Showing papers in "Visual Communication in 2013"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the critical case of mobile phone footage of Gaddafi's death in the context of Swedish television news and its audiences, and consider how the nature of "media witnessing"...
Abstract: Focusing on the critical case of the mobile phone footage of Gaddafi’s death in the context of Swedish television news and its audiences, this article considers how the nature of ‘media witnessing’...
60 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the visual politics of solidarity, in relation specifically to the representation of suffering and development, has been grounded in analysis of images, and the authors seek to expand this analysis.
Abstract: Discussion of the visual politics of solidarity, in relation specifically to the representation of suffering and development, has been grounded in analysis of images. This article seeks to expand t...
55 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a review of the major paradigms of war communication studies, propaganda and memory studies, to argue that, despite their contributions, neither focuses on historical change in the ethics of war.
Abstract: This article examines the changing ethics of war photojournalism. It provides a review of the major paradigms of war communication studies, propaganda and memory studies, to argue that, despite their contributions, neither focuses on historical change in the ethics of war. In the light of an analytical discussion of iconic images of the First World War and Second World War as well as the War on Terror in terms of how they portray the battlefield the article argues that there is a historical shift towards an increasingly explicit visualisation of war, which today tends to emphasise the emotional, rather than physical, impact of the battlefield upon both soldiers and civilians. This shift, it concludes, reflects the contemporary political context of humanitarian wars fought with a view to alleviating suffering, rather than wars fought over national sovereignty.
38 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that participants actively drew on an available visual and linguistic design to construct meaning and interpret the graphic novels they read in the context of a voluntary after-school reading group and identified semiotic resources the students drew on as readers, and understand how they used them to construct literary meaning.
Abstract: Despite the interest that literacy educators in the United States have expressed in graphic novels as a pedagogical tool, few empirical studies have asked how readers interact with their multimodal design to interpret them. To account for a gap in the literature, this case study asked how six high school students read and talked about four graphic novels in the context of a voluntary after-school reading group. In doing so, it sought to identify semiotic resources the students drew on as readers, and understand how they used them to construct literary meaning. Contrary to arguments that have traditionally characterized works written in the medium of comics as rendering readers passive, the findings indicate that the participants actively drew on an available visual and linguistic design to construct meaning and interpret the graphic novels they read.
33 citations
TL;DR: This article proposes that the interrelations between the two components in doctoral submissions of this kind can be theorized as being on a continuum of interrelations, with a number of key text types (or archetypes) being manifested.
Abstract: Doctoral writing in the visual and performing arts poses many challenges for the academy, not the least of which is accounting for the possible relations which can hold between the written and creative/performed components of a doctoral thesis in these fields. This article proposes that the interrelations between the two components in doctoral submissions of this kind can be theorized as being on a continuum of interrelations, with a number of key text types (or archetypes) being manifested. Through textual analysis of the written component only, the different possible relations can be distinguished through the ways in which the creative component is resemiotized in the written text, through both the verbal and visual semiosis of the written component. This enables us to identify a number of ways in which the ‘one’ project can be construed through its two different component parts, casting an important light on debates within the field in terms of the relations between creative practice and research.
27 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show how NGO films deploy melodramatic modes in constructing the narrative arcs of their campaign films and explore the potential of this mode for generating solidarity between the spectator and the suffering subject.
Abstract: This article shows how NGO films deploy melodramatic modes in constructing the narrative arcs of their campaign films and it explores the potential of this mode for generating solidarity between the spectator and the suffering subject. The author analyses how, through the use of music, colour and gesture, a visceral emotional response is evoked that produces an identification of the spectator with the experiences of the suffering subject. She argues that the criticism of melodrama as a mode or genre that substitutes politics with compassion is misplaced; compassion for distant others may be at least as critical to the formation of solidarity as a politically informed understanding of the structural causes of social injury.
24 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors look at the covers of four such picturebooks, in particular at the representa cation of same-sex parents, in order to explore the potential of picturebooks featuring same sex parents.
Abstract: Picturebooks featuring same-sex parents, although growing in number, remain underexplored. In this article, the authors look at the covers of four such picturebooks, in particular at the representa...
20 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the relationship between theories of photography and mobile phone footage, and ask if theories still apply in a technologically saturated world of mobile phone videos and ask whether they still apply to mobile phones.
Abstract: This article discusses the relationship between theories of photography and mobile phone footage. In doing so, it asks if theories of photography still apply in a technologically saturated world of...
19 citations
TL;DR: A review of recent attempts to analyse the visibility that is brought to human suffering within "social imaginaries" committed to humanitarian concerns can be found in this article, where the authors argue that human suffering is valued more for its potential to generate value conflicts than for the extent to which it serves as an authentic or ideologically uncontaminated representation of social reality.
Abstract: This article reviews recent attempts to analyse the visibility that is brought to human suffering within ‘social imaginaries’ committed to humanitarian concerns. It questions the conventions of critique that operate to cast the humanitarian social imaginary as a negative development within our political culture. It is designed to encourage a more critically reflexive and historically informed approach to the work of critique. It also argues that it is possible to trace a tradition in which humanitarian campaigners operate with the aim of appropriating the critical reaction to their work as part of their political strategy. In this regard, campaigners are more concerned to provoke moral controversy than to fashion ‘winning arguments’. Here the visualization of human suffering is valued more for its potential to generate value conflicts than for the extent to which it serves as an authentic or ideologically uncontaminated representation of social reality.
