved in the original perception of the stimulus, or it may be that the primary visual cortex, (and perhaps secondary visual cortex as well), are activated only in visual perception but not during visual imagery. Roland and Gulyas (1994) have postulated that primary visual cortex may not be necessary at all, while Kosslyn and Ochsner (1994) took the opposite position. Roland and Gulyas argue that because some brain damaged patients can be found who have lost the capacity for visual imagery but not visual perception, that different brain structures must be involved. It is known that in imagined scenes, the parietal and temporal visual association areas are activated (Roland and Friberg, 1985). Unlike the primary and secondary visual cortical areas, these areas are not retinotopically organized. The argument put forth by Roland and Gulyas is that retinotopically organized areas are better suited for computation (as would presumably be involved in precise perception) than for representation (as would presumably be involved in imagining a stimulus). Thus the early, retinotopically organized visual areas might not be necessary for visual imagery . Kosslyn and Ochsler’s (1994) position was based on a study by Kosslyn et. al., (1993) who found that V1 cortex was activated during PET scans of subjects who were asked to imagine letters on a grid, as opposed to subjects who were actually viewing the letters on the same grid. Indeed the precise coordinates of the activated regions were similar in the real and imagined stimulus conditions. Other studies seem to support Kosslyn and Ochsner’s position. Using functional MRI (LeBihan, et. al., 1993), and positron emission tomography (PET) (Kosslyn et. al., 1995), activation of widespread regions of the occipital lobe including prestriate areas V2 and V1 have been demonstrated during the formation of imagery in experimental subjects. Thus an alternative explanation, which even Roland and Gulyas do not rule out, is that back projections from the areas involved in imagery may actually reconstruct the image on the “grid” presumed to be located in the retinotopically organized visual areas in the occipital cortex. Whether this happens or not could presumably depend on how precise an imagination of a stimulus is demanded. Klein et. al. (2000) showed that area V1, for example, was likely to be activated in visual imagery only when images with many details are formed and used in a task. However, the activity was much greater when subjects were asked to evaluate characteristics of an object, regardless of whether the object was real or imagined. Kosslyn et.al. (2001) showed that imagery activates retinotopically organized visual cortex (Brodmann areas 17, 18) in only some imaging tasks but not in others. The authors argue that these areas are more likely to be activated in tasks where the subject is asked to try to find high resolution detail in a mental image. Kosslyn (1980, 1994) therefore argued that visual mental images are “depictive”, and indeed use retinotopically organized visual areas to represent an image. It appears that the same visual areas are used for either perception (stimulus driven or “bottom up” construction) or imaginary (“top down”) construction of a form or shape, but different extravisual areas (Ochsner and Kosslyn, 1999). Visual areas activated will differ, however, on discrimination tasks, depending on what types of visual cues are used to make the discrimination. For example, Gulyas et. al. (1995), using rCBF and PET scans, showed that distinct areas in the visual cortex were activated depending on whether subjects were asked to perform a form discrimination or a color discrimination task. Even if retinotopically organized visual areas are involved in image generation, the question still remains whether a “depictive” image is identical in the brain to a perceived image. D’Esposito et. al. (1989), using functional MRI, found that when subjects were instructed to generate a mental image of a word, visual association cortex was activated, but not the primary visual cortex (V1). More recent studies have shown that a great deal of overlap occurs between brain structures used in visual imagery and those used in visual perception. Galis, et. al. (2004) had subjects either visualize or simply see faint drawings of simple objects, then were asked to make judgments about the images in the drawings. There was a great deal of overlap in brain structures activated in the perception vs. imagery conditions, but there was more overlap in the frontal and parietal areas activated than in the occipital lobe, where the retinotopically organized representation of visual stimuli are known to occur, perhaps giving more credence to Roland and Gulyas proposition that retinotopically organized visual cortex is at least not as necessary for visual imagery as for visual perception. However, the authors argued that the brain regions activated in common may be involved in performance of the tasks rather than in perception vs. imagining of the visual stimuli. The common areas activated in the frontal lobe, for example, could be explained by Kosslyn’s (1994) argument that the frontal lobe is involved in shunting information from various brain areas representing the various sense modalities, and the same areas would be involved whether the information being shunted were perceived or imagined. The common parietal areas activated could be explained in a similar manner, since certain parietal areas are involved in the same cognitive control system as the aforementioned frontal areas. Mechelli et. al., (2004) found that, during visual perception, activation in non-striate visual cortex involved forward connections from early visual areas, whereas during visual imagery , activation involved backward connections from prefrontal cortex. However, there may be subtle hemispheric differences between operations involving visual perception and those involving imagery. The predominance of evidence favors left hemisphere dominance for mental imagery as opposed to perception (Farah, 1986, 1989b; Farah et. al., 1985), although some specific tasks such as mental rotation appear to be right hemisphere dominant (Farah, 1989b).

The Interaction of Visual Imagery and Visual Perception; Possible Implications for Schizophrenia.

Does mental imagery interact with perceptual processing? Farah (1989a) showed that when subjects were asked to form an image of a letter “T” or “H” on a grid, stimuli falling within the grid points containing the letter were more likely to be perceived than those falling outside those grid points. Heil and Henninghausen (1993), however, showed that this was only true for “compact” images, as opposed to patterns that were disjointed, such as a pattern of squares as opposed to a letter. They argued that a “compact” figure, such as a letter, caused the subject to segregate figure from ground within a field, with more attention being directed to parts of the grid within the figure than to parts of the grid composing the ground. Less compact systems did not have this effect. Much research has been done in recent years to discover what implications the interaction between imagery and perception may have for hallucinations in schizophrenia. Hallucinations have been assumed to result from internally generated information being misinterpreted as being externally generated. Some have argued that increased vividness of imagery may make images less distinguishable from perceptions, thus making the distinction between them difficult (Johnson and Raye, 1981; Johnson et. al., 1993). This could account for hallucinations in schizophrenics. Aleman et. al., (2003) found a significant difference in performance on several tasks designed to measure imagery-perception interaction between hallucinating schizophrenics and normal controls, although the schizophrenics did not differ significantly from controls in tasks designed to measure their ability to form images and use them in a task. Aleman et. al., (2005) found a significant difference between patients and controls on an object imagery task, but not on a spatial imagery task.

Conclusions

In conclusion, it appears that visual perception and visual imagery may involve many of the same pathways in the brain. A computer simulated model of the cortical visual system demonstrates that damage to the system affects top-down (image driven) process as well as bottom-up (stimulus-driven) processes. Imagery is known to be associated with measurable brain activity. Cortical pathways have been identified which are involved in both visual perception and visual imagery. Much debate has occurred over whether retinotopically organized areas of the visual cortex are involved in imagery as well as perception. It appears that they are, the extent being determined by the precision and detail demanded by the particular imaging process or task. Furthermore, it has been shown that there are significant interactions between imagery and perception, both in normal and abnormal processes. Recent studies have attempted to assess the possible implications of these findings for hallucinations in schizophrenia.

