Wow! This was a tricky task. – Thank you for a thought provoking week!
Emoji Book Summary (this is a link to a PDF)
“The main point is that the relationship between word and image is becoming unstable” (Bolter, p.49).
Bolter discusses at length how the relationship between words and images is tenuous and constantly shifting. I was quite inclined to agree with him about the power of the visual image, being a visual artist myself, but having worked on this week’s tasks for hours and finding no sense of success has really changed my thinking.
While films have much power and cultural importance (p. 57, Bolter), I would argue that images without language haven’t the same weight and that pictures and words will be interdependent for years to come. Emoji’s have a place in sending messages and adding tone, but I was unable to string together any real sentences or detailed descriptions. In trying to summarize the latest book that I read, I found that I had to keep removing details that I felt were important to the characters and the story line. Now, I have a brief summary of what could be any ‘whodunnit?’ style of mystery.
In short, using generic images resulted in a generic plot. Though this seems obvious to me now, I needed to complete the task to truly understand what Bolton meant when he wrote, “…picture writing lacks narrative power” (p. 59). I am relating this back to a self portrait project that I am working on with my senior Art students this week and next, where they use Typography or written words to create the value ranges in their images. We discuss how a simple portrait describes what they look like and the words they use describes who they are. These can be quite powerful when completed. Another timely art lesson!
Chapter 4. Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed.). Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. doi:10.4324/9781410600110