Final thesis titled Visual Literacy in the Digital Era is primarily focused on understanding image in the context of contemporary digital era, which is characterized particularly by abundance of visual images. Using analysis of principles of New Media and Surface Aesthetics, which is based on visual communication strategies, it tries to define new demands on viewers' perceptional capabilities and emerging consequences for their cognitive functions. Farther there are applied findings of contemporary cognitive psychology and neurobiology on artistic movements of 20th and 21st century and general artistic tendencies. In dependence on the analysis and application of gained findings there is in conclusion reassessed Visual Literacy in its existing definition, which is not sufficient for new demands that has arisen and do not take account of current level of viewers' literacy.

The master thesis is called Libeň Gasholder within the Czech Modern Art. The diplomate will work out a study of importance and meanings of Libeň gasholder within the iconography of the Czech modern art. The first part will expose the gasholder itself, its creation and its later life when it did not serve its original function any more, and will define the shifts of context in the perception of the gasholder as a part of the city. She will first briefly describe how Libeň transformed into an industrial city. The brief outline of the technology of gas production, transport and storage in the following part will clarify what determines the shape of the structure and will provide its basic typology. An independent chapter will deal with absolute forms in architecture and various meanings of sphere in the visual culture. The issues of transitions of things outside the artistic world into artistic ones will first be addressed by the depiction of Libeň gasholder in literature. The core of the thesis will lay in an analysis of a concentrated and typologically sorted art material. Based on that, the thesis will conclude with a clarification and summary of meanings ascribed to Libeň gasholder image in the context of Czech art. An image documentation will be attached to the thesis.

Contemporary constantly expanding content of social media like Instagram brings the medium of photography to new contexts. Photography becomes an instrument of immediate communication and its historically defined functions are an object of change. The continuity of Instagram content creating, the personal perspective of its users, the constant presence of camera accompanying them are aspects analogous to the artwork of Nan Goldin. Goldin's photo essay ​The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1986)​has a character of visual diary that captures the life of her community with almost obsessive continuity. It's also captured from deeply personal perspective depicting intimate moments and describing Goldin's personal relationships. Publishing of ​The Ballad​and formation of Instagram is divided by more than twenty-five years and both events and its meanings are profoundly different. This thesis nevertheless presumes that comparison of these, in many aspects alike phenomenons can help describe the change of the function of the media of photography, explore contemporary tendencies in photography aesthetics, the meaning of instagram's content to its users and provide general understanding of the role of shared photography in social and historical context. The methods of comparison are semiotic visual analysis,...

(anglický) The presented master's thesis focuses on the visual representation of the natural and cultivated female body, responding to the hygienic, eugenic and aesthetic requirements of the newly created state. In addition to strengthening the modern national identity, it was to form and represent a positive image of the new womanhood that resulted in the project of a civilized woman in the late 1920s. The new social arrangement required a new type of modern man, and therefore also of a woman. Within it, two seemingly unrelated areas merged - science and visual culture, which pursued to define the ideal of the modern female body: beautiful, healthy, morally and aesthetically appealing. The image of a woman doing sports became the emblem of the newly formed republic. The female body gained added aesthetic value, it became a new ornament and communicative sign, infiltrating into the visual culture beginning with advertising and culminating in fine arts. We focus on the role of modern dance and the personality of Milča Mayerová, a prominent First Republic dancer and symbol of a modern woman, who reflected the changing requirements of the time with her visual representation and publishing activities. Key words (anglický) Body, modernity, womanhood, new woman, visual culture, visual representation,...

