Chapter 1: An Aesthetic of Horror in Education: Schools as Dystopian Environments

Visual culture is the realm of humanly created objects, images, and environments that shape our ways of thinking and behaving. This includes fine art and popular culture, such as film, painting, fashion, television, architecture, sculpture, graphic design, advertisements, landscape design, computer games, and crafts. Visual culture has the capacity to powerfully influence emotions, beliefs, knowledge, and even self-worth (Freedman, 2003). In contemporary life, people experience a wide range of visual culture every day, often without reflecting on those experiences. However, because visual culture forms can work in insidious, as well as entertaining, uplifting, and educational ways, it is important to understand their influence on the ways we think and act.