Introduction
The daily human experience is a sort of interplay between the various elements found in the natural environment. One of these environments is arts, which comprises the various images that inform an individual’s visual cultural experience on a day-to-day basis. Some of the sources of this visual experience include advertisements on television, billboards, magazines, and street signs. Other platforms include movies, architectural designs, photography, and so on. On this basis, it is correct to say that the art of seeing and looking significantly contributes to an individual’s visual cultural experience.
Inventory of Visual Information, Media, and Art
Undoubtedly, seeing and looking are the two primary aspects of an individual’s visual reality (Mirzoeff 473). While seeing involves observing and recognizing what lies in the immediate environment, looking involves deliberately decoding the meaning of what is seen (Steichen et al. 2). In short, seeing happens arbitrarily and devoid of any thought or consideration, while looking implies a purposeful observation of the environment.
Every day comes with its share of experiences for every individual. However, one of the common experiences across cultures is that of seeing and looking at what exists within the surrounding environment. For example, a family sitting in the living room experiences all kinds of visual images from their television. The most common of these images are those driven by the advertisement industry. Culturally, most advertisers target specific populations or market segments based on the timing of when their ads go on air. Most adverts for retail products appear in the evenings when families are expected to be gathered in their living rooms.
Besides advertisements, another daily experience that involves the art of seeing and looking involves experiencing architectural images and photography along the streets and in movie theaters, among other places. For example, the Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable architectural images in the United States. The same applies to the Eiffel Tower in France and the Great Wall of China. These images bear significant cultural value besides their aesthetic worth.
Notably, images that inform our daily cultural experience carry four primary layers of value and meaning. It is by interpreting the layers that the consumers of such images are able to decode their meaning and assign value to them (Steichen et al. 3). The first layer is the formal aspect, which relates to what individuals see when they view, observe, or experience representations, adverts, photographs, architectural designs, or images in a movie (Steichen et al. 3). In looking at the Statue of Liberty, for example, one sees a great architectural masterpiece inspired by creativity and talent. The length and breadth of the statue make it visually appealing irrespective of how many times one may have seen it. Another layer is the cultural socio-historical reference, which is the historical relevance of the image (Steichen et al. 3). The artwork stands as a reminder that America is the Free World and is a visual pointer to the American Dream.
Conclusion
All the visual images that people encounter on a daily basis bear cultural significance that helps to decode and assign meaning. It is this aspect of the visual experience that advertisers capitalize on when exposing viewers to advertisements in their various forms, including billboards and television among others. When an individual sees an advert, they immediately try to decode the meaning behind it. The process usually involves assigning meaning to all the elements visible in the advertisement or image.
Works Cited
Mirzoeff, Nicholas. “The Right to Look.” Critical Inquiry 37.3 (2011): 473-496. Print.
Steichen, Ben, et al. “Seeing How You’re Looking- Using Real-Time Eye Gaze Data for User-Adaptive Visualization.” Ceur-ws.org, n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2016. <http://ceur- ws.org/Vol-997/wuav2013_paper_07.pdf>.
