In Adrianne’s Task 7 post, she created a redesign of her “What’s in My Bag” task by producing a digital textile collage in Genially that represents the textures of the items she carries. She reflected on how the project helped her think differently about how materials communicate meaning and noted that translating these textures into a digital form was challenging, since touch can only be suggested. She explained that the collage felt more like how it actually feels to carry the items. She connected her redesign to Cope & Kalantzis (2009), and the New London Group (1996), emphasizing how literacy goes beyond words to include visual, tactile, spatial, and digital forms of meaning.
Why I chose this post
I chose this post because I wanted to see another approach to the mode-bending task, since I had chosen a soundscape. I was intrigued by what Adrianne did with textures and had many questions after exploring her post.
Reflection
I think using textures as a mode-bending task is a great idea and a very unique approach. For me, audio seemed like the most natural way to convey meaning, so it was fascinating to see how someone else approached the task. I was particularly interested in Adrianne’s point about how translating texture into a digital form is challenging because touch can only be suggested.
I also had a few questions while navigating the post. For example, Adrianne used Genially, which is normally used for interactive presentations, but I couldn’t see the interactivity here. I wondered why she chose Genially to showcase the textures. If there is some interactivity I missed, it would have been helpful to provide instructions on how to navigate it. I also thought it might be interesting not to label the images, allowing viewers to interpret the textures themselves.
Another big question that arose for me is how touch could be represented in a digital, multimodal way. Could we use video to show someone interacting with these materials? How might touch be conveyed visually, digitally, and spatially to create a more immediate sense of materiality? These questions represent my biggest takeaway from Adrianne’s post and have inspired me to think about new ways of representing sensory experiences in multimodal projects, especially when they must be conveyed digitally.
References
Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2009). “Multiliteracies”: New literacies, new learning. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 4(3), 164–195. https://doi.org/10.1080/15544800903076044
The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–92.