Visual StudiesDana Schenendorf
THE MUTABILITY OF INTERPRETATION IN COMIC STRIP NARRATIVE
When additional text, or ‘context.’ is surrounding a framed image the interpretation of that image is limited or specified. This text though, can be altered or replaced to elicit a completely different interpretation of the same image. What if there is no additional text at all? How many different interpretations of the same image can be produced? I believe it depends on the simplicity versus the complexity of differing artistic styles, and consequently, the simplicity and complexity of a character’s expression.
“When we read pictures...we bring to them the temporal quality of narrative. We extend that which is limited by a frame to a before and an after, and through the craft of telling stories, we lend the immutable picture an infinite and inexhaustible life.”
–Alberto Manguel, Reading Pictures
This project will exhibit the limits of an image to delineate a narrative. Some of my examples have text that is stretched too far to function with the image, and others have been altered and still function. My installation is a demonstration of the interpretability of comic strip images, and is meant to show how powerful the range of context can be in relation to each style of illustration.
SECTOR C: Art Practice & Technology
ADVISERS: Benjamin Backus | Joshua Mosley