18 citations
TL;DR: Blaagaard et al. as mentioned in this paper focus on the actual imagery of human vulnerability and mortality in two of its most prominent public manifestations: humanitarian imagery of distant suffering and the photojournalism of conflict.
Abstract: Sontag’s influential words on photography as death, echoing Barthes’ similar (2000) formulation of the photograph as always a ‘has been’, insightfully hints at the radical contingency and finality inherent in photography’s capture of random life moments. Yet, it reflects a rather negative theory of images, which is deeply suspicious of the potentially educative possibilities of images to nurture dispositions of action towards human vulnerability – a suspicion that, as Linfield (2010) argues, is endemic in a long tradition of photographic criticism from Roland Barthes to Frederick Jameson. Far from sharing this suspicion, this special issue wishes to emphasise the power of images to reanimate the ethical and political tensions captured in their fleeting snapshots and to make claims to reflection and emotion that always, however, depend on the historical contexts in which images emerge. Given the omnipresence and gravitas of spectacles of suffering in our culture, this issue both challenges and takes Sontag’s argument at face value by focusing on the actual imagery of human vulnerability and mortality in two of its most prominent public manifestations: humanitarian imagery of distant suffering and the photojournalism of conflict. By drawing on a wide range of photographic, filmic and digital representations, the contributions in the issue, in their various ways, seek to throw into relief the complex relationships between those who witness the suffering of others and those who suffer. From the poor and sick to street protesters and from war victims to soldiers-in-battle, the figures of suffering in this issue are, however, unevenly distributed in the global economy of images of vulnerability and violence, reflecting the historical divide of viewing relations between Western societies of relative affluence and safety and developing societies of 483228 VCJ12310.1177/1470357213483228Visual CommunicationBlaagaard: Special Issue: The ethics of images
17 citations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that a semiotician’s intervention can lead to a more optimal amount of inferencing and thus drive the use of equal-status image–text relations in new media in the direction of mature uses.
Abstract: This article first develops the system of image–text relations introduced in Martinec and Salway’s (2005) article – ‘A system for image–text relations in new (and old) media’) – mainly by focusing ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse tattoos on a subject's body and approach the task from what they term three "optics": social semiotics; sedimented identity in texts; and New Literacy Studies in relation to multimodality, drawing on ethnographic perspectives.
Abstract: Research methodology using visual narrative techniques opens up conceptual views for interpreting a wide range of visuals. In this article, the authors analyse tattoos on a subject’s body and approach the task from what they term three ‘optics’: social semiotics; sedimented identity in texts; and New Literacy Studies in relation to multimodality, drawing on ethnographic perspectives. Each optic illustrates how a woman constructs her identity through her body art. The article serves to illustrate that, whilst the use of visual methods in a small-scale study does not aim to be generalizable, the contribution to visual methodology has to do more with how varied conceptual views can work in conjunction to excavate deeper, more textured meanings in visual narratives.
TL;DR: The authors compared 55 pairs of global news items in Chinese and English-language tabloid newspapers collected during a two-month period in 2009 and found that Chinese news items were more informative than English news items.
Abstract: This cross-cultural study involves a comparison of 55 pairs of global news items in Chinese- and English-language tabloid newspapers collected during a two-month period in 2009. Drawing on Bateman’...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented three dimensions to be considered when examining multimodal connections between television commercials and websites: announcements, participants and address strategy, and brought together in an analytical framework that can serve as inspiration for further research on cross-media communication in advertising and possibly in other types of communication.
Abstract: The aim of this article is to advance current understandings of cross-media communication in advertising. The study is based on a sample of 80 television commercials and their announced websites, and the article is inspired by recent studies of cross-media advertising effectiveness as well as semiotic perspectives on multimodal analysis. The authors present three dimensions to be considered when examining multimodal connections between television commercials and websites: announcements, participants and address strategy. These dimensions are brought together in an analytical framework that can serve as inspiration for further research on cross-media communication in advertising and possibly in other types of communication.
TL;DR: A small peaceful protest was held in front of China's Central Government Liaison Office in the Western district of Hong Kong island as mentioned in this paper, where protesters held up a caricature of the Peking University professor who called Hongkongers "Bastards" and "Dogs".
Abstract: 1. Protester holds up a caricature of the Peking University professor who called Hongkongers 'Bastards' and ‘Dogs’. The small peaceful protest was held in front of China’s Central Government Liaison Office in the Western district of Hong Kong island. The Chinese reads: "If Hongkongese are dogs, then respectful Professor Kong should be euthanized!
TL;DR: In a reflective practitioner article as mentioned in this paper, the author uses his novel Five Wounds as a case study of this approach to design and shows that design is not just a matter of typography and layout, but rather, design organises all the signifying elements on a page within an integrated system.
