This thesis investigates the figure of the cyborg as conceptualised by Donna Haraway in The Cyborg Manifesto (1991). The figure of the cyborg, as a transgressive figure in the late twentieth century within socialist feminist discourse, is problematized with regard to its efficacy as a creature that challenges the constructed nature of gender and contests the boundary between human and machine through its ambiguous nature. Haraway’s notions of the cyborg, which she bases partly on cyborg characters from Science Fiction literature, deny the ocularcentric traditions that have structured gender and the body. Similarly, Haraway does not engage adequately with the figure of the cyborg with regard to situating it historically. This thesis unpacks both the visual and the historical aspects that have structured the cyborg body. By engaging with these concepts, the cyborg emerges as a figure that is identified through visual signifiers of female deviance and pathology. By reading female deviance and pathology on the body of the nineteenth-century hysteric, similarities can be drawn between the hysteric and the cyborg. Through a reading of Alien (1979); Blade Runner (1982); and Star Trek: First Contact (1996) key cyborg texts of the late twentieth century, the figure of the cyborg, and its relation to the deviant pathologised female can be understood when read against the body of the hysteric and how it was visually coded and communicated

This study explores the conceptual relationship between design aesthetics and Aristotelian rhetoric in the context of information visualisation. Aesthetics and rhetorical theory are traditionally studied as separate discourses, but conceptual links between these fields are identified, specifically in terms of communicative goals and strategies. This study therefore compares selected theories on design aesthetics and Aristotelian rhetoric in information visualisation in order to ascertain whether a combined framework may be feasible. Although information visualisation is traditionally practiced from software engineering disciplines, this study frames the practice within the broader field of information design. The democratisation of the field of information visualisation and the emerging practices that emphasise the aesthetic value of visualisations is explored. In order to understand what is meant by the term ‘aesthetic’, a variety of both classical and contemporary views on aesthetics theory is investigated. Even though the term ‘aesthetic’ is not defined, a broad understanding is created by identifying the main conceptual themes in discourse. A specific focus is placed on understanding aesthetics in a design context, since there are many misconceptions about ‘aesthetics’ in this context. The idea that aesthetics relates to the communication of artifacts is explored, which provides a point of departure in linking aesthetics and rhetorical theory. The communicative nature of information visualisations is thus explored in relation to visual rhetorical theory. Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals, namely logos, pathos and ethos, form the backbone of the visual rhetorical analysis of visualisation artifacts. The aesthetic and rhetorical theories explored throughout the study are compared by applying them to Charles Joseph Minard’s seminal information visualisation of Napoleon’s march to Moscow. This comparative analysis considers the traditional divide between aesthetics and rhetorical theory but identifies sufficient conceptual links between the discourses to suggest that a combined aesthetic-rhetorical framework for information visualisation may indeed be practical. Lastly, the wider implications and potential value of such a combined framework is considered within a broader design context. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Visual Arts / unrestricted

This diploma thesis deals with a subject of taking advantage of visualization during the process of product presentation. Its main aim is to find out, if visual presentation (design) of the product cover affects consumer's behaviour during the decision process of buying a particular product. If this influence is proven, a second goal is set up, namely detection of effects of chosen factors of visual presentation on consumer's decision process. Diploma thesis is divided into 6 chapters. The first introduces the topic to the reader and familiarize him with the goals and structure. Second chapter theoretically describes fundamental terms of communication, especially visual communication. The third chapter covers issues concerning the product itself and its advertisement. This chapter brings to the end theoretical part, which gathers information partly from professional literature and partly from authors' knowledge and experiences. Practical part forms the main element of the thesis. Fourth part consists of various methods for analyzing previously questioned problems in detail. Sample questionnaire examining consumer's preference is drawn up as well as graphical proposals of product design. Chapter ends up with a summary of results found out during the query survey. Results are interpreted in details in the fifth chapter, together with an attempt to draw general conclusion. Last chapter summarizes gathered information and evidence. Contribution of this work is not only to emphasize the significance of product cover and its effect on sale. Corporations or more precisely their marketing departments should realize this fact while creating marketing plan and especially advertisement plan. They should pay more attention on appearance of the product cover. Benefit further consists in processing the whole topic, with neither theoretical nor practical literature is concerned, although proven that opposite should count. Thesis tries to show the direction of further investigation, possibly followed by more complex and extensive surveys, which should bring valuable results and could be used not only by firms but also by consumers themselves.

