Visual Signs · PHIL 194G

About the seminar

This seminar examines the meaning of visual signs, through the lens of philosophy and cognitive science. In the first half, we'll focus on the meanings of pictures and maps, and their relationship to perception, geometry, knowledge, truth, and power. In the second half, we'll explore the ways that pictures are put together in comics and film to form visual narratives, with an emphasis on viewpoint, temporal order, character, and coherence.

Schedule

* marks the focus of discussion · ↗ opens an outside site

Date	Topic	Reading	Recommended
Thu4/6	Session 1Visual Signs Introduction and course design. No reading.	—	—
Thu4/13	Session 2Pictures, perception, and geometry Handout Case study: Alain, Gabe	Willats (1997) Art and Representation, “Introduction”* Greenberg (2021) “Geometry of Pictorial Space” (pages 1-26, *Section 2)	Gibson (1960) “Pictures, perspective, and perception” Wollheim (1984) “Painting as an art” Willats (1997) Art and Representation
Thu4/20	Session 3Pictures and truth Handout	Noth (1995) “Can pictures lie?”* Fodor (2008) “Preconceptual Representation” (pages 169-182, *6.3-6.6)	García-Carpintero (2023) “Lying vs. Misleading, with Language and Pictures: The Adverbial Account”
Thu4/27	Session 4Pictorial content Case study: Matt	Goodman (1968) Languages of Art, “Reality remade”* Greenberg (2018) “Content and target in pictorial representation” (Section 1, pages 866-875)	—
Thu5/4	Session 5Images, ideology, and power Case study: Alain	Harley (1988) “Maps, knowledge, and Power”* Berger (1972) Ways of Seeing, Chapter 5 (on property and painting)	The other chapters from Berger 1972 (including purely visual essays, 2,4, and 6!).
Thu5/11	Session 6AI Art and philosophy Case study: Sam, Kam	“Text-to-image generation explained” (Google Research on YouTube)* “The text-to-image revolution, explained” (Vox on YouTube)* “Is AI Stealing from Artists?” (New Yorker)*	—
Thu5/18	Session 7Photography and knowledge Case study: Owen	Walton (1984) “Transparent Pictures”	Cohen and Meskin (2004) “On the Epistemic Value of Photographs” Abell (2010) “The Epistemic Value of Photographs”
Thu5/25	Session 8Comics as discourse Case study: Matt	McCloud (1993) Understanding Comics: “The Vocabulary of Comics” “Blood in the Gutter”* “Time Frames”**	Hobbs (1990) “Literature and Cognition”
Thu6/1	Session 9Space and time in film Case study: Owen	Cumming, Greenberg, and Kelly (2017) “Conventions of Viewpoint Coherence in Film” [Sections 1-5]* Cumming, Greenberg, and Kelly (2021) “Temporal Continuity” [video]*	Leff “Conventions of Viewpoint Coherence in Film” [video] Stork (2011) “Chaos Cinema” Part 1, Part 2 [video]
Tue6/6	Session 10New visual media Final paper due Wed June 14, 7AM New date and time: Tuesday 6/6, 2:30–5:30. New location: TBA. Case study: Sam, Kam	Nguyen (2020) “Games: Agency as Art” (short selection)	—

Requirements

Example presentations: 1-2 example presentations: on one or two weeks (TBD) bring in an example image to share with the class that is related to the reading.
Project presentation 1: (~10 minutes) Introduce project question and illustrative examples.
Project presentation 2: (~20 minutes) Outline project thesis, examples, and analysis.
Final project: In-depth exploration of a topic in visual representation. 20 page research paper or equivalent; video essays, comics, other alternative media welcome.
Weekly questions: Each week prepare 2-3 questions about the reading to share with the class.
Final paper deadline: Wed June 14, 7AM. No extensions for seniors!