This study explores the representation of the hero in Lawrence and Andrew Wachowski’s Matrix film trilogy, which comprises The Matrix (Wachowski, Wachowski&Silver 1999), Matrix Reloaded (Wachowski, Wachowski&Silver 2003a) and The Matrix Revolutions (Wachowski, Wachowski&Silver 2003b). Special reference is made to how Neo embodies a postmodern view of heroism. This implies an exploration into the relationship between Neo, the protagonist and hero in the Matrix trilogy, and his mythological predecessors, as well as the relationship between the representation of Neo and ideas concerning heroism. In order to further understand the nature of heroism in the Matrix trilogy, the ideas of two philosophers, namely Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), are explored and compared. It is argued in this study that the heroism presented to the viewer by the Matrix trilogy can be interpreted as being representative of the meeting of the apparently contradictory ideas of these two philosophers. Both of these philosophers, though striving for a heroic ideal, arrived at vastly different conclusions. This study, whilst considering the nature of heroism in these two views, also seeks offer an examination of the relationship that Nietzsche’s and Chesterton’s writings have to one another. This examination is not an attempt to take sides with either of these philosophers, but merely to point out certain aspects of their two distinctive viewpoints as they relate to the films in question. This study especially seeks to investigate the claim that Neo is the embodiment of the Übermensch, the figure that most clearly resembles Nietzsche’s heroic ideal. Chesterton’s views of heroism are referred to in order to counter-balance and contextualise Nietzsche’s views on this. Mainly ethical aspects of the character and narrative of the hero are focused on in this study in order to show, firstly, that these more abstract aspects are implicit in the representation of the hero in the Matrix trilogy, and secondly, that the hero belongs to a moral taxonomy. The final aim of this study is to present a coherent view of the many facets of heroism that incorporates an assessment of how philosophy, ideology and semiology underpin the visual. / Dissertation (MA (Visual Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Visual Arts / unrestricted

This study performs a critical analysis of the representation of Afrikaner and British masculinity in the first season of the South African War (1899-1902) television series Arende (1989-1993). The study first identifies key concepts in both western identity and masculinity and then moves on to build an historical theoretical base from which season one is analysed. This theoretical base is created through the assimilation of historical sources dealing with masculinity and masculine events from both the Afrikaners and the British. In order to provide a suitable foundation for the investigation into masculinity, the study first briefly explores the concept of identity and how it manifests in both the Afrikaner and British society represented in the first season of Arende. This was done by using a psychological model designed by Roy F Baumeister (1986) which involves both individual and societal identity. Identity as a social construct is also investigated, and the question why identity matters in society is discussed Arguments for a structuralist semiotic approach to identity in a particular society are presented. In dealing with the overview of dominant western masculinity a number of key terms were identified and discussed. These include patriarchy, the female body and masculine control, social labelling, gender order and ‘women watching,’ the family unit, division of labour and public and private space, hegemonic masculinity and the male hero. After this overview, the study conducted an assimilation exercise into historic Afrikaner and British masculinity during the time before and after the South African War. This discussion centres on a number of points dealing with both societies, namely the model male, male military tradition, masculine rebels/outcasts and other masculine issues, and male relations with women. The final part of this study involves the analysis of the masculine theory, generated in the previous chapter, on the Arende text. This was done by selecting six characters from each of the two societies in season one and describing how they represent themselves in a masculine manner (or not). / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Visual Arts / unrestricted

The aim of this project is to investigate a cultural history of mushroom collecting in Sweden from the 19th century to the present with a focus on connections between aesthetics and the environment.  Collecting is defined broadly as gathering, storing, and accumulating.  This definition encompasses mycologists, mushroom enthusiasts, botanists, and natural historians documenting and preserving as many species as possible.  But it also includes collecting in the sense of leisurely mushroom collectors taking a part of the environment home with them to eat, store, or learn from. A history of mushroom collecting in Sweden is framed that does not only focus on edible mushrooms or scientific value, but emphasizes their linkages to place, memory, conservation, sociality, and embodied knowledge. Mushroom aesthetics are a starting point for exploring wider human connections to the environment and human perceptions of nature.   Collecting is presented as a process which is argued to be a means for constant dialogue with the environment. The cyclical collecting process is broken into stages that are discussed in designated chapters: Hunting, Identification and Assessment, and Storage and Sharing. Aesthetic aspects of mushroom collecting in Sweden are examined within these stages applying visual and discourse analyses to archival images, questionnaires, historic cookbook recipes, and mushroom identification books. Importance is also assigned to fully immersed aesthetic experiences and specific sensory stimuli that facilitate interconnection with non-human actors. Immersed aesthetic experiences are argued to be significant in their ability to democratize aesthetic appreciation of nature, in contrast to historical associations of aesthetics with taste and high culture. Fluctuating historical judgments are mapped about mushrooms, highlighting the framing of nature as a productive asset. Mushroom exhibitions are shown to be a point of collective meaning making, where aspects of natural time according to mushrooms challenge anthropocentric notions of temporality. This thesis through its focus on aesthetics in mushroom collecting reveals spaces of uncertainty and dynamic fluctuation in human-nature relationships, as well as a sense of value for being physically present and part of environments.

