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Mike Olson

Assistant Professor
Murphy Library University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

Mike Olson

Assistant Professor

Murphy Library

Specialty area(s)

Cataloging & Discovery, Theses & Dissertations, Critical Visual Literacy 

Education

Master of Library & Information Science, Valdosta State University, 2023

Bachelor of Art, Studio Arts, University of Northern Iowa, 1997

Career

Professional history

Cataloging & Discovery Librarian, Murphy Library, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, 2023-

Librarian II, Data Resources, Murphy Library, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, 2022-2023

Library Services Assistant III, Advanced-Lead, Murphy Library, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, 2011-2022

Metadata & Digitization Assitant, John T. Richardson Library, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, 2007-2011

Collections Assistant, Helen A. Sclair, Cemetery Historian, Chicago, IL, 2003-2009

Kudos

presented

Mike Olson, Murphy Library, presented "Critical Visual Literacy in Activism - Counterimages: Radically Repurposed Visual Culture in Violet Ray's 'Advertising the Contradictions'" at 'Ways of Seeing,' the 55th Annual Conference of the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA), hosted by the University of Illinois on Oct. 7 in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. Critical visual literacy is the ability to investigate the sociocultural contexts of visual texts to illuminate power relations (Kim & Serrano, 2017). Artist Violet Ray’s critical response to visual culture provides a potent example of how visual literacies can be activated to interpret, respond to, and act upon received cultural imagery. Taking cues from Berger's 'Ways of Seeing,' which considered powers' privileged manipulation of visual imagery as a tool of social and economic dominance, Ray’s photo collages of visual protest will be considered as counterimages uncovering latent meanings in their advertising and news photo source imagery through the messages decipherable in their juxtaposition. Viewed in relation to the The Framework for Visual Literacy in Higher Education, this paper presentation will examine the methods by which Violet Ray’s confrontational collages create a strong illustration of the pursuit of social justice through visual practice.

Submitted on: Oct. 11, 2023

 

Memberships & affiliations

[{"organization":"American Library Association","position":"Member","url":"https://www.ala.org/"},{"organization":"International Visual Literacy Association","position":"Member","url":"https://ivla.org/"},{"organization":"Progressive Librarians Guild","position":"Member","url":"http://www.progressivelibrariansguild.org/"},{"organization":"Zine Librarians","position":"Member","url":"https://www.zinelibraries.info/"}]