Dana Katz

ARTE 344
November 20, 2016
Freedman Facilitation Chapter 5
Title: Interpreting Visual Culture: Constructing Concepts for Curriculum
Author(s): Kerry Freedman
Source/Date:
Freedman, K. J. (2003). Teaching visual culture: Curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of
art. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Main Idea/Purpose (2-3 sentences):
Teaching students to critically view the world around them should be a key idea when
developing and art education curriculum. Often, students place themselves in the advertisements
they see creating a fictional world that they use to compare their normal life to. Unless they learn
to view an image critically, they are at risk of falling into the traps of such things as gender
stereotypes and false realities.
Short Overview (Including at least 2-3 important quotes):
As discussed in chapter 5, images are everywhere. When we turn on the T.V., we see art.
When we run to the store to grab something, there are advertisements. There are even images at
parks or billboards, seen on a morning jog, or drive to work. We are constantly bombarded by
advertisements trying to convince us that something is lacking in our lives, and this only
increases with the growth of technology. In order to combat this, people need to learn to view the
images with a critical mind, which starts in schools. As Freedman (2003) states, in the new
visual culture environment, high-level, interdisciplinary interpretive skills and concepts are
becoming increasingly important for all students (p. 87). Students should learn to critically
reflect on both the images they see and the images they create, and teachers should be asking
different questions to promote this critical reflection.
However, in order to view images critically, teachers need to start by breaking down the
images that are not typically considered art. Advertisements, which often consist of image and
text, are created to help sell a product or idea. Though they were originally intended to just
present information, they have transformed into a device used to convince through
suggestiveness that one is lacking in something if they do not buy a certain product (p. 98).
Today, their intention is to shape mass consciousness. However, assessing an image in visual
culture is more than just looking at the image itself. In order to break it down fully, the context
also needs to be assessed. As stated by Freedman in chapter 5, in order to understand visual
culture and maintain the integrity of the artist and the culture in which it was created, the context
of production must be taken into account (p. 88). Through imagery, advertisers attempt to
suggest associations that they hope will create the urge to buy, and through messages of identity,
desire and power, ads try to speak to individuals.
In order for students to understand the ways in which visual culture influences them, and
learn to make intelligent decisions, they must first develop enough knowledge. Freedman lists

specific ways in which visual culture should be discussed in classrooms. She states that students
need to learn to respond to global visual culture. They also need to be taught that a conceptual
space exists between objects, images and text. When developing visual culture curriculum, it
should be based on suggestiveness. Students must learn to interrogate the intended meaning of a
piece and the meaning that they have constructed. References to knowledge should come from a
variety of sources outside of school. Discussions that allow student interpretation help students
understand the many viewpoints of a piece. A final area that Freedman talks about is using art
education to help students reflect on the power visual culture has over them. Without guidance
on how to break down images, both adults and students alike have no idea how they are being
shaped by the advertisements they see.

Critical Response: Reflections and/or relevance to personal art educational experiences/or

teaching experience
In this chapter, Freedman offers a very useful guide on what specifically to address in a
visual culture curriculum. Growing up, I never understood the power that images had over me
and I was often captivated by beautiful things. I have compared myself to images of models in
advertisements and wondered how their skin was so perfect, and if they had perfect skin, then
what did that mean for me who had scars. It wasnt until college when I went into marketing that
I realized the power images have over you just by using certain colors, and even then, I still
failed to recognize why I still felt like I was lacking something in my life.
When I entered into art education, I realized that these advertisements were made to
make me feel inferior because if I felt inferior, then I would want to do something to fix it. As an
adult, I found this to be a useful lesson that I wish I had learned when I was young. The world is
a harsh place and both children and adults are being bombarded with images telling them what
they need to have to be better. For children who fail to match up to the media expectations, a
harsh reality exists. Using this chapter, art educators could alter the perceptions of their students
to help them understand the power that advertisements have on them and provide them with a
new sense of identity.