scholarly journals Being explicit about the implicit: inference generating techniques in visual narrative

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
NEIL COHN
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Visual Narrative ◽  
Combinatorial Structures ◽  
Inference Generation ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
Sequential Images ◽  
Verbal Discourse ◽  
Broad Level ◽  
Thought Bubbles

abstractInference has long been acknowledged as a key aspect of comprehending narratives of all kinds, be they verbal discourse or visual narratives like comics and films. While both theoretical and empirical evidence points towards such inference generation in sequential images, most of these approaches remain at a fairly broad level. Few approaches have detailed the specific cues and constructions used to signal such inferences in the first place. This paper thereby outlines several specific entrenched constructions that motivate a reader to generate inference. These techniques include connections motivated by the morphology of visual affixes like speech balloons and thought bubbles, the omission of certain narrative categories, and the substitution of narrative categories for certain classes of panels. These mechanisms all invoke specific combinatorial structures (morphology, narrative) that mismatch with the elicited semantics, and can be generalized by a set of shared descriptive features. By detailing specific constructions, this paper aims to push the study of inference in visual narratives to be explicit about when and why meaning is ‘filled in’ by a reader, while drawing connections to inference generation in other modalities.

scholarly journals Visual narrative comprehension: Universal or not?

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Cohn
Keyword(s):  
Language Disorder ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Narrative Comprehension ◽  
Visual Narrative ◽  
Graphic System ◽  
Educational Materials ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Sequential Images

AbstractVisual narratives of sequential images – as found in comics, picture stories, and storyboards – are often thought to provide a fairly universal and transparent message that requires minimal learning to decode. This perceived transparency has led to frequent use of sequential images as experimental stimuli in the cognitive and psychological sciences to explore a wide range of topics. In addition, it underlines efforts to use visual narratives in science and health communication and as educational materials in both classroom settings and across developmental, clinical, and non-literate populations. Yet, combined with recent studies from the linguistic and cognitive sciences, decades of research suggest that visual narratives involve greater complexity and decoding than widely assumed. This review synthesizes observations from cross-cultural and developmental research on the comprehension and creation of visual narrative sequences, as well as findings from clinical psychology (e.g., autism, developmental language disorder, aphasia). Altogether, this work suggests that understanding the visual languages found in comics and visual narratives requires a fluency that is contingent on exposure and practice with a graphic system.

Coming-Out Narratives in Audiovisual Culture

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paris S. Cameron-Gardos
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
Visual Narrative ◽  
Competitive Sports ◽  
Comfort Zone ◽  
The West ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
Summer Storm

The rejection of coming out as a linear narrative must be accompanied by an alternative to the formulas of confession, disclosure, and identity adoption that have pervaded the current representations of coming out in the West. The appearance of coming out in film narratives provides important opportunities to observe how elements such as repetition, rehearsal, and, above all, contrasts are incorporated into the stories that are recounted. Conventional coming-out films have relied so heavily on the restrictive nature of the genre’s narrative structure that the potential for alternative, or queered, realities of coming out is erased. The continual reappearance and adaptations of coming out will enable a better understanding of the ways in which the act is presented as a moment that is never finished and that often evades a final, perfected, and polished performance. Four specific narratives from queer film—Beautiful Thing (1996), Summer Storm(2004), Brotherhood (2009), and North Sea Texas (2011)—will be presented to offer counter models for coming out. In Beautiful Thing, the visual narrative demonstrates the importance of the reiterative, adaptable, and unanticipated representation of the act in visual media. In Summer Storm, the audience witnesses how coming out occurs in a world of competitive sports and where the teenage athletes reveal secrets that everyone already knows. In Brotherhood, the act of coming out is transformed into a moment when identities are instantaneously accepted and rejected within a homophobic, neo-Nazi subculture. In North Sea Texas, the script of coming out is reimagined by two characters who ambiguously decline any opportunity to define their identities. Coming out in visual narratives must be understood through an elaboration of Janet Harbord’s belief that the audience gravitates toward particular visual narratives where a comfort zone is created. These films have authored reiterative and adaptable approaches to the act of coming out that both comfort and challenge the audience.