• Aleman, A, de Haan, EH, Kahn RS. (2005), “Object versus spatial visual mental imagery in patients with schizophrenia”, J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2005 Jan;30(1):53-6. Aleman, A, Koen, BE, Bocker, RJ deHaan, EHF, and Kahn, R, (2003), “Cognitive Basis of hallucinations in schizophrenia: role of top-down information processing”, Schizophrenia Res., 64:175-185. Bisiach, E. and Luzatti, C. (1978) “Unilateral neglect of representational space”, Cortex, 14, 129-133.
• D’Esposito M, Detre JA, Aguirre GK, Stallcup M, Alsop DC Tippet LJ, Farah MJ (1997), “A functional MRI study of mental image generation”, Neuropsychologia. 1997 May;35(5):725-30..
• Farah MJ., (1985), Psychophysical evidence for a shared representational medium for mental images and percepts”, J Exp Psychol Gen. 1985 Mar;114(1):91-103. Farah MJ. (1986), “The laterality of mental image generation: a test with normal subjects.”, Neuropsychologia. 24(4):541-51.

References (contd.)

• Farah MJ. (1989a), “Mechanisms of imagery-perception interaction”, J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1989 May;15(2):203-11.
• Farah MJ. (1989b), “The neural basis of mental imagery”, Trends Neurosci. 1989 Oct;12(10):395-9. Farah MJ, Gazzaniga MS, Holtzman JD, Kosslyn SM (1985) , “A left hemisphere basis for visual mental imagery?” Neuropsychologia. 23(1):115-8. Farah MJ, Peronnet F, Gonon MA, Giard MH. (1988), “Electrophysiological evidence for a shared representational medium for visual images and visual percepts”, J Exp Psychol Gen. 117(3):248- 57.
• Ganis G, Thompson WL, Kosslyn SM (2004), “Brain areas underlying visual mental imagery and visual perception: an fMRI study”, Brain Res Cogn Brain Res. 2004 Jul;20(2):226-41.
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• Kosslyn, SM, (1980), Image and Mind, Cambridge, MA, Harvard Univ. Press.
• Kosslyn, SM, (1994), Image and Brain, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
• Kosslyn SM, Flynn RA, Amsterdam JB, Wang G., (1990), Components of high-level vision: a cog-nitive neuroscience analysis and accounts of neurological syndromes”, Cognition. 1990 Mar;34(3):203-77. Kosslyn SM, Holtzman JD, Farah MJ, Gazzaniga MS. (1985), “A computational analysis of mental image generation: evidence from functional dissociations in split-brain patients”, J Exp Psychol Gen. 1985 Sep;114(3):311-41. Kosslyn, SM and Koenig, O. (1992) Wet Mind, New York, The Free Press. Kosslyn SM, Thompson WL, Kim IJ, Alpert NM (1995) “Topographical representations of mental images in primary visual cortex”, Nature 378:496-498.
• LeBihan D, Turner R, Zeffiro TA, Cuenod CA, Jezzard P, Bonnerot V (1993)” Activation of human primary visual cortex during visual recall”, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 90:802-811.
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• Ochsner, K. N. & Kosslyn, S. M. (1999). “The cognitive neuroscience approach”. In D. E. Rumelhart & B. O. Martin, (Eds.), Handbook of Cognition and Perception, vol. X., Cognitive Science (pp. 319-365) . Academic Press: San Diego . Pollen, DA. (1999), On the Neural Correlates of Visual Perception Cerebral Cortex, Vol. 9, No. 1, 4-19, January 1999.
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• Roland PE, and B. Gulyas, B, (1994), “ Visual imagery and visual representation “, Trends Neurosci. 1994 Jul;17(7):281-7. Roland PE, Gulyas B. (1995), “Visual memory, visual imagery, and visual recognition of large field patterns by the human brain: functional anatomy by positron emission tomography”, Cereb Cortex. 1995 Jan-Feb;5(1):79-93. Rueckl, JG, Cave, KR, and Kosslyn, SM, “Why are “what” and “where” processed by separate cortical systems? A computational investigation”, J. Cogn. Neurosci., 1: 171-186. Schacter, DL (1990), “Perceptual representation systems and implicit memory: Toward a resolution of the multiple memory systems debate.”, Annals NY Acad. Sci., 608: 543-571. Ungerleider, LG and Mishkin, M. (1982), “Two Cortical Visual Systems”, in D.J. Engle and M.A. Gooddale, and R.J. Mansfield (eds.), Analysis of Visual Behavior, (pp. 549-586). Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.

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• Published: 31 October 2017

The visual essay and the place of artistic research in the humanities

• Remco Roes 1 &
• Kris Pint 1  

Palgrave Communications volume  3 , Article number:  8 ( 2017 ) Cite this article

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What could be the place of artistic research in current contemporary scholarship in the humanities? The following essay addresses this question while using as a case study a collaborative artistic project undertaken by two artists, Remco Roes (Belgium) and Alis Garlick (Australia). We argue that the recent integration of arts into academia requires a hybrid discourse, which has to be distinguished both from the artwork itself and from more conventional forms of academic research. This hybrid discourse explores the whole continuum of possible ways to address our existential relationship with the environment: ranging from aesthetic, multi-sensorial, associative, affective, spatial and visual modes of ‘knowledge’ to more discursive, analytical, contextualised ones. Here, we set out to defend the visual essay as a useful tool to explore the non-conceptual, yet meaningful bodily aspects of human culture, both in the still developing field of artistic research and in more established fields of research. It is a genre that enables us to articulate this knowledge, as a transformative process of meaning-making, supplementing other modes of inquiry in the humanities.

Introduction

In Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description (2011), Tim Ingold defines anthropology as ‘a sustained and disciplined inquiry into the conditions and potentials of human life’ (Ingold, 2011 , p. 9). For Ingold, artistic practice plays a crucial part in this inquiry. He considers art not merely as a potential object of historical, sociological or ethnographic research, but also as a valuable form of anthropological inquiry itself, providing supplementary methods to understand what it is ‘to be human’.

