Saturday, May 24, 2008

The Use of Visuals in Seminary Education

This session was based on the digital visuals found in my The Visual Word blogsite. Two sets of resources were focused on in this session: a) Collections of visual representations of the Bible story and b) Comic creation and comic character creation (what I often call web generators) sites.

Some who attended this session requested for the list of applications that the collection of visuals can be used for.

These include:
1. Illustrate parts of scripture
2. (Re)Discover biblical narrative in pre/post-literate society
3. Clarify artist’s interpretation of story
4. Create awareness of the global nature of Christianity
5. Promote awareness of other cultures
6. Communicate visually/help visual learners
7. Design variety of learning experiences
8. Promote congregational learning
9. Understand communicative processes (including preaching and reading texts) better
10. Dialogue about copyright issues

Some critical questions arising from the use of these resources include:
1. When does contextualization end and syncretism, blasphemy, or idolatry begin?
2. Is it legitimate to use Jesus visuals during worship?
3. Is it legitimate to use Jesus visuals for teaching? Under which circumstances?
4. Why is it ok to use pictures to teach children the bible by getting them to color pictures from Bible scenes but not visuals to teach a visually oriented, biblically illiterate audience using Bible Manga or Powerpoint visuals?
4. If in scripture, God is revealed through his Word and not through visual representation (i.e. an idol), should we be using visuals to transmit understanding of God?
5. How is the representation of God distorted or limited by the use of visuals?

We then went on to explore some of the comic and comic character creation sites on the blog. This is Rev Peter Soh's contribution to the world of visual art.

Remember, the impetus for being familiar with these resources is because we have a new generation of learners and users for whom these visuals are a part of their DNA. If we are not familiar with the issues of living in an increasingly global visually driven culture, or if we don't know how to manage and pose the correct questions to those who function in that world, we have not provided leadership nor are we preparing our students to be leaders in those arenas!

A picture paints a thousand words - which thousand?