We are surrounded by all kinds of visuals, from icons, emojies, to photographs, films, paintings, installations and other media. Yet, interpreting visuals is a very complex task. We say that a "picture is worth a thousand words", but how do visuals transmit all this information? And how do we know that we have interpreted the image correctly? This is what this class is about.

In order to decipher the world of images, we will start out with some theories of pictures (Barthes, Mitchell, etc.). We will also introduce the theory of argumentation and will look at the various components of an argument (claims, premises, conclusions). We will then try to find out if and how visuals (photographs, movies, advertisements, newspapers, digital media, cinema) can be argumentative (i.e. appeal to our reason) and not just persuasive (i.e. appeal to our emotions).