In a similar vein, Mark Johnson’s The meaning of the body: aesthetics of human understanding (2007) offers a revaluation of art ‘as an essential mode of human engagement with and understanding of the world’ (Johnson, 2007 , p. 10). Johnson argues that art is a useful epistemological instrument because of its ability to intensify the ordinary experience of our environment. Images Footnote 1 are the expression of our on-going, complex relation with an inner and outer environment. In the process of making images of our environment, different bodily experiences, like affects, emotions, feelings and movements are mobilised in the creation of meaning. As Johnson argues, this happens in every process of meaning-making, which is always based on ‘deep-seated bodily sources of human meaning that go beyond the merely conceptual and propositional’ (Ibid., p. 11). The specificity of art simply resides in the fact that it actively engages with those non-conceptual, non-propositional forms of ‘making sense’ of our environment. Art is thus able to take into account (and to explore) many other different meaningful aspects of our human relationship with the environment and thus provide us with a supplementary form of knowledge. Hence Ingold’s remark in the introduction of Making: anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture (2013): ‘Could certain practices of art, for example, suggest new ways of doing anthropology? If there are similarities between the ways in which artists and anthropologists study the world, then could we not regard the artwork as a result of something like an anthropological study, rather than as an object of such study? […] could works of art not be regarded as forms of anthropology, albeit ‘written’ in non-verbal media?’ (Ingold, 2013 , p. 8, italics in original).

And yet we would hesitate to unreservedly answer yes to these rhetorical questions. For instance, it is true that one can consider the works of Francis Bacon as an anthropological study of violence and fear, or the works of John Cage as a study in indeterminacy and chance. But while they can indeed be seen as explorations of the ‘conditions and potentials of human life’, the artworks themselves do not make this knowledge explicit. What is lacking here is the logos of anthropology, logos in the sense of discourse, a line of reasoning. Therefore, while we agree with Ingold and Johnson, the problem remains how to explicate and communicate the knowledge that is contained within works of art, how to make it discursive ? How to articulate artistic practice as an alternative, yet valid form of scholarly research?

Here, we believe that a clear distinction between art and artistic research is necessary. The artistic imaginary is a reaction to the environment in which the artist finds himself: this reaction does not have to be conscious and deliberate. The artist has every right to shrug his shoulders when he is asked for the ‘meaning’ of his work, to provide a ‘discourse’. He can simply reply: ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I do not want to know’, as a refusal to engage with the step of articulating what his work might be exploring. Likewise, the beholder or the reader of a work of art does not need to learn from it to appreciate it. No doubt, he may have gained some understanding about ‘human existence’ after reading a novel or visiting an exhibition, but without the need to spell out this knowledge or to further explore it.

In contrast, artistic research as a specific, inquisitive mode of dealing with the environment requires an explicit articulation of what is at stake, the formulation of a specific problem that determines the focus of the research. ‘Problem’ is used here in the neutral, etymological sense of the word: something ‘thrown forward’, a ‘hindrance, obstacle’ (cf. probleima , Liddell-Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon). A body-in-an-environment finds something thrown before him or her, an issue that grabs the attention. A problem is something that urges us to explore a field of experiences, the ‘potentials of human life’ that are opened up by a work of art. It is often only retroactively, during a second, reflective phase of the artistic research, that a formulation of a problem becomes possible, by a selection of elements that strikes one as meaningful (again, in the sense Johnson defines meaningful, thus including bodily perceptions, movements, affects, feelings as meaningful elements of human understanding of reality). This process opens up, to borrow a term used by Aby Warburg, a ‘Denkraum’ (cf. Gombrich, 1986 , p. 224): it creates a critical distance from the environment, including the environment of the artwork itself: this ‘space for thought’ allows one to consciously explore a specific problem. Consciously here does not equal cerebral: the problem is explored not only in its intellectual, but also in its sensual and emotional, affective aspects. It is projected along different lines in this virtual Denkraum , lines that cross and influence each other: an existential line turns into a line of form and composition; a conceptual line merges into a narrative line, a technical line echoes an autobiographical line. There is no strict hierarchy in the different ‘emanations’ of a problem. These are just different lines contained within the work that interact with each other, and the problem can ‘move’ from one line to another, develop and transform itself along these lines, comparable perhaps to the way a melody develops itself when it is transposed to a different musical scale, a different musical instrument, or even to a different musical genre. But, however, abstract or technical one formulates a problem, following Johnson we argue that a problem is always a translation of a basic existential problem, emerging from a specific environment. We fully agree with Johnson when he argues that ‘philosophy becomes relevant to human life only by reconnecting with, and grounding itself in, bodily dimensions of human meaning and value. Philosophy needs a visceral connection to lived experience’ (Johnson, 2007 , p. 263). The same goes for artistic research. It too finds its relevance in the ‘visceral connection’ with a specific body, a specific situation.

Words are one way of disclosing this lived experience, but within the context of an artistic practice one can hardly ignore the potential for images to provide us with an equally valuable account. In fact, they may even prove most suited to establish the kind of space that comes close to this multi-threaded, embodied Denkraum . In order to illustrate this, we would like to present a case study, a short visual ‘essay’ (however, since the scope of four spreads offers only limited space, it is better to consider it as the image-equivalent of a short research note).

Case study: step by step reading of a visual essay

The images (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) form a short visual essay based on a collaborative artistic project 'Exercises of the man (v)' that Remco Roes and Alis Garlick realised for the Situation Symposium at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne in 2014. One of the conceptual premises of the project was the communication of two physical ‘sites’ through digital media. Roes—located in Belgium—would communicate with Garlick—in Australia—about an installation that was to be realised at the physical location of the exhibition in Melbourne. Their attempts to communicate (about) the site were conducted via e-mail messages, Skype-chats and video conversations. The focus of these conversations increasingly distanced itself from the empty exhibition space of the Design Hub and instead came to include coincidental spaces (and objects) that happened to be close at hand during the 3-month working period leading up to the exhibition. The focus of the project thus shifted from attempting to communicate a particular space towards attempting to communicate the more general experience of being in(side) a space. The project led to the production of a series of small in-situ installations, a large series of video’s and images, a book with a selection of these images as well as texts from the conversations, and the final exhibition in which artefacts that were found during the collaborative process were exhibited. A step by step reading of the visual argument contained within images of this project illustrates how a visual essay can function as a tool for disclosing/articulating/communicating the kind of embodied thinking that occurs within an artistic practice or practice-based research.

Figure 1 shows (albeit in reduced form) a field of photographs and video stills that summarises the project without emphasising any particular aspect. Each of the Figs. 2 – 5 isolate different parts of this same field in an attempt to construct/disclose a form of visual argument (that was already contained within the work). In the final part of this essay we will provide an illustration of how such visual sequences can be possibly ‘read’.

