Class Image Analysis Methods

This curricular unit is symptomatic of a condition of contemporary experience that gives the visual and the image great prominence, establishing them as decisive axes in the functioning of the most varied instances of mediation. This overexposure to images does not always allow us to take a close look at their cultural and media-constructed dimension, often giving rise to a perception that naturalises images and their communication strategies. Here we will look not only at the various "framings" to which images are subjected but also at their importance for visual reception, particularly for acts of interpretation. What resources does an interpreter have? In other words, what knowledge authorises their condition?

1 Image and representation
      1.1 What is an image?                                              
      1.2 The image as a sign;
      1.3 The constitution of the sign in F. Saussure and C.S. Peirce;
      1.4.       The icon, the index and the symbol;
2. Visual interpretation
     2.1 Denotation versus connotation: associative mechanisms;    
     2.2.      Visual codes;
     2.3 Formal elements and technical knowledge;
     2.4 The media framework and 'multimodality';     
     2.5.       Image and text: 'anchoring' and 'linking';  
     2.6 The rhetoric of images. 
3.  The image and man
     3.1 The image and vision in Western culture;               
      3.2 Vision and knowledge: the modern empirical spirit;                
      3.3 Image, technique and 'technical image': definition and specificities;                           
      3.4 Belief in the photographic: "photography and truth";  

Progressive practical application in image analysis exercises.

Presentations and discussion of group work and texts throughout the semester.

BARTHES, Roland (1984), «Retórica da imagem» em O óbvio e o obtuso, Lisboa, Edições 70

DUBOIS, Philippe (1991), O acto fotográfico, Lisboa, Vega.

GERVEREAU, Laurent, Ver, compreender, analisar as imagens, Lisboa, Ed. 70, 2007 

JOLY, Martine (2003), A imagem e a sua interpretação, Lisboa, Edições 70

JOLY, Martine (2005), A imagem e os signos, Lisboa, Edições 70

KRESS, Gunther (2010), Multimodality. A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication, Routledge.