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Visual competence: a new paradigm for studying

visuals in the social sciences?
Marion G. Müller
Published online: 21 Aug 2008.

To cite this article: Marion G. Mller (2008) Visual competence: a new paradigm for studying visuals in the social
sciences? , Visual Studies, 23:2, 101-112, DOI: 10.1080/14725860802276248

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 Visual Studies, Vol. 23, No. 2, September 2008

Visual competence: a new paradigm for studying visuals in the

social sciences?1

MARION G. MÜLLER

This introductory article provides an overview and structured by press agencies and the mass media, are more
theoretical anchor for the following contributions in this and more driven by non-expert producers and publishers
special issue. The article discusses, first, the necessity for who disseminate visuals independently of the media via
introducing a new research paradigm – ‘visual electronic networks. Thus, the production, dissemination
competence’ – in the social sciences (anthropology, and communication of visuals are no longer confined to
communication science, media and social psychology, their originally intended audiences. The dissemination of
political science, sociology), arguing that the actual visuals can no longer be controlled, either by governments
transformations of reality triggered by processes of or by the mass media. As demonstrated by the cartoon
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globalisation and digitisation require a closer scrutiny of controversies in 2006, visuals ‘travel’ the globe, eliciting
the visual. In a second step, the new paradigm ‘visual very different reactions in audiences for which they were
competence’ is introduced, focusing on four dimensions: not originally intended, in this case either by the Danish
visual production, perception, interpretation and reception cartoonists or by the newspaper which commissioned the
competencies. A new model, the visual competence cycle, is cartoons (Müller and Özcan 2007). Considering another
suggested. The article concludes with a specific application example of a global conflict instigated by visuals – the
example for studying visual interpretation competence in a torture scandal surrounding Abu Ghraib, the US prison in
case study of the humanising and de-humanising effects of Iraq (Eisenman 2007; Zimbardo 2007) – those ‘trophy
portraiture. shots’ produced by the torturers were distributed globally,
damaging the image of the United States for many years to
Any attempt to formulate a new paradigm in visual come.
research is a risky endeavour. No single scholar is capable
A different example of a social and political conflict
of covering this vast and eclectic field. Thus, the
related to visual perception is the ‘headscarf controversy’
omissions and shortcomings in the following text are the
deeply dividing laicist countries like Turkey and France,
responsibility of the author alone. Nevertheless, it is
but also affecting other European countries with Muslim
worthwhile trying to move visual research ahead, by
minorities. The controversy is anchored in the visual
embracing a new concept that is rooted in a social
appearance of females in the public sphere (Göle 1996;
scientific approach. Reality is to the social sciences what
Özcan 2008). The headscarf elicits emotional reactions
truth is to philosophy. Reality is the basic concept from
both on the side of religious women who interpret the
which the social sciences derive their relevant research
ban on the headscarf as an infringement of their right to
paradigms. Social and political reality as it presents itself
religious self-expression, and on the side of women and
at the beginning of the twenty-first century is not only
men alike who fear that allowing the headscarf in public
highly complex, but also highly visual in appearance.
is only the first step towards an Islamist state that will
Current trends like globalisation, digitisation and the rise
institute the religious Shar’ia law, forcing women to
of electronic media have changed both the scope and the
wear headscarves in public.
modality of human interaction and communication. All
areas of social visual communication are affected by this As illustrated by the above examples, the new global
fundamental transformation. Traditional production divide of the twenty-first century seems to pin ‘the West’
structures of the media are challenged by an ever-growing against ‘the Muslim’ world. What all three ideological
sophistication of visual production and dissemination controversies have in common is that the conflicts
technology, ranging from video to digital photography to surface in the form of visuals. Visual portrayal is highly
electronic publishing, turning more and more visual contested, and no longer restricted to intended
consumers into visual producers. The production and audiences. Any visual published has the potential to be
global distribution of visuals, which were formerly disseminated to audiences in very different cultural

Marion G. Müller is Associate Professor of Mass Communication at Jacobs University Bremen, Germany and current chair of the Visual Communication
Studies Division of the International Communication Association (ICA). She is interested in bridging the disciplinary gaps in visual theory and research, and
organised the international symposium ‘Visual Competence – Facets of a Paradigm Shift’ (2007) funded by the German foundation VolkswagenStiftung.

