Seeing Is Believing

Overview

Seeing is Believing uses semiotic and psychoanalytic concepts to help readers gain an understanding of the way we find meaning in visual phenomena and the way our minds process images. These concepts are presented in a readable, entertaining style, and abundant images, many of them new, including numerous drawings by the author, are offered to show how the principles discussed in the book have been applied.

Table of contents

* indicates new material
Introduction: Image and Imagination
Image
Imagination
The Visual and the Psyche
Images and Visual Recall*
The Function of Art
Images and Intertextuality*
An Experiment

Chapter 1: Seeing is Believing
Seeing
Believing
The Social Aspects of the Visual
The Visual and Personal Identity
The Social Aspects of the Visual*
Seeing Isn’t Believing
Dreams*
Cognition and Visual Images
Hemispheres of the Brain
Aesthetics
A Primer on Communication Theory
Visual Persuasion*
Ethics and the Image

Chapter 2: How We See
Learning to See
Signs, Symbols and Semiotics
The Image
Stuart Hall and Representation*
The Power of Images*
Optical and Haptical Ways of Seeing

Chapter 3: Elements of Visual Communication
Basic Elements
Color


Chapter 4: Typography and Graphic Design: Tools of Visual Communication
Typography
Typefaces
General Principles of Design
Design Examples
Design and Control
Supergraphics

Chapter 5: Photograph: The Captured Moment
The Photograph
Digital Photography*
Genres in Photography
The Problem of Objectivity
Technical Aspects of the Photograph
Advertising Photography and Oil Painting
The Image and Capitalism
The Photograph and Narcissism

Chapter 6: Film: The Moving Image
Motion Pictures
Film in Society and Society in Film*
Conventions in Film Editing
Shots and Shot Relationships
Color in Film
Sound
Special Visual Effects
Postmodernism’s Impact on Film
The Power of the Film Image
The Nature of Drama


Chapter 7: Television: The Ever-Changing Mosaic
The Television Image
The Television Screen
Television Genres
Video Artists
Zapping or Channel Surfing
TiVo AND Video Recording Devices*

Chapter 8: Comics, Cartoons, and Animation: The Development of An Art Form
The Comic Strip
The Comic Strip as a Teaching Tool*
Visual Novels*
The Cartoon
The Impact of Comics and Cartoons

Chapter 9. Computers and Graphics: Wonders from the Image-Maker
The Nature of the Computer
Computer Graphics Software
Infographics
Desktop Publishing
Computer-Aided Design and Drafting (CADD)
Videogames
Special Effects
E-mail and the Internet
Computer Animation

* indicates new material