First image of the visual essay. Remco Roes and Alis Garlick, as copyright holders, permit the publication of this image under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Second image of the visual essay. Remco Roes and Alis Garlick, as copyright holders, permit the publication of this image under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Third image of the visual essay. Remco Roes and Alis Garlick, as copyright holders, permit the publication of this image under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Fourth image of the visual essay. Remco Roes and Alis Garlick, as copyright holders, permit the publication of this image under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Fifth image of the visual essay. Remco Roes and Alis Garlick, as copyright holders, permit the publication of this image under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Figure 1 is a remnant of the first step that was taken in the creation of the series of images: significant, meaningful elements in the work of art are brought together. At first, we quite simply start by looking at what is represented in the pictures, and how they are presented to us. This act of looking almost inevitably turns these images into a sequence, an argument. Conditioned by the dominant linearity of writing, including images (for instance in a comic book) one ‘reads’ the images from left to right, one goes from the first spread to the last. Just like one could say that a musical theme or a plot ‘develops’, the series of images seem to ‘develop’ the problem, gradually revealing its complexity. The dominance of this viewing code is not to be ignored, but is of course supplemented by the more ‘holistic’ nature of visual perception (cf. the notion of ‘Gestalt’ in the psychology of perception). So unlike a ‘classic’ argumentation, the discursive sequence is traversed by resonance, by non-linearity, by correspondences between elements both in a single image and between the images in their specific positioning within the essay. These correspondences reveal the synaesthetic nature of every process of meaning-making: ‘The meaning of something is its relations, actual and potential, to other qualities, things, events, and experiences. In pragmatist lingo, the meaning of something is a matter of how it connects to what has gone before and what it entails for present or future experiences and actions’ (Johnson, 2007 , p. 265). The images operate in a similar way, by bringing together different actions, affects, feelings and perceptions into a complex constellation of meaningful elements that parallel each other and create a field of resonance. These connections occur between different elements that ‘disturb’ the logical linearity of the discourse, for instance by the repetition of a specific element (the blue/yellow opposition, or the repetition of a specific diagonal angle).

Confronted with these images, we are now able to delineate more precisely the problem they express. In a generic sense we could formulate it as follows: how to communicate with someone who does not share my existential space, but is nonetheless visually and acoustically present? What are the implications of the kind of technology that makes such communication possible, for the first time in human history? How does it influence our perception and experience of space, of materiality, of presence?

Artistic research into this problem explores the different ways of meaning-making that this new existential space offers, revealing the different conditions and possibilities of this new spatiality. But it has to be stressed that this exploration of the problem happens on different lines, ranging from the kinaesthetic perception to the emotional and affective response to these spaces and images. It would, thus, be wrong to reduce these experiences to a conceptual framework. In their actions, Roes and Garlick do not ‘make a statement’: they quite simply experiment with what their bodies can do in such a hybrid space, ‘wandering’ in this field of meaningful experiences, this Denkraum , that is ‘opened up’: which meaningful clusters of sensations, affects, feelings, spatial and kinaesthetic qualities emerge in such a specific existential space?

In what follows, we want to focus on some of these meaningful clusters. As such, these comments are not part of the visual essay itself. One could compare them to ‘reading remarks’, a short elaboration on what strikes one as relevant. These comments also do not try to ‘crack the code’ of the visual material, as if they were merely a visual and/or spatial rebus to be solved once and for all (‘ x stands for y’ ). They rather attempt to engage in a dialogue with the images, a dialogue that of course does not claim to be definitive or exhaustive.

The constellation itself generates a sense of ‘lacking’: we see that there are two characters intensely collaborating and interacting with each other, while never sharing the same space. They are performing, or watching the other perform: drawing a line (imaginary or physically), pulling, wrapping, unpacking, watching, framing, balancing. The small arrangements, constructions or compositions that are made as a result of these activities are all very fragile, shaky and their purpose remains unclear. Interaction with the other occurs only virtually, based on the manipulation of small objects and fragments, located in different places. One of the few materials that eventually gets physically exported to the other side, is a kind of large plastic cover. Again, one should not ‘read’ the picture of Roes with this plastic wrapped around his head as an expression, a ‘symbol’ of individual isolation, of being wrapped up in something. It is simply the experience of a head that disappears (as a head appears and disappears on a computer screen when it gets disconnected), and the experience of a head that is covered up: does it feel like choking, or does it provide a sense of shelter, protection?

A different ‘line’ operates simultaneously in the same image: that of a man standing on a double grid: the grid of the wet street tiles and an alternative, oblique grid of colourful yellow elements, a grid which is clearly temporal, as only the grid of the tiles will remain. These images are contrasted with the (obviously staged) moment when the plastic arrives at ‘the other side’: the claustrophobia is now replaced with the openness of the horizon, the presence of an open seascape: it gives a synaesthetic sense of a fresh breeze that seems lacking in the other images.

In this case, the contrast between the different spaces is very clear, but in other images we also see an effort to unite these different spaces. The problem can now be reformulated, as it moves to another line: how to demarcate a shared space that is both actual and virtual (with a ribbon, the positioning of a computer screen?), how to communicate with each other, not only with words or body language, but also with small artefacts, ‘meaningless’ junk? What is the ‘common ground’ on which to walk, to exchange things—connecting, lining up with the other? And here, the layout of the images (into a spread) adds an extra dimension to the original work of art. The relation between the different bodies does now not only take place in different spaces, but also in different fields of representation: there is the space of the spread, the photographed space and in the photographs, the other space opened up by the computer screen, and the interaction between these levels. We see this in the Fig. 3 where Garlick’s legs are projected on the floor, framed by two plastic beakers: her black legging echoing with the shadows of a chair or a tripod. This visual ‘rhyme’ within the image reveals how a virtual presence interferes with what is present.

The problem, which can be expressed in this fundamental opposition between presence/absence, also resonates with other recurring oppositions that rhythmically structure these images. The images are filled with blue/yellow elements: blue lines of tape, a blue plexi form, yellow traces of paint, yellow objects that are used in the video’s, but the two tones are also conjured up by the white balance difference between daylight and artificial light. The blue/yellow opposition, in turn, connects with other meaningful oppositions, like—obviously—male/female, or the same oppositional set of clothes: black trousers/white shirt, grey scale images versus full colour, or the shadow and the bright sunlight, which finds itself in another opposition with the cold electric light of a computer screen (this of course also refers to the different time zones, another crucial aspect of digital communication: we do not only not share the same place, we also do not share the same time).

Yet the images also invite us to explore certain formal and compositional elements that keep recurring. The second image, for example, emphasises the importance placed in the project upon the connecting of lines, literally of lining up. Within this image the direction and angle of these lines is ‘explained’ by the presence of the two bodies, the makers with their roles of tape in hand. But upon re-reading the other spreads through this lens of ‘connecting lines’ we see that this compositional element starts to attain its own visual logic. Where the lines in image 2 are literally used as devices to connect two (visual) realities, they free themselves from this restricted context in the other images and show us the influence of circumstance and context in allowing for the successful establishing of such a connection.