ISSN 1472–586X printed/ISSN 1472–5878 online/08/020101-12 # 2008 International Visual Sociology Association
DOI: 10.1080/14725860802276248
 102 M. G. Müller

contexts who interpret these de-contextualised visuals in an international symposium was held at Jacobs
very different ways. University in Bremen, Germany on 6–8 July 2007.2 The
contributions assembled in this volume reflect this
Thus, the stipulated necessity for a new visual research fruitful interdisciplinary exchange.
paradigm in the social sciences is based on specific
observed changes in our contemporary social and What is missing so far is an overarching visual approach
political reality that affect social and political that unites all social sciences. To sketch such an
communication structures globally. Three basic encompassing concept is the objective of this article.
elements of this communication shift can be Like a majority of the contributions in this special issue,
distinguished: the style of the article is more conceptual and less
empirical. Its intention is to spark an academic debate
N Amateur visual productions on the rise
about visual theory in the social sciences.
N Global dissemination of visuals
N De-contextualisation of visuals The following arguments are structured into two major
As Karen Ritzenhoff illustrates in her article in this special sections. The first part is theoretical; it will provide an
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issue, the ever-growing availability of visual technology overview of the new concept ‘visual competence’, its
can be interpreted both as a positive and as a negative origin, scope and intention, and how this approach
development. However, this trend illustrates the could function as a research paradigm in the future. In
fundamental change to which visual communication in the second part, the specific meaning of one dimension
the public sphere is currently subject. While visual of visual competence – visual interpretation competence
production structures were once confined to – will be illustrated with visual examples in order to
professionals, and reception processes happened more or make the potential application of the visual competence
less in the private sphere, today the inverse is paradigm palpable for social scientific research.
true – production is privatised, while dissemination is
globalised. The global dissemination of visuals that were FROM VISUAL LITERACY TO VISUAL
originally produced in and for a particular local, regional COMPETENCE
or national context puts the same visuals into very
Arguably, the field ‘visual literacy and media literacy’
different contexts. This process of de-contextualisation
already covers questions relating to visual competencies
and re-contextualisation leads, in turn, to
by audiences of different age and gender. So why is a
transformations of the particular meanings attributed to
new paradigm necessary at all? While this question is
the visuals, because the cultural reception context differs
already covered in depth by Michael Griffin’s
from the original production context. Those processes of
contribution in this volume, it is also apparent that both
meaning transformation are difficult to study from a text-
concepts, visual literacy as well as media literacy, are
based literacy point of view. Visuals are seen, perceived
rooted in the humanities – in pedagogy, language
and interpreted also in non-literate contexts, and it is
studies and semiotics in particular (see e.g. Dondis 1973;
precisely because the textual component is oftentimes
Braden and Hortin 1982; Curtiss 1987; Messaris 1994,
missing that the global transfer of visuals is accompanied
1998; Doelker 1997; Hobbs 1998, 2000, 2001, 2004,
by a huge potential for misunderstanding, if not outright
2006; Hobbs and Frost 2003; Siber 2005; Messaris and
conflict, as in the cases mentioned above.
Moriarty 2005; Seppänen 2006). In this context, textual
Since those perceived changes in communication literacy is often taken as a pattern that is applied to
structures and in conflict potentials are visual, an visuals, thereby confounding the differences in modality,
incorporation of the visual into social scientific research structure and logic between textual and visual
methodology appears to be paramount. While communication. Certainly, media literacy in general,
anthropology, sociology as well as media and and visual literacy in particular, is a necessary corollary
communication sciences have already developed of visual competence, but the ‘literacy approach’ misses
independent approaches to incorporating the visual, out on many aspects of visuals that the new paradigm
other social sciences like political science and social covers. The limitations of treating visuals with a textual
psychology have yet to realise that their theoretical and approach are well established, and in the field of
methodological tools need to be amended in order to linguistics and semiotics the ‘cure’ is multi-modality, a
analyse and interpret visual material (Müller 2007). To concept discussed in Theo van Leeuwen’s article in this
discuss both synergies and differences between the special issue. As much as the concept of multi-modality
different disciplinary approaches to studying the visual, can be interpreted as a further development of the media
 Visual competence: a new paradigm 103

