Sanat ve tasarım eğitimi alan üniversite öğrencilerinin popüler görsel kültüre yönelik eleştirel yaklaşımları

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the critical approach of university students who study art and design towards popular visual culture. Within the scope of this general aim, this study has been based on questioning the ways these students interpret the popular culture forms they are exposed to, and how they relate aesthetics to consumption. The study has been implemented on 119 university students, who are aged between 17-24, of the Department of Arts and Design from both state and private universities. The data has been analyzed and interpreted by descriptive analysis. The result of the study revealed that the majority of university students who study Arts and Design had the tendency to read the undermining meaning of the visual culture theory. The questions that were prepared in the light of the philosophy of visual culture directed the students to aesthetic and critical analysis of the structure construction of the visual culture form, as well as the reason for its creation, its meaning and the intention of its creator. Most of students adopted an attitude in favor of analyzing the social function of visual culture form. However, the number of students who did not answer the questions as well as those who did not state any critical view was quite high. Thus, this brings forward the necessity to put more emphasis on expanding the amount of educational practice that promotes critical thinking in art education.