How About Critical Viewing

Today in class, the main topic we discussed was “critical reading.” Now, because of my heavy background in visuals, I am sometimes more concerned with “critical viewing.” I am majoring in telecommunications here at MSU, and have large interest in film. I also have experience, and a natural eye, for still frame photography. I come from a very artistically oriented family, all which whom are gifted with the abilities of free hand painting or drawing. I unfortunately am not one of them. This is where my interest in digital art has risen from. However, back to the topic of why critical viewing is equally important to critical reading. Like before, we have discussed that texts appear in several forms. However, paintings, photos and films do not often receive the recognition they deserve for the amount that can be extracted from them. Critically viewing a piece basically abides to the same principles of critical reading. The audience, is encouraged to view deeper than the surface, and search for the author’s prerogative. However, this is where the two start to split. In critical reading, an author can alter the way they describe an event through choice of words, therefore lending their own bias to the reader. In critical viewing, the way their style or motive is exhibited is through angles, lighting and composition. Viewing an image or film can provide several bits of information as critical reading does. One can infer not only purpose, but can derive who produced it, when it was produced and where it was produced. As cliché as an ending it may be, I completely support the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words.” It just depends if one watches hard enough to discover it.