Scientific evidence that the ocean plastic crisis is larger in scale and more sinister than previously thought continues to mount, but the rate of plastic production is only rising. What will it take to decisively turn the tide against plastic? We need scientists, politicians, and industry changemakers to continue producing knowledge and positive change in the industry, but we need to go further still. This thesis explores art as an alternative visual communication strategy with the capacity to encourage curiosity, empathy, and positive engagement with the issue of ocean plastics. The series of work explores bacterial bioluminescence as an artistic medium in juxtaposition with objects of found ocean plastic. The photographs in the series build on the concepts of mutualism, illumination, critical densities, and interspecies communication to reimagine how we might further the discourse around ocean plastic.

[pt] A presente dissertação parte de um estudo realizado no Instituto Nacional de Educação dos Surdos que pensa as questões das mensagens visuais de jogos de computador destinados à aquisição da fala de crianças surdas. Os jogos, conhecidos como Jogos de Voz e desenvolvidos no Laboratório de Processamento Digital da Fala, da Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação da UNICAMP, na tese de doutorado de Antônio Marcos de Lima Araújo, consistem na retroalimentação visual da fala do jogador. Isto é, enquanto a criança exercita o controle dos órgãos de fonação em um microfone ligado ao computador, ela compreende e assimila o exercício através de uma resposta gráfica e ilustrativa gerada em tempo real na tela do computador. A criança vê o que está falando. Dos quatorze módulos dos Jogos de Voz que foram jogados por crianças com idade entre 6 e 12 anos, em seções regulares, durante um ano, na Divisão de Fonoaudiologia, DIFON, do INES, foram selecionados para análise os dois mais jogados nesse período. A avaliação dos jogos de retroalimentação visual para crianças surdas, que buscam representar visualmente o que ocorre no instante da fala, indica que o design exerce papel determinante na aquisição dos resultados a que se propõem. / [en] This thesis begins with a study at the Instituto Nacional de Educação dos Surdos (Brazilian Institute of Deaf Education) examining the visual messages of computer-based game of speech training for deaf children. The game, known as Jogos de Voz, developed by DS Antonio Marcos de Lima Araújo, as his thesis at the Laboratory of Digital Processing Speech, of the College of Electric Engineering and Computation of UNICAMP, consists of the visual feedback of the player`s speech. That is, while the children exercise their articulatory coordination on the computer microphone, they run through a graphical and illustrative reply in real time on the computer screen. The child sees what he or she is speaking. Of the fourteen modules of the Games of Voice that have been played by children aged 6 to 12 years, in regular sessions, during one year, in the Division of Fonoaudiologia (DIFON) of the INES the two most played modules in this period were selected for analysis. Evaluation of games of visual feedback for deaf children, that they seek to represent visually what occurs at the moment when speech is being produced, indicates that design exerts determinative role in reaching the game`s proposed objectives.

The schoolhouse is a place in which messages for student consumption are typically found with classroom lectures, text, and activities. As with any social setting, however, the communication is not confined to one space but extends, in this case, to hallways, common spaces, and exterior of the building. One of the most common practices for the delivery of messages to students within the schoolhouse is through visual signage. Visual signage can traverse disciplines encompassing concepts from the fields of communication, semiotics, language, literacy, and even interior design. In an effort to understand the impact these signs have on student populations this dissertation asks the question: How are signs within public high schools produced, consumed, and influential to persons in contact with intended messages that are presented in public school spaces? The study utilizes ethnography to describe the production, consumption, and influence of fixed signs in the interior hallways and common spaces at three public high schools in Texas. At each campus, student volunteers, one from each grade level, provided their individual course schedule to follow their daily route from class to class at their particular high school. Post these observations these students engaged in focus groups to discuss the various signs displayed on their campus. In addition, faculty/staff members from each high school volunteered to participate in a separate faculty/staff focus group to discuss the use of signage in schools and the observations made by both the students and myself during the observations. The data suggest that district directives and social happenings guide the production of messages for each campus. The consumption and influence of these messages though is far more complex as a variety of factors contributed to the student and faculty/staff consumption, or lack thereof, and influence to action. As ethnography, this dissertation sheds light onto these complexities revealing that a host of external and internal issues dictate the messages displayed through school signage within the individual schoolhouse.