In Fig. 3 , for instance, we see a collection of lines that have been isolated from the direct context of live communication. The way two parts of a line are manually aligned (in the split-screens in image 2) mirrors the way the images find their position on the page. However, we also see how the visual grammar of these lines of tape is expanded upon: barrier tape that demarcates a working area meets the curve of a small copper fragment on the floor of an installation, a crack in the wall follows the slanted angle of an assembled object, existing marks on the floor—as well as lines in the architecture—come into play. The photographs widen the scale and angle at which the line operates: the line becomes a conceptual form that is no longer merely material tape but also an immaterial graphical element that explores its own argument.

Figure 4 provides us with a pivotal point in this respect: the cables of the mouse, computer and charger introduce a certain fluidity and uncontrolled motion. Similarly, the erratic markings on the paper show that an author is only ever partially in control. The cracked line in the floor is the first line that is created by a negative space, by an absence. This resonates with the black-stained edges of the laser-cut objects, laid out on the desktop. This fourth image thus seems to transform the manifestation of the line yet again; from a simple connecting device into an instrument that is able to cut out shapes, a path that delineates a cut, as opposed to establishing a connection. The circle held up in image 4 is a perfect circular cut. This resonates with the laser-cut objects we see just above it on the desk, but also with the virtual cuts made in the Photoshop image on the right. We can clearly see how a circular cut remains present on the characteristic grey-white chessboard that is virtual emptiness. It is evident that these elements have more than just an aesthetic function in a visual argumentation. They are an integral part of the meaning-making process. They ‘transpose’ on a different level, i.e., the formal and compositional level, the central problem of absence and presence: it is the graphic form of the ‘cut’, as well as the act of cutting itself, that turns one into the other.

Concluding remarks

As we have already argued, within the frame of this comment piece, the scope of the visual essay we present here is inevitably limited. It should be considered as a small exercise in a specific genre of thinking and communicating with images that requires further development. Nonetheless, we hope to have demonstrated the potentialities of the visual essay as a form of meaning-making that allows the articulation of a form of embodied knowledge that supplements other modes of inquiry in the humanities. In this particular case, it allows for the integration of other meaningful, embodied and existential aspects of digital communication, unlikely to be ‘detected’ as such by an (auto)ethnographic, psychological or sociological framework.

The visual essay is an invitation to other researchers in the arts to create their own kind of visual essays in order to address their own work of art or that of others: they can consider their artistic research as a valuable contribution to the exploration of human existence that lies at the core of the humanities. But perhaps it can also inspire scholars in more ‘classical’ domains to introduce artistic research methods to their toolbox, as a way of taking into account the non-conceptual, yet meaningful bodily aspects of human life and human artefacts, this ‘visceral connection to lived experience’, as Johnson puts it.

Obviously, a visual essay runs the risk of being ‘shot by both sides’: artists may scorn the loss of artistic autonomy and ‘exploitation’ of the work of art in the service of scholarship, while academic scholars may be wary of the lack of conceptual and methodological clarity inherent in these artistic forms of embodied, synaesthetic meaning. The visual essay is indeed a bastard genre, the unlawful love (or perhaps more honestly: love/hate) child of academia and the arts. But precisely this hybrid, impure nature of the visual essay allows it to explore unknown ‘conditions and potentials of human life’, precisely because it combines imagination and knowledge. And while this combination may sound like an oxymoron within a scientific, positivistic paradigm, it may in fact indicate the revival, in a new context, of a very ancient alliance. Or as Giorgio Agamben formulates it in Infancy and history: on the destruction of experience (2007 [1978]): ‘Nothing can convey the extent of the change that has taken place in the meaning of experience so much as the resulting reversal of the status of the imagination. For Antiquity, the imagination, which is now expunged from knowledge as ‘unreal’, was the supreme medium of knowledge. As the intermediary between the senses and the intellect, enabling, in phantasy, the union between the sensible form and the potential intellect, it occupies in ancient and medieval culture exactly the same role that our culture assigns to experience. Far from being something unreal, the mundus imaginabilis has its full reality between the mundus sensibilis and the mundus intellegibilis , and is, indeed, the condition of their communication—that is to say, of knowledge’ (Agamben, 2007 , p. 27, italics in original).

And it is precisely this exploration of the mundus imaginabilis that should inspire us to understand artistic research as a valuable form of scholarship in the humanities.

We consider images as a broad category consisting of artefacts of the imagination, the creation of expressive ‘forms’. Images are thus not limited to visual images. For instance, the imagery used in a poem or novel, metaphors in philosophical treatises (‘image-thoughts’), actual sculptures or the imaginary space created by a performance or installation can also be considered as images, just like soundscapes, scenography, architecture.

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What is imagery?

In terms of writing, imagery is more than creating a pretty picture for the reader. Imagery pertains to a technique for the writer to appeal to the reader’s five senses as a means to convey the essence of an event. The five senses include sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. The writer does not need to employ all five senses, only those senses that most effectively convey, transport the reader into that event.

Why use imagery?

Imagery engages the reader with specific sensory details. Imagery creates atmosphere/mood, causing the reader to feel a certain emotion. For example, a scary scene includes details that cause a reader to be frightened.

Example from Edgar Allan Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death”

The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might have been endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood — and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror.

Imagery can be used throughout an entire essay, such as a description essay that focuses on a particular event. Writers should first decide what atmosphere/mood they want to create for their readers and then focus solely on the sensory details that convey that particular atmosphere/mood. For example, if a writer wanted to share the experience of a favorite holiday meal, then s/he would focus on the smells and tastes of all the food and the memories that those smells and tastes conjure. The hectic grocery shopping for all the ingredients would be omitted since that would not express the nostalgia of the meal.

Imagery can also be used per individual paragraph as a means to illustrate a point. For example, in an essay arguing for a ban on smoking, one paragraph could detail the damage to lungs caused by smoking.

A brainstorming technique for imagery involves drawing a picture by focusing on one sense at a time. So, find a blank sheet of paper and various colored pencils.

First and easiest would be sight. Slow down to mentally picture every object, shape, color, person, and so on in the scene. Draw, as best you can, representations of each of those visual details. (Only you will see this drawing; no need to stress over perfection.)

Next, take a different sense, such as sounds, and record those sounds on paper with various colors, symbols, or onomatopoeia. (Again, do the best you can to represent what you heard. Your goal is to remind yourself of the sounds, not create a work of art.)

Next, take a different sense and record that particular sense on paper with various colors and symbols.

The objective is to slow down and focus on each sense individually rather than trying to remember the scene all at once. By slowing down and envisioning each sense on paper, you can determine which senses most accurately create the atmosphere/mood for the essay and then apply only those senses in the essay.

