Understanding Images – A Case Study

Dreams are composed of images. Images underlie all of our sensations, emotions, though-processes and behaviors. They are our blueprint for all action. In addition to the images that are generated by our sensing self, we are bombarded by images generated on the ‘outside’ by media. Therefore, it is critical that we understand how images move us. Understanding images is to know oneself, as images are the way our brain/body organizes and explains reality to itself. In addition, understanding how images move us is the key to becoming a more grounded and present decision-maker in the face of media-messages.

I teach a graduate class on the cognitive psychology of image. This week a student posed a very interesting question/scenario about a media-generated image that is helpful for understanding how to ‘read’ images. So I thought I would post that here in order to open a dialogue with everyone about images and how to respond to them.

The image posted is an illustration by Matthew Hollister that ran in the New York Times op-ed article: Do It Yourself Immigration Reform. Click on the link to see the image in order to better follow this discussion.

The image by Hollister is that of a chain-link fence with a flower that grows up the center, stem intertwined within the links, and blooming at the top in front of the fence. My student did not think that this image accurately represented the immigration debate. His ‘read’ on the image was that the fence symbolizes immigration: people being kept in or out, and that the flower symbolizes the landscape of the Southwest. He posed the question of does the image work to make people have a more positive view of immigration as the op-ed article advocates.

What do all of you think? What is the feeling you get from the Hollister image?

The first thought is that images are not interpreted, they are not symbols. Symbols are static and representative, such as branding logos like the Nike swoosh. Images, instead, move us. To understand images is not to think them, but to experience them – to feel the body’s response to them.

In response to my student: For me, regarding the Hollister image, the fence is something dead, black, closed off, done. It is several views that have clashed together to make knots and block movement. The flower is something beautiful that can grow where once was dead. The flower suggests a new beginning for views on immigration, one that is filled with possibility, growth and beauty. It is intertwined in the fence, meaning it grows up from within it, to bloom in front of it. The Hollister design is integrated – the flower is literally intertwined into the fence, growing up it.

The way that I have responded to this image is dreaming a dream. Understanding our dreams is to feel the images and the movements of them. How do we experience them? How do they move us?

I would love to hear what you think – how do you dream the Hollister image?