literacy approach, ‘visual competence’ could be termed a visual productions, from commercial to scientific, from
social scientific response to the questions raised by visual journalistic to political production of visuals (Müller
literacy research since the 1980s. While ‘visual literacy’ 2003, 22). The study of visual production competence
has an important applied objective – namely, to educate implies that diverse production contexts follow
people, and particularly younger generations, thereby different visual production logics. For example, the
raising the level of visual literacy – ‘visual competence’ is production of an artwork happens under different
primarily a paradigm for conducting basic research. conditions from the production of a news magazine.
Visual literacy has been defined as ‘the viewer’s While for the artist – ideally – her or his individual
awareness of the conventions through which the production skill, experience, as well as the individual
meanings of visual images are created’ (Messaris and expectations towards the artwork count; for a
Moriarty 2005, 481). While meaning attribution, or press photographer, professional skills are only one
visual interpretation competence, is a crucial element of element. The expectations of the news magazine’s
the visual competence paradigm, the concept itself is editor, editorial selection processes, and competition
more encompassing. from other press photographers heavily influence
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the production process. Researching visual

WHAT IS VISUAL COMPETENCE? production competence entails investigating the
particularities as well as the different types of visual
‘Visual competence’ is a paradigm for basic research on production contexts.
the production, distribution, perception, interpretation
and reception of visuals, aimed at understanding visual Visual perception competence involves questions
communication processes in different contemporary relating to the individuals’ as well as groups’
social, cultural and political contexts. The above- competencies to see and explore visuals. Age, gender,
mentioned visual interpretation competence is just one experience, and social as well as cultural factors
of four intertwined dimensions (see Figure 1): influence the way in which visuals are perceived.
Psychological perception research, as elaborated in the
1. Visual production competence article by Arvid Kappas and Bettina Olk in this issue,
2. Visual perception competence points out that the same visual is seen and perceived
3. Visual interpretation competence
differently. How different individuals as well as groups
4. Visual reception competence
or whole cultures attribute meaning to the perceived
Visual production competence relates to any form of visuals is an even more complex question that is
visual production – from artistic to amateur or private explored by research on visual interpretation

FIGURE 1. Visual competence cycle.

