RI - Chapter 6: The meaning of composition

This chapter focuses on composition: how the representational and interactive meanings of an image interrelate through - (Information value, Salience, and Framing).

Composite (multimodal texts) - visuals which combine text and image and other graphic elements. Questions arise whether the products of the various modes should be analyzed separately or in an integrated way.

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Information value- the placement of elements (participants that relate them to each other and to the viewer) endows them with the specific informational values attached to the various 'zones' of the image: left and right, top and bottom, centre and margin. "Many visuals combine horizontal and vertical structuring." (188)

Given and New (information value - left and right): in cultures which write from right to left, the Given is on the right and the New is on the left. "What is taken for granted by one social group is not taken for granted by another. We might expect to find, therefore, systematic differences in the dispositions of material in layout across different magazines - for instance, according to their readership." (184) Can also be found in film and television - interviewer on left of the interviewee (viewer's point of view). Interviewers are presented as people with whose views and assumptions viewers will identify and already familiar with ('GIVEN') ; interviewee presents 'NEW' information and are situated on the right.

• Demand pictures - usually the right page (NEW); dominated by large and salient photographs from which the representative participants engage the gaze of the viewer. Key information for viewer - must pay attention to 'message'.
  
• Offer pictures - usually the left page (GIVEN); dominated by smaller, less salient photographs from which the viewer doesn't have direct contact with the representative participants. Already given information - viewer already knows.

Ideal and Real (information value - top and bottom): less connection (ongoing movement) between the two parts - contrast between the two.

• Upper section - (Ideal); visualizes the 'promise of the product', the status of glamour it can bestow on its users, or sensory fulfillment it can bring. Consumer's supposed aspirations and desires. SALIENT part.
  
• Lower section - (Real); visualizes the product itself, providing more or less factual information about it, and telling the readers or users where it can be obtained, or how they can request more information about it, or order it. Products placed firmly in the realm of the real, as a solid foundation for the edifice of promise.

Centre and Margin (information value): a sense of permanence goes with the central position; in Byzantine churches the dominant image of the divine ruler holds the centre of the apse. In contemporary Western visualization central composition is relatively uncommon, though here too there may be changes in train. "Central composition played an important role in imagination of young Asian designers." (195) Triptychs - polarized with a Given left, New right and centre which bridges the two and acts as a 'Mediator'; used to structure diagrams, websites (vertical).

• Centre - central element; presented as the nucleus of the information to which all the other elements are in some sense subservient.
  
• Margins - elements around Centre; dependent, identical or similar to each other, so that there is no sense of a division between Given and New and/or Ideal and Real elements among them.
  

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Salience - the elements (participants) are made to attract the viewer's attention to different degrees (realized by factors as placement in the foreground and background, relative size, contrasts in tonal value (or colour), differences in sharpness, etc. Not objectively measurable; greater the weight of an element, the greater its salience.

"Regardless of where they are placed, salience can create a hierarchy of importance among the elements, selecting some as more important, more worthy of attention than others." (201)

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Framing - the presence or absence of framing devices (realized by elements which create dividing lines, or by actual frame lines) disconnects or connects elements of the image, signifying that they belong or do not belong together in some sense.

"The stronger the framing of an element, the more it is presented as a separate unit of information... the absence of framing stresses group identity, its presence signifies individuality and differentiation." (203) The more the elements of the spatial composition are connected, the more they are presented as belonging together, as a single unit of information. Ways in which framing can be achieved - by actual frame lines, by white space between elements, by discontinuities of colour, etc. "Emphasized by vectors, by depicted elements (structural elements of buildings, perspectivally drawn roads leading the eye to elements in the background, etc.) or by abstract graphic elements, leading the eye from one element to another, beginning with the most salient element (first element that draws the viewer's attention)." (204)
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Linear and non-linear compositions: "Given that what is made salient is culturally determined, members of different cultural groupings are likely to have different hierarchies of salience, and perhaps texts of this kind are the way they are precisely to allow for the possibility of more than one reading path, and hence for the heterogeneity and diversity of their large readership." (205) Linear reading is gradually losing ground; these are like movies where the viewers have no choice but to see the images in an order that has been decided for them. Non-linear texts, viewers can select their own images and view them in an order of their own choosing.

The shape of the reading path: conveys a significant cultural message; they may be circular, diagonal, spiraling, etc. - these different paths can themselves become sources of meaning. Interactive - no chronology, nor a clear hierarchy of salience (Water Parks of the Damned! - newspapers, billboards, comic strips, advertisements, websites).

Movie: Untergang, Der (2004) - Hitler's Downfall

I would just like to say that I really liked the movie. Bruno Ganz really did a great job acting as Hitler; his expressions were notible and gave me the sense that I was seeing the real-life Adolf. How does one make a movie about a ruthless dictator (monster) and give him the ability to be more noble or even empathetic toward himself or others? The director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, showed us an exclusive look inside Hitler's last moments as the setting takes place mainly in an underground bunker.

The movie intros us with an older woman whom explains to us her remorse for helping out Hitler; she acts as the narrator for the movie and I think this helped elevate the situation some. Throughout the movie we see more dialogue and less chaos; this helps the viewer understand better what the people were going through in these desperate times. Only seeing the Russians a few times helped keep the focus on the Germans; this was a smart move and helped keep the intensity of the invasion up.

