We live in a society that increasingly often uses visual language and image as a system of representation and interaction. Thus the imaginary system becomes of vital importance in the communication processes. The school has ceased to be the main source of information and training for adolescents. Nowadays, students who come to class do so in possession of a significant amount of knowledge arising from their social practices, their interactions and the context in which they develop. In a progressive and almost imperceptible way, the fragments of information acquired in these exchanges, together with the images that the subject captures, are composing their structures of meanings and shaping their social imaginary. All this creates in the individual constructs and entrenched preconceptions, which he uses to interpret his reality and determine the way in which they intervene with it. The lack of knowledge or disengagement of the experience itself, prior and parallel to the school, that students own, results in a situation where teachers are unable to provide potentially meaningful contents for students which could motivate them to initiate and maintain the learning process.This article presents some of the most relevant information contained in a research work carried out at the University of Seville on the conceptual world of students of artistic education of ESO and/or Bachillerato.