 104 M. G. Müller

competence. Last but not least, visual reception in visual production competence. Arvid Kappas and
competence focuses on cognitive and emotional Bettina Olk’s article illustrates potential access points to
reactions (Kappas and Müller 2006) that might, in some studying visual perception and reception processes. Luc
cases, motivate people to physically take action with, for Pauwels provides a new model of how visual
or against the perceived visuals. competence can be applied in processes of scientific
knowledge building and knowledge dissemination,
Figure 1 is influenced by three typological predecessors
touching upon both visual production and
focused on interpretation as a method. First, the art
interpretation competencies. Both Michael Griffin’s and
historian Erwin Panofsky (1982), who already in the
Theo van Leeuwen’s contributions are conceptual and
1930s devised a three-dimensional interpretation
try to position the new paradigm in the context of
scheme for the analysis of visual artwork. Second, Sol
already established concepts like media literacy and
Worth and Larry Gross’s symbolic communication
multi-modality research. The second part of this article
strategies of interpreting visual encounters with the
will give particular examples relating to visual
world. Worth and Gross (1974) differentiate between
production and interpretation competencies.
three different types of meaning of sign-events:
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existential, ambiguous and symbolic meanings, and two As encompassing as this field appears at first glance, the
types of strategies, either attribution or social sciences do have a particular role as well as a
communicational inference. The third influence on the particular interest in this multi-disciplinary endeavour.
visual competence cycle in Figure 1 relates to the Not only does the topic require a methodological
‘background’ of the cycle, presenting complex contexts approach that deals well with contemporary social
that shape and influence the four visual competencies: problems and issues, but, conversely, the study of reality,
social psychologist Philip Zimbardo’s differentiation being the focus of all social scientific disciplines,
between individual or dispositional, situational and necessitates a closer scrutiny of the visual. This focus on
systemic forces that determine social behaviour contemporary phenomena as well as the applied
(Zimbardo 2007). problem-oriented approach places visual competence at
the heart of the social sciences.
Visual production, perception, interpretation and
reception competencies are connected in a cycle. The On a phenomenological level, both the production and
cycle itself unfolds its dynamic not in a vacuum, but in a the reception patterns of visuals have undergone
social, political and cultural context that is shaped by considerable change in the twentieth century.
three factors: individual or dispositional factors, Globalisation and digitisation have affected all
shaping, for example, the production competencies of a communication patterns, transcending media types and
particular artist, photographer, television director; national borders as well as diverse publics. This
situational factors that determine the production, widening of scope urges the social sciences
perception, interpretation and reception competencies; (communication science, sociology, political science,
and systemic factors that predispose certain production, social and media psychology, anthropology) to develop
perception, interpretation and reception contexts. theories and methodological tools to cope with the
challenges of an ever more visual world that is no longer
Visuals are produced, using particular skills. Following
self-explanatory. The technological ease with which
their production, processes of dissemination and
cultural boundaries can be crossed does not necessarily
publication lead to people perceiving those visuals, to
mean that the original, intended meanings travel so well.
which they then automatically attribute or infer
On the contrary – the same visuals elicit very different
particular meanings shaped by dispositional, situational
meaning attributions in different social, political and
and systemic influences, leading to cognitive and
cultural contexts. In order to capture the whole process
emotional reactions, which in turn might motivate the
of visual communication – from production to
beholders to take actions or to react to the perceived and
distribution to perception, meaning attribution and
interpreted visuals. One of those actions might be to
emotional reactions – the collaboration of all social
produce further visuals. Thus, the cycle is coming to a
scientific disciplines appears to be necessary. This article
close, triggering again visual production, perception,
argues that the concept ‘visual competence’, as defined
interpretation and perception competencies.
below, offers the chance to bridge those disciplinary
The articles in this issue connect in different ways to traditions and to provide a common paradigm to
those four dimensions of visual competence. Karen study visuals, uniting the particular strengths of the
Ritzenhoff’s contribution focuses on the transformation above-mentioned social scientific disciplines.
 Visual competence: a new paradigm 105

Both anthropology (Collier 1967; Banks and Morphy more theoretical and multidisciplinary field, further
1997; Belting 2001; Banks 2001; Pink 2003) and developing the concept, encompassing not only the
sociology (Becker 1974; Henny 1986; Pauwels 2000; social sciences, but extending it to the humanities and
Ludes 2005) have developed specific visual methods and incorporating art history and language and media
research approaches that put the visual at the centre studies, as well as cognitive psychology, neuroscience
stage of research. Visual anthropology, visual sociology and information visualisation.
and visual communication are established sub-fields of
their general disciplines, with affiliate organisations and Competence is not considered a static skill, but a
genuine publications (for an overview, see Müller 2007, universal potential of humans that unfolds in a
33–4). For political science and social psychology this is context of socialisation, acculturation and tradition.
not the case. In political science, individual researchers Visual competence needs to be scrutinised as a
have embarked onto ‘visual territory’ (Baringhorst 1996, holistic process in all of its dimensions, from visual
1997, 2000; Müller 1997, 2001, 2003, 2004; Arnold, perception to the attribution of meaning and
Fuhrmeister, and Schiller 1998; Schiller 1998, 2002; interpretation, including processes of visual
production and visuals as the basis for human
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Hofmann 1999, 2004; Knieper and Müller 2004;