Visual depictions of politicians play an essential role in the impression formation of the audience because they convey visual cues and attributes related to, for example, likeability or competence. This study examines the subjective audience evaluations based on the visual portrayals of a politician by using Q methodology, a qualitative–quantitative approach of audience research. Q-sorts of 33 different pictures showing a high-ranking European politician, along with personal interviews, were used to probe the audience’s perception of a favorable or unfavorable picture. Q factor analysis yielded four groups of participants. The audience groups differ regarding their expectation toward favorably depicted political behavior and the involved balance of professional political leadership competences, social competences, and personality. In addition, technical and formal representation strategies were identified as important visual cues, but not for all audience groups.

En designer menar att kommunicera sina idéer genom illustrerande plaggskisser till andra involverade i företaget. Idéerna är vaga, detaljrika, provisoriska eller abstrakta. Att tolka någonting som saknar precision är en osäkerhet, dessutom kan feltolkningar av skisser skapa stora kommunikationsproblem inom ett designteam. Genom att utföra semistrukturerade intervjuer och deltagande observationer hos modeföretag i Sverige har kvalitativt material jämförts med den litteratur och de studier som finns om ämnet idag. Från de studier och artiklar som refereras till i detta arbetet har olika riktningar uppenbarats, som kan vara goda att undersöka i ämnet. Däribland behovet av att skapa meta-notationer, nämligen ett skriftligt system som diskuterar kommunikationen i designprocessen. Ett antal flödeskartor har även ritats upp, utifrån observationer av gruppdynamik, företagsstruktur, beteendemönster, samt intervjufrågor med olika roller i designteamen. / A designer believes that communicating their ideas through illustrative garment sketches to others involved in the company. The ideas are vague, detailed, provisional or abstract. Interpreting something that lacks precision is an uncertainty; furthermore, misinterpretation of sketches can create great communication problems with design teams. By conducting semi-structured interviews and having participatory observations at fashion companies in Sweden, qualitative material has been compared to the literature and studies available on the subject today. From the studies and articles referred to in this work, different directions have been revealed, which may be good to investigate on the subject. This includes the need to create meta-notations, namely a written system that discusses the communication in the design process. A number of flow charts have thus been drawn up, based on observations on tone, gestures and mimics, as well as interview questions with different roles in the design teams.

Development of modern visual communication in Czech, German and Austrian metropolises with a regard on accessibility The thesis deals with the contemporary visual communication in cities. First part is dedicated to the historical development of this discipline and notes the personalities who shaped it. Next part focuses on theoretical background and graphic elements of visual communication with a focus on accessibility. The main part is devoted to a detailed examination of selected elements of visual communication: unified visual style, wayfinding systems on the surface and in the subway. These elements are examined on the example of the capitals of the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria. In conclusion, the acquired knowledge is used for analysis of wayfinding signs in the newly opened metro stations in Prague in 2015.

This thesis deals with visual communication in the form of photography. Explaining the theories of Roland Barthes and Vilém Flusser we point out the tight relationship of this medium with reality that obscures its constructive character. The witness role of photography seems to be essential in the context of journalism, where we are offered a story by the pictures that is however mistaken for reality itself. The thesis tries to present practices of media discourse that make us perceive an event as newsworthy. It draws on the theory of news values and the methods of social semiotic analysis and applies these to the winning photos of the contest Czech Press Photo (2006-2015). We highlight the semiotic resources used in the meaning-making process in relation to each picture. The results show that the preferred constructed news values are negativity, aesthetic appeal, proximity and personalisation and that the winning photographs mostly strengthen their semblance of being strictly informative.