Profile for Mike Olson

Mike Olson, Murphy Library, presented "Critical Visual Literacy in Activism: Artist Keith Walsh's Political Infographics - Illuminating Social Histories" at 'Illuminating Perspectives,' the 56th Annual Conference of the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA) on Nov. 4 online. This presentation demonstrated the potential of critical visual literacy in activism through the powerful political infographics of Artist Keith Walsh, whose heavily researched, labor-intensive drawings invite the eye, making visible often obscured social and political histories while igniting critical visual engagement with socio-political issues. Drawing on the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Framework for Visual Literacy in Higher Education and the theoretical framework of Drucker's Graphesis, the presentation examined the critical choices made to create meaning in visual communications, illuminating the potential of critical visual literacy in activist art as a knowledge generator and learning machine, as well as a powerful catalyst for fostering political awareness and driving social change.

Submitted on: Nov. 11

Mike Olson, Murphy Library, authored the chapter "Critical Visual Literacy in Activism: Artist Violet Ray's Counterimages" in Ways of Seeing: The Book of Selected Readings 2024, published on July 7 by International Visual Literacy Association.

Submitted on: July 25

Mike Olson, Murphy Library, presented "Critical Visual Literacy in Activism - Counterimages: Radically Repurposed Visual Culture in Violet Ray's 'Advertising the Contradictions'" at 'Ways of Seeing,' the 55th Annual Conference of the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA), hosted by the University of Illinois on Oct. 7 in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. Critical visual literacy is the ability to investigate the sociocultural contexts of visual texts to illuminate power relations (Kim & Serrano, 2017). Artist Violet Ray’s critical response to visual culture provides a potent example of how visual literacies can be activated to interpret, respond to, and act upon received cultural imagery. Taking cues from Berger's 'Ways of Seeing,' which considered powers' privileged manipulation of visual imagery as a tool of social and economic dominance, Ray’s photo collages of visual protest will be considered as counterimages uncovering latent meanings in their advertising and news photo source imagery through the messages decipherable in their juxtaposition. Viewed in relation to the The Framework for Visual Literacy in Higher Education, this paper presentation will examine the methods by which Violet Ray’s confrontational collages create a strong illustration of the pursuit of social justice through visual practice.

Submitted on: Oct. 11, 2023