Drechsel 2005; Müller and Özcan 2007), but visuals are communication and interaction. The essential issue at
not central to the discipline, despite the fact that many hand is the understanding of the functional aspects
politically relevant fields like political campaigning and of the process of visual competence in current
foreign policy do have a visual component. For social societies. Visual competence, as defined by Jacobs
psychologists, visuals can be a certain type of stimulus University’s research group, is subdivided into four
material, but hardly the topic of research. Yet, for media intertwined, but still distinct competencies: perceptual
psychologists (e.g. Bente and Vorderer 1997; Frey 1999; competence, decoding and interpretation competence,
Zillmann, Gibson, and Sargent 1999; Schwab, Unz, and production competence, and intra- as well as
Winterhoff-Spurk 2001, 2005; Zillmann, Knobloch, and intercultural perception competence.
Yu 2001), who do study image material, the major
It is important to stress that the term ‘competence’ is
category of scientific inquiry is not the visual, but the
not considered as a static entity, not as something that a
‘nonverbal’ or ‘media’ in general, and particularly the
person, a group of people, a society or a culture either
interaction between media’s complex multimodal
possesses or does not possess. ‘Competence’ is a
communication contents and its users and recipients. It
dynamic measure that changes over time and space. The
is the integration of these various social scientific
level of visual competence as well as the characteristic
approaches that contributes towards the strength of the
type of competency is influenced by the respective social,
new concept ‘visual competence’.
political, communication and cultural context in which
The term itself was first used in the context of media this human potential either unfolds or is infringed in
pedagogy, by the Swiss author Christian Doelker (1997), terms of limitations set by the respective context. The
and then applied to the particular use of media underlying, but hitherto unproven assumption is that an
pedagogy at an art academy by the German art historian open-minded democratic environment in which
Hans Dieter Huber (Huber, Lockemann, and Scheibel children, but also adults, are free to express themselves
2002). Both authors use the term in its narrow sense of both verbally as well as visually is promoting a high level
pertaining to the design and deciphering of material of visual competence, while, for example in a religiously
images, or pictures. ‘Bildkompetenz’ (image competence fundamentalist and iconophobic context the skills of
– see also Haake et al. 2003; Hecht 2003; Sachs- visual production and critical analysis are not trained,
Hombach 2003) has been the dominant term in this and thus are underdeveloped.
respect. Visual competence is the more encompassing
But even under free and democratic conditions, visual
concept by comparison with image competence. The
competence cannot be taken for granted. The definition
former covers not only all aspects related to the material
of visual competence includes certain modes of ‘seeing
image, but also the cognitive, emotional and receptive
and perceiving’, but also the competency of critical
processes related to visual communication (see
analysis and interpretation. To be visually competent
Figure 1).
does not just mean to ‘recognise’ the depiction, but to
In 2004, the concept ‘Visuelle Kompetenz’ was taken up put this visual into context, and to grasp the hidden
by a research group at Jacobs University Bremen, and meaning levels as well as to assess the type of visual and
transferred into English, as well as extended to cover a its production and reception context. The visual scholar
 106 M. G. Müller

Robert L. Craig was not dramatising the visual individual at a given time points already to the
incompetence of communication students when stating: complexity of researching visual competence. Sociology
and communication studies use a different set of key
One of the most important skills of humankind
categories than psychology. While from a psychological
is visual communication. It is ‘pre-historical’;
point of view the individual – both as the producer of a
we all know about Native American image
visual and the recipient – is key, for sociology, society as a
making and European cave paintings. Written
communication with alphabets and characters whole is the major analytical frame in which visual
is a comparatively young invention. artefacts are analysed. Adding to this complex scale of
analysis – from the individual to society – is the
Yet, in school the pupils are educated in important question of whether a visual is approached
reading and writing, mainly focusing on textual from a production perspective or rather from a
literacy. The general public is left to intuitively perception, interpretation or reception perspective. The
learn visual literacy. Today, we constantly hear
research questions with which the visual material is
how students in the post-modern era are
confronted differ, as does the methodological framework
increasingly visual. This is nonsense. While
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these students have been born into a period and research design, depending whether production,
when highly advanced technology for creating perception, interpretation or reception is the focal point
the most sophisticated visual imagery is readily of research. The motif, content, medium and style of the
available, it does not follow that they have a visual make a huge difference. Is the researched visual a
critical understanding of this imagery. My photograph or a drawing? Are the visuals under
experience is that students and the public are, consideration ‘moving images’, and the pictures printed
in fact, almost totally visually illiterate when it in an article just screen shots of television or other film
comes to analysing visual messages. This is not material? Sculptures, architecture, graphic design, even
to say that they don’t understand the messages. posters and graffiti are all visuals, since they are human
To the contrary, they quickly understand the expressions in visual form.
sense of these messages. But if you ask them to
explain how they interpret visual messages by In his seminal work on ‘Portraiture’ the art historian
outlining the codes they’ve accessed and Richard Brilliant (1991, 10) describes the complex
inferences they’ve made in the process of interaction between portraits as artefacts and social life
communication, they show little categorical or in the following way: ‘Portraits exist at the interface
critical understanding. Students simply are not
between art and social life and the pressure to conform
taught to take apart visual messages and to
to social norms enters into their composition because
analyse them. Instead, we read visual messages
both the artist and the subject are enmeshed in the value
quickly and without a lot of thought. (Craig
2000, cited in Müller 2003, 178–9) system of their society’.