The expressions on everyone's face says it all... the adults tried to show that they were not frightened, discouraged, etc., while the children soldiers kept more of a determined and focused look. The movie definitely needed the suicides, nudity, and even laughter to help us grasp the monstrosities of war and how one person, Hitler, could cause this disaster for reasons of religion or racial beliefs. It was also important to emphasize the comments by Hitler and his officials, that the German people wanted this type of government and they should deal with their decision (even if they would die because of it).

Subtitles!!!! I had a hard time getting into the movie because of this, but I think it was the right approach. I kindof liked the mystery behind this time in history, and I actually preferred this style of viewing the movie because it allowed me to stay interested and focused. If they changed it to english dialect, I wouldn't get involved, as much, and I think that would interfere with the realism that the movie portrays now.

Overall the movie was very enjoyable and I would probably not watch it again mainly for the duration. This movie could have been shorter, but I think it gave a since of foreboding (future misfortune). I do like the final outcome where Traudl Junge, our young secretary narrator, frees herself from the cluches of Adolf's leadership. The movie gave me a sense of realism because of the directing style and confined space.

Wikipedia says...
der Führer means... "the term referred to a commander lacking the qualifications for permanent command." This makes me wonder why they called Hitler the Fuhrer; maybe he lacked the leadership skills.

Subproject: Digital Remix - Tattoo Theme

Here are some of my images for our second project - Digital Remix. The goal of this subproject was to try and create three images worthy enough to be displayed on http://www.worth1000.com website. The central theme focuses on tattoos here for this is my goal for projects this semester. Hope you enjoy.

For more information you can download a pdf file here: [TattooDigitalRemix.pdf]

RI - Chapter 5 - Modality: designing models of reality

Here are my notes from reading this book from authors Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen.

This chapter looks at the truth behind and image to understand if it is valid or not; social groups can change the validity of a given image because they foster different beliefs and reasonings.

Modality definition: reliability of messages; truth value or credibility of statements about the world; visually, we regard our sense of sight more reliable than another other sense (hearing, taste, etc.). While the camera may not lie, those who use it can and do. Modality cues - "motivated signs which have arisen out of the interest of social groups who interact within the structures of power that define social life, and also interact across the systems produced by various groups within a society." (154)

Representation of visual - people, places, and things as though they are real (exist), or imaginings, fantasies, caricatures, etc. (non-existent).

Reality is in the eye of the beholder: what is regarded as real depends on how reality is defined by a particular social group.

• Naturalism reality - basis of how much correspondence there is between the visual representation of an object and what we normally see of that object with the naked eye. Hyper-real shows 'too much detail', 'too much depth', 'too much color' to be true, which makes it have less modality for this naturalism reality.
  
• Scientific reality - defines reality on the basis of what things are like regularly; goes beyond the visual appearance of things.

Realism is produced by a particular group: as an effect on the complex of practices which define and constitute that group. Particular kind of realism is itself a motivated sign, in which the values, beliefs and interests of that group find their expression.

Dominant criterion for what is real or not: based on appearance of things, on how much correspondence there is between what we can 'normally' see of an object, in a concrete and specific setting, and what we can see of it in a visual representation.

Judging a pictures modality: pictures which have the perspective, the degree of detail, the kind of colour rendition, etc. of the standard technology of colour photography have the highest modality, and are seen as 'naturalistic'. As detail, sharpness, colour, etc. are reduced or amplified, as the perspective flattens or deepens, so modality decreases.

Modality markers: realized by a complex interplay of visual cues below. The same image may be 'abstract' in terms of one or several markers and 'naturalistic' in terms of others.

• Colour saturation - a scale running from full colour saturation to the absence of colour (black and white).
• Colour differentiation - a scale running from a maximally diversified range of colours to monochrome.
• Colour modulation - a scale running from fully modulated colour (use of many different shades of red, to plain, unmodulated colour.
• Contextualization - a scale running from the absence of background to the most fully articulated and detailed background (e.g. depth of field - standard lenses have accustomed us to images in which the background is less articulated than the foreground).
  
• Representation - a scale running from maximum abstraction to maximum representation of pictorial detail.
• Depth - a scale running from the absence of depth to maximally deep perspective.
• Illumination - a scale running from the fullest representation of the play of light and shade to its absence.
• Brightness - a scale running from a maximum number of different degrees of brightness to just two degrees (black and white / dark grey and lighter grey / two brightness values of the same colour).

Coding orientation: the ability of modern colour photography to render detail, brightness, colour, etc. constitutes for our culture today a kind of standard for visual modality. The world 'as we see it' has become the measure for what is 'real' and 'true'. "So visual modality rests on culturally and historically determined standards of what is real and what is not, and not on the objective correspondence of the visual image to a reality defined in some ways independently of it." (163) Set o abstract principles which inform the way in which texts are coded by specific social groups, or within specific institutional contexts.

• Technological coding orientations - 'effectiveness' of the visual representation as a 'blueprint' (e.g. colour is useless for the scientific or technological purpose of the image - low modality)
• Sensory coding orientations - pleasure principle is allowed to be dominant: certain kinds of art, advertising, fashion, food photography, interior decoration... (e.g. colour is source of pleasure and affective meanings - high modality - vibrant reds, soothing blues).
• Abstract coding orientations - used by sociocultural elites - in 'high' art, in academic and scientific contexts (e.g. higher modality - achieved when an image reduces the individual to the general, and the concrete to its essential qualities).
• Naturalistic coding orientations - dominant in society; all members in culture share. (e.g. watching television or reading a magazine...)

Abstract realism - naturalism modality does not apply: attitude which does not equate the appearance of things with reality, but looks for a deeper truth 'behind appearances'.