Further Reading

Reading and Writing in College Copyright © 2021 by Jackie Hoermann-Elliott and TWU FYC Team is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Analysis of Visual Imagery and Sense Perception in Joyce’s “Araby” Essay

In James Joyce’s “Araby,” the powerful visual imagery guides the narrator’s journey and offers insight into his decisions. Joyce’s short story, written in the style of Realism and set in Dublin, Ireland, is rife with antique imagery and mystical religious symbolism. The narrator, a young boy, is captivated by his love interest, Mangan’s sister, and is driven to visit the bazaar Araby. He is surrounded by visual imagery that serves as a microcosm of his inner world, shaped by his fragile opinions of others. This impression is evident when the narrator is watching Mangan’s sister on the doorstep and describes how her “dress swung as she moved her body and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side” (Joyce 285). This imagery is symbolic of his own feelings of love and desire. The described emotions grow stronger as he continues his journey to Araby. Through this visual analysis, Joyce presents a unique view of the narrator’s definition of love and isolation, illustrating how his sense of perception heavily influences his decisions.

Furthermore, in “Araby,” Joyce emphasizes the importance of sensory perception in the narrator’s journey and decision-making. The narrator’s identity is shaped by his emotions and his perceptions of his surroundings. Joyce portrays a clear contrast between isolation and loves through the vivid imagery of colors, sights, sounds, textures, and smells. For example, when the narrator enters the back drawing room of the house, the “air, musty from having been long enclosed” gives the reader a sense of the enclosed, dark space of the room (Joyce 284). Moreover, the “fine incessant needles of water” that the narrator hears through the broken pane symbolizes the loneliness and despair he feels while in the room (Joyce 285). This imagery, along with the narrator’s emotions, leads him to his epiphany of love and longing. Through this imagery, Joyce shows that the narrator’s decision-making is guided by his senses and his emotional state rather than rational thought. The narrator’s journey of love and isolation culminates in his realization that love is not what he expected it to be and that he is still in a state of isolation.

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"Analysis of Visual Imagery and Sense Perception in Joyce's "Araby"." IvyPanda , 3 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-visual-imagery-and-sense-perception-in-joyces-araby/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'Analysis of Visual Imagery and Sense Perception in Joyce's "Araby"'. 3 February.

IvyPanda . 2024. "Analysis of Visual Imagery and Sense Perception in Joyce's "Araby"." February 3, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-visual-imagery-and-sense-perception-in-joyces-araby/.

1. IvyPanda . "Analysis of Visual Imagery and Sense Perception in Joyce's "Araby"." February 3, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-visual-imagery-and-sense-perception-in-joyces-araby/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Analysis of Visual Imagery and Sense Perception in Joyce's "Araby"." February 3, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-visual-imagery-and-sense-perception-in-joyces-araby/.

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• Symbolism in the "Araby" by James Joyce
• James Joyce's "Araby": Summary of an Epiphany
• A Modern Tale of James Joyce’s “Araby”
• The Narrator’s Role in James Joyce’s “Araby”
• Conflicts in James Joyce’s “Araby” and “Eveline”
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Imagery: The Power of Visual Representation in Communication

Imagery is a literary device that is used to create a vivid and descriptive picture in the reader’s mind. It is a powerful tool that writers use to evoke emotions, set a mood, and transport the reader to another place and time. Imagery can be used in any form of writing, from poetry to novels, and it is an essential element in creating a compelling and engaging piece of literature.

In this article, we will explore the concept of imagery in more detail. We will look at the different types of imagery that writers can use, and we will examine some examples of how imagery has been used in literature throughout history. By the end of this article, you will have a better understanding of how imagery works and how it can be used to enhance your own writing.

Definition of Imagery

Imagery is a literary technique that refers to the use of descriptive language and figures of speech to create a vivid mental picture or sensory experience for the reader. It is a powerful tool that writers use to appeal to the reader’s senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell, as well as their emotions and feelings.

Imagery can be found in all forms of literature, including poetry, prose, and drama. Writers use imagery to create a more immersive and engaging experience for the reader, allowing them to visualize the story or scene in their mind’s eye. By using imagery, writers can also convey complex emotions and ideas in a way that is more accessible and relatable to the reader.

There are several types of imagery, including visual imagery, auditory imagery, tactile imagery, olfactory imagery, and gustatory imagery. Visual imagery refers to descriptions that create a mental picture in the reader’s mind, while auditory imagery uses sound to create an immersive experience. Tactile imagery refers to descriptions that create a sense of touch, while olfactory imagery uses scent to create a sensory experience. Gustatory imagery uses taste to create a sensory experience.

Overall, imagery is a powerful literary technique that allows writers to create a more immersive and engaging experience for the reader. By using descriptive language and figures of speech, writers can appeal to the reader’s senses and emotions, creating a vivid mental picture or sensory experience that brings the story or scene to life.

Types of Imagery

Visual imagery.

Visual imagery is the most common form of imagery used in literature. It is related to sight and is used to create mental images of people, places, and things. Writers often use descriptive language to paint a picture in the reader’s mind, allowing them to visualize the scene.

Auditory Imagery

Auditory imagery is related to hearing and is used to create mental images of sounds. Writers use descriptive language to create a soundscape for the reader, allowing them to hear the scene in their minds.

Olfactory Imagery

Olfactory imagery is related to smell and is used to create mental images of scents. Writers often use descriptive language to evoke smells, allowing the reader to imagine the scent of a place or object.

Gustatory Imagery

Gustatory imagery is related to taste and is used to create mental images of flavors. Writers use descriptive language to evoke tastes, allowing the reader to imagine the flavor of a food or drink.

Tactile Imagery

Tactile imagery is related to touch and is used to create mental images of textures. Writers use descriptive language to create a tactile experience for the reader, allowing them to imagine the feel of an object or surface.

Kinesthetic Imagery

Kinesthetic imagery is related to movement and is used to create mental images of motion. Writers use descriptive language to create a sense of movement for the reader, allowing them to imagine the physical actions of a character.

Organic Imagery

Organic imagery is related to internal sensations within the body, such as hunger, thirst, or fatigue . Writers use descriptive language to create a sense of these sensations for the reader, allowing them to imagine the physical and emotional experiences of a character.

Functions of Imagery

Imagery is an essential literary device that helps to create vivid and lifelike descriptions in literature. The primary function of imagery is to engage the reader’s senses and emotions, making the text more relatable and memorable. Here are some of the key functions of imagery:

• Creating a sense of atmosphere: Imagery is used to set the scene and create a particular mood or atmosphere. For example, describing a dark, stormy night can create a sense of foreboding and tension.
• Developing character: Imagery can also be used to reveal the inner thoughts and feelings of characters. By describing a character’s physical appearance or surroundings, the reader can gain insight into their personality and motivations.
• Highlighting themes: Imagery can be used to reinforce or emphasize the themes of a literary work. For example, describing a barren wasteland might symbolize the emptiness and futility of life.
• Enhancing the plot: Imagery can also be used to enhance the plot of a story. By describing key events in detail, the reader can better visualize and understand what is happening.

