February 2009

Exploration 7

Watchmen chapters 7-12

Due: 10am, March 4th

In The Lazarus Project, Hemon separates his chapters with photographs. In Watchmen, Moore and Gibbons separate the chapters with textual material. Quite an interesting shift. For this Exploration, please answer the following question:

Which interchapter did you find most interesting, provocative, or disturbing? Why?

Exploration 6
Watchmen Chapters 1-6

Due: 10am, Wednesday February 25th

For this Exploration, please answer the question:

Is Rorschach a super-hero?

You may, but you are not required to, find it useful to refer to Eco’s analysis of Superman, or to our previous discussions of characters and plot in The Lazarus Project. You may also wish to discuss not merely the plot of Watchmen but also the visual style and Moore and Gibbons’ use of images as they relate to Rorschach.

Exploration 5
Understanding Comics chapters 6-9
“The Myth of Superman” (electronic reserve)

Due: 10am Wednesday February 18th

In Eco’s essay, “The Myth of Superman,” he analyzes the comic book figure of Superman, exploring the most salient aspects of the comic for literature, culture, society, and our understanding of ourselves as human.

Since 1962, when Eco first wrote the essay, much has changed in comics and in our narratives of and about superheroes. But much remains the same. For this Exploration take a superhero narrative (from comics, graphic novels, television, movies, radio, or any other media/medium with which you might be familiar) and analyze that superhero narrative according to Eco’s discussion of Superman.

You may find that your narrative is quite similar to Eco’s 1960s Superman, or quite the opposite. Finally, meditate briefly (~1 paragraph) on what the similarity or difference you have found means to the readers/watchers/listeners of your superhero narrative, and to its time (that is, the culture and society that existed when the narrative was created).

Anne Frances Wysocki’s “The Sticky Embrace of Beauty” (on electronic reserve)

Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics chapters 1-5

Due: 10am, Wednesday February 11th

Image from “Ashes and Snow” by Gregory Colbert

For this Exploration, we’re going to try Anne Wysocki’s two types of interpreting and analyzing images — formal analysis that looks at shape, color, line, shading, composition, etc.; and what she referers at times to as “social” analysis, focusing on the social implications and meanings of the image.

We’re going to apply this to one of the images in the second or third sections (as we’ve divided the book) in The Lazarus Project. You may choose any of those photos, historical or contemporary, traditional or abstract. Your Exploration should present two different (but related) analyses of that image.

In Exploration 1 I asked you to look at one of the images in the first section of the book and describe as many details about that image as possible. For this Exploration, the number of details is unimportant. Instead, what you will first focus on are the large compositional issues — where is the light, how does light and dark interplay, what are the main shapes, where is the eye initially drawn, what elements add to a sense of focus, what elements complexify or confuse the image?

Then take a step back from the formal elements of the image, and think about the significance of the image, the implications of its composition, its elements, its various possible messages. In this section of your Exploration, try to emulate Wysocki in her social analysis of the Peek ad.

This Exploration won’t be easy, though it will be tough in ways much different from your last Exploration. Also, you may find that Scott McCloud’s discussions of analyzing and understanding comics comes in handy in this Exploration. I suspect that many of you, for instance, may find his discussions of icons and the continuum between realistic images and iconic, simplified ones useful.

The Lazarus Project pp. 201-292
Gunter Kress’ “Literacy & Multimodality”

Due: IN CLASS Wednesday, February 4th

Synesthetes are individuals in whom one sense triggers another. Their senses are connected, so as well as seeing a painting such as “Composition VIII, 1923″ by the Russian painter [Wassily Kandinsky], the work also triggers sounds. [. . . .]
When more than 200 people were shown 100 images and asked to choose the animations that best suited the music they consistently selected the images from the synesthetes.
“It’s almost as if everybody can appreciate these synesthetic images even if they don’t have synesthesia,” [Dr. Jamie Ward] added.
Reaney, Patricia. “Paintings Can Be Heard As Well As Seen, Study Shows.” Reuters news article, 4 Sept. 2006.

For this exploration, you are to take the argument you have constructed about The Lazarus Project and render it multimodally. (I leave it to you to determine what modes will be most effective in communicating your argument to an audience.) You may include as much of the supporting or explanatory material relevant to that argument as you wish, but your argument should include at least 2 different modes.

Then, semiotically analyze (1 page, single-spaced, as usual) your own multimodal composition using Kress’ article as your source for interpretive criteria and vocabulary. You may find that your analysis suggests areas in your argument that need revision. Likewise, composing your argument multimodally may suggest important moments or features for analysis. Use this reflexivity to improve your composition and deepen your insight into it.

Either bring your multimodal argument and analysis to class, or you may e-mail them to me, if your argument is in an e-mailable or linkable form.

UPDATE: For those of you who might not have been in class, or who might be a tad confused by this Exploration, here’s a bit more explanation. First, you need to come up with an arguable claim (i.e., a thesis statement) about Lazarus. That means you need to come up with an idea that you could, potentially, argue in a longer paper on Lazarus.

Next, you’ll need to figure out some way to translate that claim into a multimodal form. When you wrote the claim, you almost certainly used one mode: print text. We’re used to doing that as English majors. This exploration requires you to think about how to transform that prose into a more multimodal form. There are a whole lot of modes out there, so you have lots and lots of options here.

Finally, you’ll need to analyze your new multimodal composition. What does that mean? Your analysis is your place to explain and think through what your intentions with the multimodal part are/were. What did you do? Why? What works? Why? What doesn’t? Why? Why did you make the choices you did in constructing the multimodal part? How do the various modes communicate with or against each other? Kress gives us vocabulary and ideas we might find useful in answering these questions and thinking through the multimodal part as a multimodal composition.

I referred to the analysis as a “semiotic” analysis because, as Kress explains, semiotics is the study of the structure of sign or symbol systems. So, what signs and/or symbols did you use in your composition? How do those elements of your multimodal composition work? How do they relate to each other? How do they add up to express your arguable claim about Lazarus? When you’re answering these questions, you’re performing a semiotic analysis.