Limitations
- These terms can limit VN in several ways
- By requiring a specific arrangement of images
- Requiring a specific representation subject or technique
- These descriptions/limits restrict the study of VN through narrow definitions
- Combining aspects forms its own type; there is no one classification
- Advocates for general use of “visual narrative,” with three broad genres
Distinctive features of VNs
- Presence of a story
- Uses visuals
- Incorporates a “narrative” - varies on context; generally, some representation of an event or events
- Incorporates a “story” - different from a narrative, since a story is what is made up of events (while a narrative represents that story
(cont)
- Seeks to communicate with the onlooker
- Presence of actors (someone who performs an action)
- Actors exist in some “universe” of their own
Origins of VNs
- Early examples can go back to any caveman who drew on a wall
- Born out of desire to: explain an event, provide information on who/what/where, express history, create a visual message for others present and future
Advantage of VNs
- Can reach out to most people, since VNs do not always require literacy
- Provide insight into the context of a culture
Specific types of VNs
- Authors propose their own general system of classifying VNs to avoid limiting VNs
- Static visual narratives: not dynamic, requires the audience to provide dynamism; significance exist in the perceptual experience of the viewer
- Characteristics - medium occupies surface are (pages, walls), fixed in place
- Viewer’s eye is mobile
- Undetermined viewing order
- Viewer determines time of viewing/event occurrence
Dynamic Visual Narrative
- Add movement to frozen images, many images at high speed
- Story constructed before the eyes of the viewer, for the viewer
- Constant replacement of images
- Story constructed over time
- Viewer does not determine order of events
- Example: films
Interactive Visual Narrative
- Visual, narrative, interacts with the viewer
- In a modern sense, the viewer is a part of the story
- Predetermined, yet the viewer chooses when he sees it. Incorporates aspects of SVN and DVN.
- Can involve viewer choosing sequence of events
- Examples - games, interactive stories
Examples of VNs: “reading” VN’s
What is “Art?”
- Form of self-expression
- Communication
- Comes in many forms (e.g. visual arts, music, dance, drama, technical theater)
Cont’d
- What distinguishes us from each other
- Our unique identities
- Breaks us from confines of nature
- Basis for sports, games, language, science, and philosophy (i.e. creative instinct)
- Greatest calling, hence the expression, “I do it for art.”
Idea/Purpose
- Subjectivism
- Impulses, emotions, tenets, philosophies, purposes first associated with creation of work
- Content of work
Form
- Physical form (e.g. book, pencil sketch, paper mache, furniture, comic book, etc.)
- Media used
Idiom
- Genre associated with work
- Use of styles, gestures, or subject matter already established by a “School of Art” (e.g. Pop Art, Classical, Ballet, Opera, Jazz, Surrealism, Abstract, etc.)
Structure
- Arrangement
- Final product; what to include/exclude
- Method of composing the work
- Organization
Craft
- Construction
- “Practical” knowledge and skills
- Innovation in terms of technique
- Problem-solving
- “Getting the job done”
Surface
- Production values
- Most apparent “superficial” features and aspects to value
- Essentially, the “tip of the iceberg” to the medium
The Hollow Truth
- Art with appealing surfaces lack most of the inner steps
- However, older art established the idioms
“Cycle as Old as Art Itself”
- Discovery of art
- Harnessing of love towards it that last a lifetime
- Early stage: immersion in subject matter of art form.
- Then, realization of form and necessity of certain learnable skills
The Artist’s Purpose
- “Shake” the current art establishment by going against the “fundamental laws” of it
- Artists such as Spiegelman, Mecay, Picasso, and Virginia Woolf
- Convey messages effectively through art by controlling the medium and refining it
- Artists such as Schulz, Eisner, Dickens, and Capra
Two Focal Points
- Ideas/purposes
- Form
- Seasoned artists generally switch between these two steps to create the novel and profound
“Can Comics Be Art?”
- Form of visual narrative
- “Sequential art”
- Involves “Six Steps”
- Involves all seriousness of any pursuit in the arts
Six Steps and Beyond
- The “Six Steps” can be applied to a broad range of artistic disciplines and art forms
- General definition of the creative process
“Understanding Comics” Chapter 7
McCloud
The "SIX STEPS"
Pimenta & Poovaiah
“On Defining Visual Narratives”
- Visual narrative (VN) - literally a combination of visuals and narratives
- Many more aspects, generally involves visuals that tell a story
- Some types of VN, definitions vary - films, narrative painting, history painting, animation, pictorial narratives, sequential art, comics (the last three are somewhat related)
Static visual narrative - example
What type of VN?
Where do you look?
Characteristics?
What story?
The Tempting Apple
- Surface is the most easily appreciated aspect in all arts at a glance, which is what makes mainstream art so popular
Visual Narrative
By Henry Lin & Conor Ryan