To illustrate the importance of critical meaning Visuals are thus considered to be sources of inquiry and
attribution, or visual interpretation competence, the analysis. In a social scientific context – and this is the
example of portraiture and its relation to empathy with major focus of this article – visuals are sources of
the depicted is explored. information on the larger social, political, cultural and
communication context. Treated as such, Figure 2 shows
a professional photograph of the author of this article.
VISUAL INTERPRETATION COMPETENCE:
In its colour version this photograph also features on the
HUMANISING AND DE-HUMANISING PORTRAITS
website of the university where the author is employed
The concept of visual interpretation competence owes as professor of mass communication. From a
much to the distinction in visual meaning attribution production perspective, the hired professional
drawn by two pioneers of visual communication photographer intended to create a visual that is
research – Sol Worth and Larry Gross (1974; see also appealing to the university’s corporate design,
Griffin 2001). Michael Griffin’s contribution in this particularly since the photographer was paid for by the
issue will refer in more detail to their theory of different department of corporate communication.
signs and different modes of meaning attribution.
The intention was to portray the depicted professor in a
The general theme of the visual examples in Figures 2–11 favourable manner that appeals to potential students
is portraiture. The depiction of a human being with the and donors alike. The image has thus an advertising
intention to show the visual characteristics of an purpose – the subject smiles into the camera and looks
 Visual competence: a new paradigm 107

drawing and on the photograph, but as opposed to the

machine-made image of Figure 2, the drawing in
Figure 3 displays also the ear in a frontal perspective,
thus giving the drawing an ‘unrealistic’ twist by
comparison with the photograph. Additionally, in the
drawing both earrings are visible while in the
photograph just the left one can be seen. The face in the
drawing is dominated by a pair of glasses. What appears,
at first glance, like a ‘drawing mistake’ – eyelashes that
are not connected to the eyelid, but to the glasses, turns
out to be a characteristic pattern of the glasses – black
and white ‘rays’ on the rim of the glass frame that were
taken up by the child drawing the portrait.

Obviously this six-year-old girl has quite a high

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production competence, despite the fact that the child

does not use an all ‘natural’, realistic perspective. The
picture carries across an emotional relationship between
FIGURE 2. Photograph of the author. # Marion G. Müller, IUB/Jacobs
the portraying child and the portrayed woman – the
University Bremen, 2005. daughter portraying her mother, an emotional relation
not necessarily associated with the comparatively ‘slick’
photograph of the same person.

The attitude and relationship towards the portrayed also

becomes apparent in the following drawings
(Figures 4–8) – again portraits of the author of this article,
made at the occasion of a public lecture on portraiture by
the audience. The children’s drawing in Figure 4 and the
portrait below (Figure 5) depict the woman in a
favourable manner, while the drawings in Figures 6–7 are
less favourable; in particular, the anonymous creator of
Figure 7 displays difficulties in attributing a facial
expression to the portrayed person. The face appears
bloated, the head ‘propped up’ on the neck, rather more
like a puppet than a human figure. While the production
competence of the creator of Figure 5 is rather high – all
proportions appear in the right dimensions, and the
portrayed appears like a human being, the production
competence in Figure 7 appears rather low – apparently
an untrained lay person, who has not drawn since school,
FIGURE 3. Portrait of the author. and maybe never drew a portrait before. The creator of
Figure 7 is not a singular exception of low visual
directly at the beholder. The light background positively production competence, but rather characteristic for the
contrasts with the dark colours of hair and clothing and average population, members of which, after leaving
creates an ‘enlightened’ ambience. This public portrayal school, are not further trained in the manual production
contrasts with the private depiction of the same person of visuals.
in Figure 3. This portrait was drawn by a child. The
female subject is again smiling and faces the beholder The portraits on the top and on the bottom right have
directly. By comparison with the official photograph, the the quality of caricatures, exaggerating certain features,
drawing also shows the upper part of the body and the using abstraction as a tool to poke fun – in a positive
arms of the woman. The hairstyle on the drawing is sense – both at the portrayed and at the ‘awkward’
different – the long black hair just hanging to the right situation of drawing a person in public, knowing (and
side of the head. The left ear is visible both on the agreeing) that their products will be displayed and
 Downloaded by [University of Chicago Library] at 01:54 27 July 2013

108

FIGURE 4.

