When I first encountered visual literacy and critical making, two emerging fields, I thought these were inspiring frameworks that could provide ideas for learning and design practices in the library and other academic environments. I think both concepts are becoming more relevant in our increasingly visual online world, where users are contributing to and participating in their online surroundings in a tangible way.
The 2009 Horizon Report notes that
Visualization tools are making information more meaningful and insights more intuitive. As tools of this nature continue to be developed and used, visual literacy will become an increasingly important skill in decoding, encoding, and determining credibility and authenticity of data. Visual literacy must be formally taught, but it is an evolving field even now.
On the critical making lab at U of T’s iSchool:
Through the sharing of results and an ongoing critical analysis of materials, designs, and outcomes, the lab participants together perform a practice-based engagement with the pragmatic and theoretical issues around information and information technology. Physical computational objects are increasingly part of libraries, museums, and information environments more generally. The lab serves as a novel space for conceptualizing and investigating the critical social, cultural, and political issues that surround and influence the movement of information processing capability into the physical environment.
Filed under: Design, Visual Literacy
