The rising influence of the visual over the purely written word.
\nThird Formal Commentary<\/p>\n
Richard Biel
\nUniversity of British Columbia
\nEtec 540<\/p>\n
Professors Jeff Miller and Brian Lamb<\/p>\n
Many have claimed the death of the author is nigh (Barthes, 1968).\u00a0 One of Michel Foucault’s most pivotal works \u201cWhat is an author?\u201d may have even started the dirge.\u00a0\u00a0 Kress (2005) and Bolter (2001) do not go as far as that but they do both argue that there is an incredible change that is presently occurring.\u00a0 Information and knowledge are moving from the long standing dominance of writing to a multi-modal form of communication best exemplified by the Internet and the webpage however extending far past this to more common forms of text.\u00a0 This \u201cremediation\u201d as Bolter (2001) phrases it, is causing a shift in power from the author to the reader.\u00a0 The reason for this shift is the limitations of text and the development of technology that allows this change to occur.\u00a0 Both authors are wary of being labelled technological determinists and distance themselves from this position citing the complexity of human\/societal\/technological relationships.\u00a0 One thing is for certain whether the advent of the Internet and hypertext is the executor of the author is questionable however they most certainly have mutagenic capabilities.<\/p>\n
In the natural sciences there are a number of species that have, despite all odds, hung on for a \u201cunnaturally\u201d long period of time.\u00a0 Kress (2005) contends that this is certainly the case for writing.\u00a0 Writing has had and continues to have a very prominent place in the dissemination of information, knowledge and entertainment.\u00a0 However this dominant role of writing is changing.\u00a0 \u201cIn particular, it seems evident to many commentators that writing is giving way, is being displaced by image in many instances of communication where previously it had held sway.\u201d (Kress, 2005).\u00a0 Bolter (2001) contends that text and writing actually, \u201ccontained and constrained the images on the printed page.\u201d\u00a0 The rise of the image in dominance is demonstrated on an almost daily basis by newspapers, textbooks and magazines that are resembling more and more like webpages and hypertext.\u00a0 I doubt very much that writing not supported by other multi-modal forms of communication will be completely supplanted however there is no doubt that a change is occurring towards a more visually dominant age.<\/p>\n
Traditionally the author of the written word has taken a far more prominent role when it came to the author\/reader power differential.\u00a0 This relationship is changing.\u00a0 The author traditionally had control over syntax, grammar, word order, word choice and a myriad of other conventions that allowed the author to dictate how information and knowledge was metered out.\u00a0 Readers traditionally took more passive roles in their interaction with the written word but with the ever growing prominence of the visual image \u201c we get a reverse ekphrasis in which images are given the task of explaining words.\u201d (Bolter, 2001).\u00a0\u00a0 This is best exemplified by the \u201cnovelization\u201d of films.\u00a0 Where films are first released and then the novel is written almost as a second thought.\u00a0 \u201cIn a multimodal text, writing may be central, or it may not; on screens writing may not feature in mulimodal texts that use sound-effect and the soundtrack of a musical score, use speech, moving and still images of various kinds.\u201d (Kress, 2005).\u00a0 Both Kress (2005) and Bolter (2001) recognize that we are currently living in the age of the visual and the written word, although still highly regarded, is slowly taking a backseat to the visual.<\/p>\n
So why has the written word been bumped out of the drivers seat?\u00a0 This can best be explained by outlining the limitations of the written word.\u00a0 Kress (2005) contends that individual words are vague and rely to heavily upon the interpretation of the reader.\u00a0 An image, on the other hand, is far less open to interpretation by the viewer.\u00a0 However, I would argue that images can be manipulated to highlight different aspects of the images and downplay others and thus lead viewers to interpret the images in particular ways.\u00a0 Images, Kress(2005) contends have a much greater capacity and diversity of meaning.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHypermedia can be regarded as a kind of picture writing, which refashions the qualities of both traditional picture writing and phonetic writing.\u201d (Botler, 2001).\u00a0 Although a purely written text is being relegated to the halls of academia and higher thought it still has a place in supporting the successful transmission of information and knowledge.<\/p>\n
Multi-modal representations have become common place in the visually rich culture of the western world.\u00a0 Traditional forms of concept transmission such as the written word are being re-tooled and enhanced with sound, video and images.\u00a0 Kress (2005) and Bolter (2001) both contend that this is to the betterment of the media as a far richer and more diverse form of communication is evolving.\u00a0 The purely written word that is supported with few if any images is being pushed to the margins of higher learning and thought.\u00a0 With the advent of digital media we will continue to be offered a greater diversity and more individualistic experience when it comes to information, knowledge and communication.<\/p>\n
References<\/p>\n
Barthes, Roland (1968).\u00a0 The death of the author.\u00a0 Downloaded on November 28th, 2009. From http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?hl=en&lr=&id=DuEOAAAAQAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA101&dq=Death+of+the+author&ots=XaTIKFKF-_&sig=3OZbsPgu2tt2X2oTR4euZW2GB3o#v=onepage&q=Death%20of%20the%20author&f=false<\/p>\n
Bolter, Jay D. (2001).\u00a0 Writing Spaces:\u00a0 Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, Mahwah, New Jersey, London.<\/p>\n
Foucault, Michel (1977).\u00a0 What is an author? In Language, counter-memory, practice:\u00a0 Selected essays and interviews (pp.113-138). (D. F. Bouchard & S. Simon, Trans. ).\u00a0 Ithaca, N.Y.:Cornell University<\/p>\n
Kress, Gunther (2005). Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning.\u00a0 Computers and Compostion 22, pp.5-22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The rising influence of the visual over the purely written word. Third Formal Commentary Richard Biel University of British Columbia Etec 540 Professors Jeff Miller and Brian Lamb Many have claimed the death of the author is nigh (Barthes, 1968).\u00a0 One of Michel Foucault’s most pivotal works \u201cWhat is an author?\u201d may have even started […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":885,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5099],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-major-project"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/885"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2292,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2291\/revisions\/2292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}