Visualcy: the progenitor of literacy and numeracy

Abstract

This article aims to enhance the pedagogy of drawing by integrating relevant aspects of art history and aesthetics with perception and communication theories. Visualcy is defined as an articulacy with visual languages, from which the more familiar ‘3Rs’ (Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic), alluding to literacy and numeracy, evolved. It embraces not only the more familiar definition of ‘visual literacy’ in the sense of how people perceive, interpret, and learn from existing visual imagery, but also the semogenic facility for producing the means to understanding through the articulation of visual elements (line, shape, tone, texture, colour) in the construction of new images. After reviewing the role of drawing in cultural evolution, the article discusses drawing in relation to aesthetics, before outlining a pedagogy of drawing designed to nurture visualcy, of central importance to human culture.

Keywords:

• Visualcy
• drawing
• aesthetics
• pedagogy
• perception

Disclosure statement

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