Feeling, thinking, and not seeing: how images engage and disengage in an information-saturated world – a neurophenomenological perspective

ABSTRACT

We can no longer realise images solely through semiotic theories of interpretation and judgement fixed to earlier modes of communication, such as print. Instead, we engage with images through various networked digital devices and online social interactions. These engagements offer many possible experiences with images, some of which we have agency and others that are purely autonomic and some interactions resembling a healthy-bodied manifestation of visual agnosia or the loss of ability to recognise and identify. This paper utilises research from the ‘Fast Image’ study, a study of graphic design students and practitioners and their views on photographic image use, comparing print and online media. The author uses an interpretive approach supported by mixed data-gathering methods, including photo-elicitation, interviews and semi-structured questions. This discussion encourages advancing visual literacy and visual culture discourses to incorporate a Neurophenomenological approach toward understanding the effects of emerging technologies and viewing environments on photographic image use. These effects include sensory and cognitive responses to images and the influences of external stimuli on our phenomenological apprehension of images.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital images
• photography
• neurophenomenology
• perception
• technology
• visual literacy

Acknowledgements

Ethical approval for this project was given by Central Queensland University Human Ethics Committee: H15/07-175

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thomas Marotta

Tom Marotta (Ph.D.) is a sessional lecturer at Central Queensland University with interests in the field of visual communication and digital media.