FIGURE 5.
M. G. Müller

FIGURE 6.

FIGURE 8.
FIGURE 7.
 Visual competence: a new paradigm 109
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FIGURE 9. From the website of the Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (Christian Democratic Union) (http://www.cdu.de/politikaz/
integration.php).

published later on. The circumstances and conditions of the photograph – ‘Gute Heimreise!’ – translates into
under which visual material is produced have a huge the sarcastic wish: ‘Have a safe trip home!’ Both female
impact on the meanings those visuals have. For a depictions (Figures 9 and 10), although ideologically not
comprehensive understanding of visual competence it is intended in the same way, conjure up negative emotions
thus important to take the production and reception of alienation, strangeness and xenophobia.
contexts into consideration.

A very different treatment of female portraits can be

observed in Figures 9–11. Figure 9 shows an online press
photograph from the official website of the ruling
German conservative party, the Christlich
Demokratische Union Deutschlands (Christian
Democratic Union). The photograph in landscape
format has an interesting composition, divided into two
halves: two male and one female pedestrian approaching
the beholder on the left side, and two female pedestrians
seemingly walking away from the beholder on the right
side. The two women on the right are shown in a back
view. Thus, their faces are invisible. The headscarves
contribute to the ‘alienation’ of the portrayed women,
whose identity is ‘veiled’. Similar types of stock
photography can be found in German newspapers,
usually accompanying articles on migration or on Islam.
The female headscarf has turned into a potent symbol
that is not explicitly communicated, but rather
associated on a subtle level of interpretation. A similar
scheme is used in the Neonazi propaganda material of
the German right wing extremist party, the
Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (National
Democratic Party) (Figure 10). The picture shows four
women in the foreground seen from the back, all
wearing headscarves and carrying large plastic bags. The
intended insinuation is that ‘Fremde’ (‘aliens’) are
FIGURE 10. Neonazi campaign poster, NPD Berlin, Germany. From the
looting Germany, exploiting the German welfare system, website of the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (National
and that they should be sent ‘home’. The slogan on top Democratic Party) (http://www.npd.de/medien/pdf/gute_heimreise.pdf).
 110 M. G. Müller
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FIGURE 11. Detained Iraqi man sits in garden during a raid in Tikrit, 30 October 2003, Guardian, 18 November 2005, p.19. Photograph: REUTERS/Damir Sagolj.

Depriving the depiction of an individual of a facial dimensions are highly complex and knowledge of the
expression as in Figures 9–11 comes close to visually contextual background, ranging from individual-
‘dehumanising’ the depicted. The many cruel depictions dispositional to situational to systemic, requires the
of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal and press input of all aforementioned disciplines in order to gain a
photographs from Iraq, where prisoners are not only better understanding of the role visuals play in the
blindfolded, but completely hooded (Figure 11), testify construction, cohesion and communication of
to this powerful visual effect. ‘Veiling’ the face in a contemporary reality.
human portrait might be interpreted as a visual de-
individuation that not only affects the depicted person,
NOTES
but also hampers identification with the depicted, and
thus stifles compassion on the part of the beholders. [1] This article owes a tremendous amount to the critique
and input of Michael Griffin, who reviewed previous
CONCLUSION versions of this manuscript. He also alerted the author to
the relevance of the work of Sol Worth and Larry
Visual competence is an important, yet understudied Gross for the development of interpretative visual
field of social scientific research. The four dimensions of communication as suggested in this article.
visual competence – production, perception, [2] The international symposium ‘Visual
interpretation and reception – are intertwined, Competence – Facets of a Paradigm Shift’ was funded
influencing each other in a cycle of visual competence. by the German foundation VolkswagenStiftung. See the
The suggested paradigm is complex, involving the visual following website: www.visualcompetence.org.
expertise of all social sciences – from communication
and media studies to sociology, from anthropology to
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