Effectively using visual and material sources in presentations is important; Certain topics indeed require the use of such material, but all presentations can benefit from the lessons involved in their use. There is nothing more engaging than using multiple senses to take in information, but when poorly handled this can turn into distraction or marginalia. The following are some thoughts and caveats on this topic:
Images cannot speak for themselves. They cannot necessarily make a point for your argument on their own – make clear the point you are trying to make.People always infer subjective things from pictures. It has to be related to the argument and also very involved in the argument. Always engage and discuss historiography and methdology.
Choose wisely which visual aids will be useful. Are they digital or tactile real-life visuals? (eg. a Ryan Reynolds character board v. a slideshow JPEG)
Effectively cropping: you may only need a portion of a larger work to demonstrate your point – however, while you know your own material in full, your audience doesn’t, and may want to see the larger work in full before or after the crop.
CITE ALL YOUR SOURCES! You never know who might be interested and you WILL forget, and visuals and objects deserve the same rigour as textual evidence.
How to make a point drawn from dozens of images in the net, or how to demonstrate a point for which images may be entirely lacking; not clear?
You might encounter problem of knowing how to hand out your props without making them a distraction to both audience and speaker. Think constructively about it and always do trial runs to see how people react best to interacting with visuals.
Trial runs – ask other people about the relevance of your images or which details they pick out as most prominent so you know how your audience might react and be prepared for your ‘most frequently asked questions’, or head them off.
Timing: take the time for how long you spend on showing your visual aids. Make it sharp and do not waste time. If you want your presentation to be short and sharp you may have to cut out visual demonstrations rather than speaking twice as fast.
Knock down people’s preconceptions about your subject if you have to: e.g sailors clothing being pictured as what Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbeans – popular romanticised ideals versus reality which might be different.
Take note of limitations in scale and volume of physical evidence; it is easier to bring a visual aid in the form of a hat, as compared to a full scale iron stove. However, there may be options to bring in a small scale model of said stove, or a real life poster which might still be interactive and tactile ways of demonstrating your points.
Ask interactive questions if you feel like this will add to your presentation, but be aware that this will take up more time. It will involve the audience more actively but might also be disruptive. Make wise decisions and maybe do trial runs with friends.
A visual digital image might be ‘enough’ to illustrate your points, but real life visuals might add that little extra to give the impression that you have really made an effort with your project and are trying your hardest to involve the audience. It emotionally engages the spectators which is crucial in any effective presentation (arguably, depending on the subject of the presentation the way that you emotionally engage differs, but some things like eye-contact is always important).
Danger of getting lost in the details and failing to make wider historical connections. Answering the “so what?” question both in big and small historical terms, constantly.
Be enthusiastic – enjoy what you are doing and the audience will enjoy it too! 😀
Essentially, if you don’t use images or props your presentation will probably be more boring, and if you use them well it will certainly be more engaging, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think very carefully about how you use them, why, and.how they fit into your larger argument.