Imagery in Literature

Imagery is a literary device that allows writers to create vivid mental pictures and sensory experiences in the reader’s mind. It is a powerful tool that can be used to transport readers to different places, evoke emotions, and convey complex ideas. In literature, imagery can be found in both poetry and prose.

Imagery in Poetry

Poetry is known for its use of vivid imagery. Poets use language to create sensory experiences that allow readers to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel what is being described. Imagery in poetry can be used to create a specific mood or atmosphere, to convey a particular emotion, or to illustrate a theme.

For example, in William Wordsworth’s poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” the imagery of “a host of golden daffodils” creates a sense of joy and beauty. The poem’s imagery also conveys the idea that nature can provide comfort and solace in times of loneliness.

Imagery in Prose

Prose also makes use of imagery to create vivid descriptions and sensory experiences. Prose writers use imagery to help readers visualize characters, settings, and events. Imagery in prose can be used to create a sense of realism, to convey a particular mood or tone, or to illustrate a theme.

For example, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby,” the imagery of the “valley of ashes” represents the moral decay and corruption of the characters in the novel. The imagery of the “green light” across the bay represents Gatsby’s longing for his lost love and his pursuit of the American Dream.

Imagery in Art

Imagery is a fundamental element in art that has been used for centuries to convey meaning and emotions. It is the visual representation of ideas and concepts through the use of symbols, metaphors , and other figurative language . Imagery in art can be found in various forms, including paintings, sculptures, and drawings.

One of the most famous examples of imagery in art is Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, The Last Supper. The painting depicts the final meal that Jesus had with his disciples, and the imagery used in the painting is meant to convey the emotions and feelings of the moment. The use of light and shadow, the facial expressions of the figures, and the positioning of each character are all examples of the use of imagery in the painting.

Another example of imagery in art is the sculpture, David, by Michelangelo. The sculpture depicts the biblical figure David, who is known for his bravery and courage. The use of imagery in the sculpture is meant to convey these qualities, as well as the beauty of the human form. The muscles and veins of David’s body are meticulously sculpted, creating a sense of realism and strength.

Imagery in art can also be used to convey political or social messages. For example, the painting, Guernica, by Pablo Picasso, is a powerful portrayal of the horrors of war. The use of imagery in the painting, such as the distorted figures and the broken objects, is meant to convey the chaos and destruction of war.

Imagery in Advertising

Imagery plays a crucial role in advertising as it can evoke emotions, capture attention, and convey messages effectively. Companies use various types of imagery in their advertisements to promote their products or services and create a positive association with their brand. Here are some common types of imagery used in advertising:

• Product Imagery: This type of imagery showcases the product in a visually appealing way, highlighting its features and benefits to attract potential customers. Product imagery can be in the form of photographs, illustrations, or videos.
• Lifestyle Imagery: Companies often use lifestyle imagery in their advertisements to create a connection with their target audience. This type of imagery portrays the product in a real-life situation, showing how it can be used to enhance the consumer’s lifestyle.
• Emotional Imagery: Emotional imagery is used to evoke feelings of happiness, joy, excitement, or even sadness, to create a strong emotional connection with the audience. Advertisements that use emotional imagery tend to be more memorable and effective.
• Inclusive Imagery: Inclusive imagery is becoming increasingly popular in advertising as companies strive to be more diverse and inclusive. This type of imagery features people from different backgrounds, races, genders, and abilities, to appeal to a wider audience and show that the brand is inclusive and accepting.

In conclusion, imagery is a powerful tool that can be used to enhance performance and improve our daily lives. Whether it is in sports psychology or creative writing, imagery can engage the human senses and create a vivid picture in the mind of the reader or listener.

Through the use of descriptive language, imagery can be used to convey emotions and ideas in a way that is both powerful and memorable. It can be used to create a sense of place or atmosphere, to evoke memories or emotions, or to help us visualize our goals and aspirations.

While imagery can be a highly effective tool, it is important to use it appropriately and in a way that is consistent with our goals and values. It is not a magic solution to all of our problems, but rather a tool that can be used to help us achieve our desired outcomes.

In summary, imagery is a valuable tool that can be used to enhance our performance, improve our communication, and enrich our lives. By using it effectively and appropriately, we can tap into its power and achieve our goals and aspirations.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the role of imagery in storytelling?

Imagery plays a crucial role in storytelling as it helps to create vivid mental pictures in the minds of the audience. It helps to enhance the impact of the story by making it more engaging and memorable. Imagery can be used to convey emotions, set the mood, and create a sense of place and time.

How can imagery be used in marketing?

Imagery can be used in marketing to create a powerful visual impact on the audience. It can help to create brand awareness, communicate key messages, and evoke emotions that resonate with the target audience. Imagery can be used in various forms such as logos, product images, and advertising campaigns to create a lasting impression.

What are the different types of imagery?

There are various types of imagery, including visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile imagery. Visual imagery is the most common type of imagery and involves creating mental pictures in the mind’s eye. Auditory imagery involves creating mental sounds, while olfactory imagery involves creating mental smells. Gustatory imagery involves creating mental tastes, and tactile imagery involves creating mental sensations of touch.

How does imagery impact our emotions?

Imagery has a powerful impact on our emotions as it can evoke strong feelings and memories. It can create a sense of nostalgia, happiness, fear, or sadness. Imagery can also be used to create a sense of empathy and understanding, which can help to build stronger connections with others.

What is the importance of imagery in art?

Imagery is an essential element in art as it helps to convey the artist’s message and emotions. It can create a sense of depth, perspective, and mood, which can enhance the overall impact of the artwork. Imagery can also be used to create symbolism and meaning, which can help to convey complex ideas and concepts.

How can imagery be used in therapy?

Imagery can be used in therapy to help clients explore their emotions, memories, and experiences. It can be used to create mental images that represent the client’s inner world, which can help to increase self-awareness and promote healing. Imagery can also be used to create a sense of relaxation and calmness, which can help to reduce stress and anxiety.

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Ava Duvernay’s Use of Visual Imagery in 13th Documentary

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What Are the Best Tips for Writing an Essay on Imagery?

Imagery is one of the most commonly used and most effective literary techniques to really transport the reader into the story. As a result, it is common for teachers to assign students to write essays on imagery to be sure they understand this important concept. To begin writing an essay on imagery, it is first necessary to identify the examples of imagery in the story. Then, start considering the bigger picture; beyond the image itself, what could the author be trying to convey? It might be a symbolic image, or one meant to conjure up feelings related to something else in the text.

