Images are everywhere, inside and around us, and in the last 25 years, their multiplication on paper and on screen has been tremendous. Whether we realize it or not, visual messages inform and form us at the same time. Without asking for permission, millions of computer-retouched icons influence us mostly unconsciously, shaping our dreams and our identity. From cave drawings to Church yesterday and for Business today, images have been an important tool. Images are also fundamental in thought processes., but we still have not learned to approach and "read" visual messages.

Since 1994, people of all ages and backgrounds have worked with Eva Saro both in the framework of street interventions (transforming commercial billboards in teams) and on a more intimate level, working with Internet images. These workshop experiences have led to the development of the core of WATCH IT!, with sketches of practices for the web. The cooperation of professionals, interested in bringing image-understanding to a wider public, has been instrumental in the process.

WATCH IT! is about image-reading skills, useful to everyone, image professionals and the general public alike. The project proposes creating a kaleidoscope of our views and questions, in order to develop visual "Sherlock Holming" practices. The aim of WATCH IT! is to encourage image- and value-questioning by proposing a range of tools for people to enter into a constructive dialogue with images. It is also a way for us to find personal anchoring in a world of fluctuating values.

Eva Saro evasaro@hotmail.com

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