Drawing on knowledge: Visual narrative analysis for critical environment and development research

2020 ◽  
pp. 251484862097534
Author(s):  
Gregory L Simon ◽  
Bryan Wee ◽  
Deepti Chatti ◽  
Emily Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Visual Narrative ◽  
Critical Research ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Environment And Development ◽  
Everyday Realities ◽  
Development Discourses

Counter-narratives to dominant development discourses are made possible using research methods designed to elicit marginalized voices. In this article, we propose a new analytical framework called the interpretive schema for drawings for analyzing visual narratives. The interpretive schema for drawings consists of five themes or interpretive lenses ( scale, centrality, inclusion, connections, and relationality) that were generated from maps of fuelwood collection in rural India. We suggest that the interpretive schema reflects and animates a range of spatialities that are central to geographic studies of human–environment dynamics. Using the interpretive schema for drawings in this way enables us to emphasize emic socio-spatial perspectives, and offers a critical research avenue through which everyday realities can be represented, understood, and validated. While other image-based research approaches, critical cartographies and participatory mapping exercises may encourage the expression of alternative knowledges, our proposed interpretive schema for drawing presents a specific set of guidelines for interpreting and making sense of visual narratives through explicit socio-spatial analysis.

scholarly journals A Picture is Worth More Words Over Time: Multimodality and Narrative Structure Across Eight Decades of American Superhero Comics

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Cohn ◽  
Ryan Taylor ◽  
Kaitlin Pederson
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Visual Language ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Visual Narrative ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
Multimodal Interactions ◽  
Narrative Structures ◽  
Over Time

AbstractThe visual narratives of comics involve complex multimodal interactions between written language and the visual language of images, where one or the other may guide the meaning and/or narrative structure. We investigated this interaction in a corpus analysis across eight decades of American superhero comics (1940–2010s). No change across publication date was found for multimodal interactions that weighted meaning towards text or across both text and images, where narrative structures were present across images. However, we found an increase over time of narrative sequences with meaning weighted to the visuals, and an increase of sequences without text at all. These changes coincided with an overall reduction in the number of words per panel, a shift towards panel framing with single characters and close-ups rather than whole scenes, and an increase in shifts between temporal states between panels. These findings suggest that storytelling has shifted towards investing more information in the images, along with an increasing complexity and maturity of the visual narrative structures. This has shifted American comics from being textual stories with illustrations to being visual narratives that use text.

Young People, Digital Cameras, and Art Gallery Spaces

2015 ◽  
pp. 168-188
Author(s):  
Narelle Lemon
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Digital Camera ◽  
Visual Narrative ◽  
Digital Cameras ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Art Gallery ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Contemporary Context

Young people can take meaningful photographs and are thus capable users of handheld digital technology such as digital cameras. When their digital photographs are paired with their narratives (creating visual narratives) an intertexuality becomes evident whereby the child's voice is honored. By positioning children as capable photographers who generate images to share their lived experiences, this chapter describes a project (called Ways of Seeing) that was interested in how visual narratives could support participatory learning in an art gallery setting. Johnson, Adams & Witchey (2011) trends for 2011 – 2016 identify six emerging technology topics that resonate well with the projects aims and offer several concrete examples of how technology is used in museums and galleries. They believe that digital technology embedded with a contemporary context reflects the reality of education needs, learning and teaching. It is from this perspective that this chapter shares a project that builds on these notions and shares how a digital camera can be used in the gallery space with young people. A visual narrative of the method and a content analysis of the digital images generated by the young people is presented. This chapter demonstrates how it is possible to take digital technology such as digital cameras and embed them into gallery education programs with young people.

Visual narratives on organizational space

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 780-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ritva Höykinpuro ◽  
Arja Ropo
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Research ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Visual Narrative ◽  
University Campus ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Written Narratives ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
The University ◽  
First Time

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a visual perspective to the narrative management research by exploring the potential of drawings to construct organizational space. This study is explorative in nature and aims to open up a discussion on the importance of visuality within the narrative research. Visual narratives combined with written ones are constructed and analyzed in the paper. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical illustrations of visual narratives outline students’ first-time encounters of the university campus. Their drawings and stories are used to describe and analyze their personal and subjective experiences of how they relate to the campus space. The students were asked to recall the moment they encountered the university campus for the first time and to draw their memories on a paper. Furthermore, they were asked to describe the drawings in a written narrative. Following that, the storyline was identified through a content analysis of both the drawings and the written narratives. This participatory research approach considers informants as co-researchers in producing data and emphasizes the inter-subjective nature of the study. Findings – The study points out valuable aspects in visual narrative organization research. The drawings and written narratives were found to complement each other revealing different things of the experiences. The drawings were very rich and detailed. They captured and revealed emotions, symbolic meanings and interpretations that were not explicated in the written stories. Finally, categories of visual narratives on organizational space were developed. Originality/value – This study contributes to the development of visual methodology in narrative management research. Moreover, this paper provides a methodological contribution to study organizational space. It sheds light on the potential of using visual narrative materials, especially self-produced drawings to construct organizational space. The study develops and illustrates a visual research method that combines written narratives with drawings. The study points out the importance to involve the informants as co-creators of a narrative study to capture the emotional richness of visual narratives. The authors envision that visual aspects of narratives will be a future direction in the narrative research, because visuality may capture hidden emotional aspects, symbols and artifacts that are not easily revealed in the told or written stories.

