from the Nilsens

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Visual
Literacy
By Don L. F. Nilsen
And Alleen Pace Nilsen

2. Visual Past: Egyptian Hieroglyphics & The Rosetta Stone
QUESTION: What is a cartouche and why is it important?
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3. Cartouche of Thutmose III
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4. Egyptian Hieroglyphics are alphabetic,
not pictographic.
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5. The History of Writing
Pictographs
cave drawings
() <> [] {} *
Chinese, Japanese
Ideographs
! @ # $ % & ? .
Chinese, Japanese
Runes
Magic, Spells
North Germanic
Syllabary
ISU, FUNEM?
S, VFM.
FUNEX?
S, VFX.
OK, LFMNX
LE, CD puppies?
L, MNO puppies.
OSMR puppies.
CMPN?
Japanese Kanji
Phonemic Alphabet
BDFHJKLMNPRSTVWYZ
Spanish, Latin
Morphophonemic Alphabet
See next slide
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6. The letters in a morphophonemic alphabet
represent meanings (morphology) as well as sounds (phonology)
• Therefore, unrelated words are spelled differently even though
they are pronounced the same:
– cite-sight-site, marry-Mary-merry, pair-pare-pear, there-
their-they're
• And related words are spelled the same even though they are
pronounced differently:
– CONSONANTS: act-action, critic-criticize, medicine-
medication, part-partial, rite-ritual, seize-seizure
– VOWELS: nation-national, obscene-obscenity, sign-
signature, go-gone
– SUFFIXES: cats, dogs, horses / jumped, died, heated
– HISTORICAL PRESERVATIONS: knight, hôtel
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Visual
Ambiguities

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Letters vs. Numbers Literacy

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Visual
Anachronism

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Anachronism

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Visual
Analogies

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Alleen Nilsen & Friends

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Visual
Antithesis

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Magritte’s Window

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Visual
Aptness

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Quixote’s Mind

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Visual
Distortion

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Picasso’s
“Les Dmoiselles d’Avignon”

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Visual
Impossibility

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Escher’s Waterfall

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Visual
Metaphors

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Skeleton Words in English

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Visual
Orientation
Upside-Down
& Sideways

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Frog or Horse?

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Visual
Paradoxes

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Paradoxical Colors
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LANGUAGE VS. IMAGE

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INVISIBLE BOX

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Paradoxical Circles
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Trapezoid Room

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Visual
Parodies

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Parody of Maurice Sendak’s
Where The Wild Things Are
• With:
– Bill Cosby
– George Lopez
– Ray Romano
– Margaret Cho
– Brad Garrett and
– Bill Engvall
• As Wild Things

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Diego Velazquez: Las Meninas

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Pablo Picasso: Las Meninas

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Visual
Personification

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Magritte’s “Tree with Ax”

38. Visual Perspective:
Kissing the Sphinx
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Visual
Repetition

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Magritte’s Bowler Hats

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Visual
Subtlety

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Animal Face

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Visual
Symbols

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Arrows

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Ribbons

46. Visual Future: Emoji
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Emoji Keyboard 