Lack of visual culture discourse in Pakistan; a barrier in communication

A most surprising realization is that in a culture that is extremely visual there appears to be a lack of visual culture discourse.Pakistan’s 63-year-old visual history has lacked tools that can help explore/interpret its vibrant visual artifacts as representative of an autonomous visual ideology … a visual identity.  The visual material world in the broad sense (production, reception and practices) also remains ambiguous when defining or appreciating their rhetorical role in the Pakistani visual culture. 

Therefore it is not surprising that the image-saturated Pakistani culture is lacking  a visual culture discourse. Exploring the allegorical nature of Pakistani visual media intends to change this state of ambiguity. According to Foucault [1] “discourses are ways of referring to or role of discourse in a culture: it can be a cluster of image ideas, images and practices which provide ways of talking about forms of knowledge and conduct associated with a particular topic, social activity or institutional site in society”.

The visual media selected to be explored as case studies are looked at as Pakistan’s authentic vernacular expression. The illustrations are claimed to allegorize an indigenous Pakistani visual identity and ideology, and is rhetorical in composition and construction. The production, distribution, and consumption of these visual artifacts (as media texts) can be positioned as an allegorical literacy practice  -  one that can lead towards understanding reading and writing, albeit with a visual medium other than traditional print.This will help understand the idea of literacy in relation to the larger social and cultural context rather than the traditional understanding of literacy as the ability to read and write (as being formally educated in schools)

This brings us back to the question:Can visual be so powerful as to convey meaning without depending on the verbal?

Searching for answer to this question there is a need to explore the existing visual media in Pakistan. In case of this research, the identified cases of Lollywood Billboards, Political posters and Pakistani truck art with the frame of production and consumption as media texts.

How they are positioned in the Pakistani visual culture within the frame of production and reception,  and why should they be specifically chosen to be explored and not any other genre' ?