Narrative Sequence Position of Close-Ups Influences Cognitive and Affective Processing and Facilitates Theory of Mind

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katalin E. Bálint ◽  
Brendan Rooney
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Affective Processing ◽  
Visual Narrative ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
Narrative Processing ◽  
Animated Film ◽  
Computerized Content Analysis ◽  
Sequence Position

Close-up shots have been shown to modulate affective, cognitive and theory-of-mind responding to visual narratives. However, the role of close-up’s narrative-sequence position, that is the relative timing of close-up shots in a visual narrative, is largely unknown. Participants watched one of ten versions of the same animated film, after we inserted a close-up shot (neutral or a sad face) at one of five different time points. Story recall responses of 168 participants were analyzed by the Linguistic Inquiry of Word Count, a computerized content analysis software, and coded manually for theory of mind. The narrative-sequence position of the close-up influenced the level of cognitive processing, affective processing, and theory of mind evident in participant responses where a U-shaped relationship was observed for the close-up position. These findings further our understanding of how close-ups affect narrative processing and are of relevance for studies on formal features in visual narratives.

Seeing visual narrative. New methodologies in the study of prehistoric visual depictions

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Janik
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
White Sea ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Visual Narrative ◽  
The White Sea ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
Western Art ◽  
The Social ◽  
Short Films ◽  
New Methodologies

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to establish how visual narratives can be used in the social context of storytelling, enabling the remembrance of events and those who participated in them in prehistory around the White Sea in the northernmost part of Europe. One of the largest complexes of fisher-gatherer-hunter art is located here, dating from the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age (ca 6000–4000 B.P.). A number of methodological strands are brought together to aid in the interpretation of the art, combining Western art-historical and non-Western visual traditions that challenge our modern ways of seeing. The paper proposes an unconventional interpretation of this rock art, in which the prehistoric imagery is ‘translated’ via two short films creating the visual link between past and the present.

scholarly journals 'Paisajes del yo': Simbiosis sensible del cuerpo, espacio y luz en el aula de infantil

2018 ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
José María Mesías-Lema ◽  
Carlota Sánchez Paz
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Visual Narrative ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
Body Experiences ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Self Study ◽  
The One

Resumen: El presente artículo plantea una investigación artística acerca de la identidad en educación infantil a través de espacios que permitan vivenciar experiencias estéticas. Se parte de provocaciones relacionales entre los niños y el arte contemporáneo, experiencias lumínicas y corporales para la experimentación sensible en infantil. Se parte de la idea de cómo la luz ofrece posibilidades artísticas para la exploración del propio cuerpo, el vínculo con el espacio y la sinestesia del color. Todas las acciones desarrolladas se plasman a través de narrativas visuales. Estas poseen una doble finalidad: por una parte, documentar el proceso creativo y, por otro lado, interpretarlo desde la perspectiva del self-study en la investigación docente dentro del aula. Palabras clave: Experiencia estética relacional, Educación Artística Sensible, Narrativa visual, Micro-acciones performativas, Educación Infantil.   Abstract: This paper develops an arts-based educational research about the identity within the early years of life through workshops that allow to live aesthetic experiences. The starting point is the intencional relationships between children and contemporary art, lighting and body experiences in order to experience sensitiveness. It focuses on the idea of how light can be artistically used to explore the own body, the relation with space and the color’s synaesthesia. Each one of the actions has been developed trough visual narratives whith a dual aim: on the one hand, to generate documentacion about the creative process and, on the other hand, to interpret it from a self-study perspective in teaching research within the classroom. Key words: Relational Aesthetic Experience, Sensitive Art Education, Visual Narrative, Micro-performative Actions, Early Childhood Education.   http://dx.doi.org/10.7203/eari.9.10927

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document