Identifying imagery can be difficult at first, but with practice it will become easier. When writing an essay on imagery, and trying to locate the examples of imagery in the story, it helps to consider the different possible types. Visual imagery is the most common, in which an author will describe how something looks, often making use of metaphor and simile . However, imagery can be used with any of the other four senses, including touch, smell, taste, and hearing. If an author takes the time to describe the way something smells, or the sound it makes, chances are it is an important part of imagery for the story.

Making notes and creating a type of outline of the imagery found throughout the story can be a great place to begin writing the essay. It can also make it easier to identify patterns. If a certain image is seen over and over again, this is a great place to focus to consider what the author meant by it. Even if images are not repeated, it is still necessary to look deeper; don't simply describe the images, but consider what they might mean on a deeper level.

A certain repeated image could represent the mood or personality of a character, for example. It might represent certain religious symbolism, or be indicative of a larger, theoretical idea. Though it may seem like too simple of an idea, it is also very helpful to consider other major aspects of the story, like plot and theme, when writing an essay on imagery. The theme of a book or short story is often repeated, over and over again, in the imagery used throughout. Asking these types of questions will generally make it easier to develop a thesis statement, which will help to guide the writing of the rest of the essay on imagery.

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• By: michaeljung Using visual imagery, an author describes how something looks, often making use of metaphor and simile.
• By: Kenneth Sponsler Studying how imagery is used in different texts can help with writing an essay.

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Essays on Visual Imagery

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To some students, writing Visual Imagery papers comes easy; others need the help of various kinds. The WowEssays.com database includes professionally crafted sample essays on Visual Imagery and related issues. Most definitely, among all those Visual Imagery essay examples, you will find a piece that resonates with what you imagine as a worthy paper. You can be sure that literally every Visual Imagery item showcased here can be used as a bright example to follow in terms of general structure and composing different chapters of a paper – introduction, main body, or conclusion.

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Children’s Books

A Quite Contrary Alphabet Book Asks, How Did Our Gardens Grow?

Jamaica Kincaid and Kara Walker unearth botany’s buried history.

“B Is for Breadfruit,” from “An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children.” Credit... Kara Walker

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By Celia McGee

Celia McGee writes frequently about books and authors for The Times, and is a contributing reviewer for Air Mail.

• April 19, 2024
• Barnes and Noble
• Books-A-Million

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AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GARDENING FOR COLORED CHILDREN: An Alphabetary of the Colonized World, by Jamaica Kincaid. Illustrated by Kara Walker.

It bears considering that had anything resembling “An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children” actually existed in the days of antebellum plantation culture, it would have been forbidden fruit: Few enslaved people, young or old, were allowed to learn to read or write.

With its mordantly anachronistic title and schoolroom-green cover, the book also serves as a reminder that the segregationist term “colored,” brought to you by the Jim Crow era, which extended well into the 20th century, drew lines almost as stark, limiting opportunities for many Black children to experience gardening as an activity of pure enjoyment. Jamaica Kincaid, now as well known for gardening writing as for fiction, once put it this way (about her garden in Vermont): “I have joined the conquering class: Who else could afford this garden — a garden in which I grow things that it would be much cheaper to buy at the store?”

In collaborating with the fiercely imaginative visual artist Kara Walker, Kincaid has transposed this mode of thinking into an amalgam of erudition, discourse, storytelling and picture book art. A simple child’s garden of ABCs their “encyclopedia” is not.

Kincaid’s adult base, too, will gravitate toward it, and occasionally want to elucidate for younger readers some of its references and allusions — the H.M.S. Bounty sailing in jauntily under “B Is for Breadfruit”; the oblique treatment of Thomas Jefferson; the classification of Carl “L Is for” Linnaeus, the proud papa of taxonomy, as “notorious.” Art collectors will pounce on the book for the rich contribution it makes to the continuum of Walker’s work.

Playfulness, in its world, never comes without a price. Walker’s opening illustration, a lacy ball of greenery and graphics, is not a toy; it’s a declaration of intent, spelling out the book’s subtitle. As an “Alphabetary of the Colonized World,” the book sets about peeling back botany to display the history behind it — to reveal conquest as arrogant and destructive, economics as exploitation, the brutal privileges of slaveholding, the propagation of racial injustice. Plants are the pawns of trade routes and of encounters that don’t end well for Indigenous peoples.

The book names names, including species’ Latin nomenclatures, because Kincaid believes that the rigors of language as well as its profuse bounty have much to teach. Witness her own roots and cultivation: Born Elaine Potter Richardson in what was still the British colony of Antigua, she was sent by her family at 17 to work as an au pair in the United States, where she proceeded to launch herself on a singular trajectory that eventually deposited her at The New Yorker.

In illustrating Kincaid’s fancifully wonky entries, Walker takes down a notch the natural-world metaphors of the monumental cut-paper silhouettes that brought her to prominence — the ocean waves charting the Middle Passage; the pastoral Southern landscapes blooming with violence and violation; moonlit trees that are lynching posts.

Cunning and often anthropomorphic, the alphabet book’s imagery interpolates child-driven versions of her acidly sardonic shadow art with soft-edged, watercolor-drenched vignettes that play hide-and-seek with the letters they’re called on to represent. Sometimes, as with the burdens cotton placed on those shackled to an inhumane system, she lets subjects simply speak for themselves.

You can feel the nostalgic tug of precedents on the book. It places itself within the tradition of the pre-Raphaelites reanimating fairy tales and mythology for the Kelmscott Press, Salvador Dalí tackling “Alice in Wonderland,” Alexander Calder taking on Aesop.

In Kincaid’s view, the elements of the past we miss or regret form a paradise we’ve been cast out of, by force or life’s unforeseen circumstances — an Edenic ideal that impels gardeners high and low to make their mark.

After all, as she reminds us in “K Is for Kitchen Garden,” the luxury of a just-because garden “feeds and nourishes our souls and inspires us to think about ‘things’: the little doubts we harbor deep inside ourselves, our hatreds of others, our love of others, the many ways in which we can destroy and create the world and live with the consequences.”

The resemblance between Kincaid’s own explosively colorful, emphatically personal Vermont garden and her distinctive writing style has been remarked upon. “Her hundreds of plants,” the critic Darryl Pinckney recently observed, “are layered into a composition of informal design, expressive of her refined aesthetic and untroubled eccentricity.”

Sure enough, “An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children” has ideas looping hither and yon, the musicality of repetition, a generous embrace of idiosyncrasy, a punching up of symbolism.

Some of those redundancies and quirks might have benefited from pruning, and clarifying sunlight. As a collaboration, though, the book is charming and instructive. Kincaid and Walker are unafraid to spin the world differently and make it matter in new ways.

AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GARDENING FOR COLORED CHILDREN : An Alphabetary of the Colonized World | By Jamaica Kincaid. Illustrated by Kara Walker. | (Ages 8 and up) | Farrar, Straus & Giroux | 96 pp. | $27

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