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Diploma thesis deals with the relations between the contemporary free and applied art. It explores the possibilities of bidirectional permeation and trapping of these areas. In this thesis I´m trying to touch the border points between sculpture, painting, drawing and design Diploma work deals with the theme of the wall relief. I´m using conceptual principles and these principles are often unclear on the outside. by using the conceptual keys and contexts i´m trying to create the aesthetic quality of the artwork. In a practical thesisis i´m working with wall sculptures and folding picture. Art can often change their nature and their perceptions using a different composition, adjustment, or context with the surroundings. I´m working with possibilities of understanding to every single artistic element as part of a wider whole. This thesis consists of a wall relief sculptures. The composition components are all facing the wall, eventually. column. In this thesis combines the individual relief under a particular key.

El objetivo principal de esta investigación es analizar la influencia de los códigos gráficos del estilo neobarroco andino en ropa peruana contemporánea, con la siguiente hipótesis que plantea la existencia de una influencia artística del neobarroco andino en la construcción de elementos visuales presentes en indumentaria de Perú creada en los últimos 10 años. Esta influencia es examinada en la gráfica creada por marcas de indumentaria peruana actual, que son Yirko Sivirich, Ikarus y Genaro Rivas. Para ello, se propone identificar características gráficas del arte neobarroco, elementos artísticos recurrentes del estilo andino y examinar los elementos visuales de la gráfica contemporánea. El enfoque teórico de la investigación busca generar una metodología de análisis que se incorpora al diseño gráfico peruano al realizar una investigación basada en la comunicación visual del arte en el país. Para llegar a ello, se realizó una revisión de fuentes académicas sobre el tema, las cuales llevaron al descubrimiento del término transculturación, el cual es la apropiación parcial de un estilo de arte a otro. Además de definir los fenómenos del contexto del tema a investigar, como el barroco andino, el neobarroco, la indumentaria peruana contemporánea y los códigos visuales. Por otro lado, se realizó una examinación cualitativa de la gráfica en indumentaria utilizando como medio la ficha de análisis y entrevistas a expertos para encontrar similitudes con las peculiaridades gráficas del neobarroco, el estilo andino y de conocer los elementos visuales de las prendas creadas en el rango de tiempo ya mencionado. / The main objective of this research is to analyze the influence of the graphic codes of the Andean neo-baroque style on contemporary Peruvian clothing, with the following hypothesis that raises the existence of an artistic influence of the Andean neo-baroque in the construction of visual elements present in Peruvian clothing created in the last 10 years. This influence will be examined in the graph created by current Peruvian clothing brands, which are Yirko Sivirich, Ikarus and Genaro Rivas. To do this, it is proposed to identify graphic characteristics of neo-baroque art, recurring artistic elements of the Andean style and to examine the visual elements of contemporary graphics. The theoretical focus of the research seeks to generate an analysis methodology that is incorporated into Peruvian graphic design by conducting research based on the visual communication of art in the country. To achieve this, a review of academic sources on the subject was carried out, which led to the discovery of a new term such as transculturation, which is the partial appropriation of one art style to another; in addition to defining the phenomena of the context of the subject to be investigated, such as the Andean baroque, the neo-baroque, contemporary Peruvian clothing and visual codes. On the other hand, a qualitative examination of the clothing graphic was carried out, using the analysis sheet and interviews with experts as a means, to find similarities with the graphic peculiarities of the neo-baroque, the Andean style, and to know the visual elements of the garments. created in the aforementioned time range. / Trabajo de investigación