Reconsidering the Meaning of ‘Visual Literacy’ in the Age of AI : Applications to Liberal Arts Education and Possible Extensions

Abstract

Literacy is an important driving force when it comes to attaining a critical eye for the real world, as well as for analyzing problems in the past and making predictions for the future. Since literacy is evolving in a new paradigm for human lifestyles and abilities, in no small part thanks to the rapid development of AI(Artificial Intelligence) and robot technology, this study begins with a review of the change in the meaning of literacy. Next, we consider the meaning of ‘visual literacy’, in an era when AI reads and analyzes information such as images and texts, as well as visual recognition, voice recognition, and decision-making through algorithms, and creates art in a new way. The ultimate purpose of this study is to argue for the need to change the meaning of ‘visual literacy’ as a driving force for visual communication based on imagination in terms of technological utilization, critical thinking, and ethical social problem solving. Therefore, the content of this study emphasizes both a utopian and dystopian aesthetic vision, as well as critical thinking, in terms of potential and expandability of AI, rethinking the meaning of ‘visual literacy’ at the ethical level with human autonomous judgment and a sense of responsibility. The results of this study demonstrate the need for us to apply ‘visual literacy’ in a way that combines imagination and critical thinking, as well as our need to develop a new way of visual cognition necessary for the acquisition and use of digital technology in terms of the role of liberal arts education in universities. Through this study, I argue that the application of ‘visual literacy’ to foster democratic citizenship qualities can help us expand new possibilities for the role of liberal arts education in the era of AI by giving us the authority to understand and utilize digital media based on imagination for image and text information processing technology and visual communication.