Leila Sujir’s latest project, Forest! was presented during the 48th Annual International Visual Literacy Association Conference at Concordia University, October 7th, 2016. This was part of a walkthrough presentation series during the conference.
ABOUT IVLA :
Visual Literacy is already a field of multidisciplinary investigation. How might it also become a field of multisensory and/or intersensory investigation? For example, how does seeing as a way of sensing and making sense of the world differ from reading, or touching, or dancing? As Isadora Duncan famously remarked: “If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it!” ? Or, how can the insights derived from the study of Visual Literacy be extended to other modalities of sense, such as sound studies? In asking these questions, the conference seeks to revisit and recuperate the original definition of “Visual Literacy.” In the words of John Debes (Co-founder of the IVLA), Visual Literacy refers to “a group of vision competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences” (1969). More recently, Brian Kennedy (Director of the Toledo Museum of Art) proposed that “Visual Literacy is the key to sensory literacy” (2014). This suggests that the past and future of Visual Literacy lies with engaging the senses.
