Visual/Verbal Collaborative Design: A Conceptual Framework for the Study of Cross-modal Communication

Speaker
Susan Hagan
Carnegie Mellon University

When
-

Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305 (Michael Mauldin Auditorium)

Description

Studying visual/verbal collaborative design has been problematic because the exploration thus far rests on assumptions that, on one hand, recast visual elements as objects to be read,or on the other, propose that verbal elements are a kind of background content or spatial filler for the visual design. Assumptions of reducibility ignore the status of visual and verbal elements as sui generis. That these two modalities are fundamentally of their own kind indicates that the focus on their interaction must start from new assumptions based on difference rather than dominance. But new assumptions are problematized because the existing reducibility assumptions can sometimes handle, or appear to handle, a certain number of visual/verbal interactions. This fact explains both the persistence and popularity of reducibility assumptions in light of their limitations. What is needed is a framework that can account not only for cases where reducibility approaches seem to apply, but also can handle cases where such approaches fail. To that end, this work proposes a framework that attempts to more adequately describe a range of visual/verbal collaborations; collaborations that encourage audiences to both look and read.

This work uncovers six fundamental kinds of visual/verbal collaboration which I call types of play a synonym for collaboration. These types are Identity Play, Parallel Play, Sequenced Play, Echoing Interplay, Contradicting Interplay, and Redefining Interplay. Each type has compositional elements that are particular to its category. Each of these collaborative types is an inventional resource that I argue best serves specific rhetorical situations. In this talk I will focus on two of those types of play: Sequenced Play and Redefining Interplay. I argue that Sequenced Play has the potential to improve learning outcomes more effectively than enhanced text alone while Redefining Interplay has the potential to create more effective arguments in particular rhetorical situations. Future directions for this work include empirically testing my predictions concerning Sequenced Play and Redefining Interplay with respect to learning outcomes and argument effectiveness.

Speaker's Bio

Susan Hagan recently completed her Ph.D. in Rhetoric from Carnegie Mellon University where she also received her Masters of Design. She focuses her research interests on the interaction of visual and verbal concepts as interdependent contributors in the shaping of audience experience. She has presented on this topic at conferences and in proceedings sponsored by design and rhetorical societies and was an invited commentator to the Design Research News On-line Conference, “Design in the University.” She is presently editing her dissertation for design and rhetorical publications. Prior to graduate study, she spent nine years as the owner of a design and illustration business.

Host
Chris Neuwirth