Abstract: In recent ‘hybrid novels’, which incorporate illustrations and other visual material as an integral part of the narrative, design is not just a matter of typography and layout Rather, design organises all the signifying elements on a page within an integrated system, so that form exemplifies content In this reflective practitioner article, the author uses his novel Five Wounds as a case study of this approach to design
TL;DR: In this article, a taxonomy of visual art forms and the social structures in which they are produced is presented by extending Witkin's taxonomy first presented in his 1995 book Art and Social Structure.
Abstract: This article elaborates the dialectical relationship between visual art forms and the social structures in which they are produced, by extending Robert Witkin’s taxonomy first presented in his 1995 book Art and Social Structure. Witkin tracked the history of visual art from pre-modern times, for which he invented the label invocational art, to the advent of Modernism, described
in terms of evocational and then provocational art. The article then extrapolates from Witkin’s model to include post-Modernism, for which the author’s term revocational art has been coined, and goes on to discuss Nicolas Bourriaud’s concept of Altermodernism, his term for describing the relationship between contemporary art practices and the social conditions of today, for which the author suggests an alternative – convocational art – a synonym for Bourriaud’s term relational art. The article concludes with a demonstration that social semiotic theory can be a powerful tool for the analysis of relational art.
TL;DR: The Jesup Expedition was used by Boas to discover the racial origins of America's Native peoples, but the data collected and the knowledge gained were also later used by as mentioned in this paper to report on the physical changes occurring to migrant children in the USA, and to mount an attack on the scientific credibility of racial theories being used to hound and discriminate against Jewish and other racial minorities in Germany and Europe.
Abstract: Franz Boas is best known for his pioneering work in the area of cultural anthropology. However in the 1890s, Boas created hundreds of anthropometric photographs as part of a vast study aimed at documenting the physical characteristics of Native Americans. The primary purpose of the Jesup Expedition, as the study was called, was to discover the racial origins of America’s Native peoples, but the data collected and the knowledge gained were also later used by Boas to report on the physical changes occurring to migrant children in the USA, and to mount an attack on the scientific credibility of the racial theories being used to hound and discriminate against Jewish and other racial minorities in Germany and Europe.
TL;DR: In this article, the potential of the camera framing, or shot-size, semiotic resource to encode meanings related to social distance has been recognized for some time, and the authors seek to bring this resource into th...
Abstract: The potential of the camera framing, or shot-size, semiotic resource to encode meanings related to social distance has been recognized for some time. This study seeks to bring this resource into th...
TL;DR: Visual Methods in Psychology as discussed by the authors provides a rich body of visual research conducted primarily in the field of psychology, complemented by rich insights from such diverse fields as social policy, environmental science, psychogeography and fine art.
Abstract: The use of visual methods in social science research has grown significantly over the past 30 years or so, driven partly by an increasing recognition of social and cultural practices as central to our understanding of human experience, and boosted in more recent years by the ubiquitous presence of images in global and local communication and by the affordability of visual media for data collection and analysis. Despite this trend, comparatively little visual research has emerged from the discipline of psychology, which has tended to cling to its established focus on language and cognition. In Visual Methods in Psychology, Paula Reavey addresses this gap and draws together a rich body of visual research conducted primarily in the field of psychology, complemented by rich insights from such diverse fields as social policy, environmental science, psychogeography and Fine Art. The multiple authors reflect critically on how diverse visual media, including photography, film-making, drawing, model-making, walking, map drawing and digital technologies, can be used to research human experience. Throughout this ambitious and accomplished edited collection, the authors problematise the theoretical and methodological implications of conducting visual research in psychology, and reflect on the unique perspectives offered by participatory visual methods.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse recent work of Australian-born, British-based hyperrealist sculptor, Ron Mueck, in order to show how it not only engages with a range of specific contemporary concerns, but also makes use of contemporary concerns.
Abstract: This article analyses recent (2009) work of Australian-born, British-based hyperrealist sculptor, Ron Mueck, in order to show how it not only engages with a range of specific contemporary concerns ...
TL;DR: This reflections on practice essay is organized into three parts; Development, Structure and Application, as a way to describe through drawing and writing the building of a ‘Taxonomy of Drawing’.
Abstract: This reflections on practice essay is organized into three parts; Development, Structure and Application, as a way to describe through drawing and writing the building of a ‘Taxonomy of Drawing’. The first part on Development focuses on the period from 2005–2010 and the roll that different genera of drawing played as enabling tools in the development of the taxonomy. Structure was developed during the period from 2010–2012, and tracked drawn images from the point of origination within the domain of two-dimensional representation through to their emergence as drawings that are products of one or other of the six genera. Finally, the last part Application, tracks the journey of six sample drawings through the taxonomy. This essay is illustrated by the 12 line drawings used in the development and testing of the taxonomy.
TL;DR: The authors discuss the iterative design choices involved in creating an appropriate range of characters and character attributes, where they were conscious of the need to keep complexity to a minimum while simultaneously providing as wide a range as possible of the features necessary for a director planning blocking.
Abstract: The Simulated Environment for Theatre (SET) is an experimental three-dimensional interface for use in blocking plays. Created using the Unity3D game engine, SET allows directors or student director...