myndgreiningarviðmið

myndgreiningarviðmið is a term used in Icelandic education and professional practice to refer to the standards and criteria applied when analysing visual materials such as photographs, paintings, graphics and digital imagery. The concept is especially relevant in the subjects of visual culture studies, art history, photography workshops, and in the emerging field of computer‑vision research within Iceland. The word is a compound of mynd (image) + greining (analysis) + viðmið (benchmark or standards).

In an academic context the criteria outline what aspects of an image should be considered. Typical categories include visual composition, use of colour, lighting, spatial arrangement, symbolic content, cultural references and context of production. For teachers, the guidelines provide a structured rubric that allows consistent assessment of students’ image‑analysis assignments. In professional practice, for instance in the photojournalism or museum curation fields, myndgreiningarviðmið help evaluators judge the technical quality, ethical considerations and relevance of visual works to a given narrative or exhibition theme.

The guidelines are codified in a series of handbooks produced by the Icelandic National School of Arts and the Reykjavík Photo Archive. They are also referenced in research articles on Icelandic visual culture, often cited in the form of a checklist adopted for comparative studies of Nordic imagery. Current revisions incorporate digital media theory, expanding the traditional focus on painted media to include GIFs, augmented reality overlays and AI‑generated imagery. The evolving nature of the term reflects both the preservation of Icelandic cultural heritage and the participation of Icelandic scholars in global discourses on visual literacy.