PROVOQUE - Problematizing Visualities and Questioning Stereotypes: Reading of images based on Visual Culture Studies

ABSTRACT In school art teaching practices, it is common to identify image reading exercises based on approaches from which the formal and plastic elements of a composition are prioritized. Despite the contributions that such an approach has given to the ways in which subjects learn to relate to images around them, the Visual Culture Studies have highlighted the need to develop more critical and inventive ways of teaching how to read images, especially in contexts where stereotypes are reinforced by visuals. Our objective is, therefore, to present a set of procedures that guide critical and inventive visual investigations and emphasize stereotypes. Denoted as PROVOQUE - an abbreviation for Problematizing Visuals and Questioning Stereotypes -, this set of procedures is based on the Studies of Visual Culture and is constituted by five stages. Flirting (Flertando), Realizing (Percebendo), Wondering (Estranhando), Talking (Dialogando) and Sharing (Compartilhando) offer distinct analytical actions so that stereotyped images are analyzed in teaching and research situations. We consider that PROVOQUE demonstrates that the established approaches to visual artifacts are not merely passive, but rather critical and inventive.