Dear Jinan,
I am inclined to agree with much of what you write but I don't think Nick Sousanis 'misses the point'. I think he is just heroically attempting make a start at tackling this deep rooted primacy of words over images in Western academic culture.
You say-
"My contention is that Unflatness can not be achieved by having images
but only engaging with the real world and keeping the eyes intact to
see the real world."
Yes, but drawing is step in that direction. Drawing is, or can be, heavily dependent on an engagement with the real world- a route to seeing and an expression of that seeing.
I have recently been working with the Fitzwilliam Museum here in Cambridge where we have been staging concurrent exhibitions of the graphic work of Ronald Searle (at the museum and at Cambridge School of Art's Ruskin Gallery), after we were invited to Searle's studio in France after his death. A related exhibition at the Fitzwilliam is of graphic satire from their collection, drawings and prints that Searle was inspired by as a child growing up in the city in the 1920s and 30s, by the greats such as Hogarth, Cruikshank and Gillray. Last week I spent some time looking at the exhibitions and, in the case of the latter exhibition, titled 'Cradled in Caricature: Visual Humour in Satirical Prints and Drawings'-
http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/whatson/exhibitions/article.html?5269
- I was struck by how much my appreciation of these wonderful visual statements was diminished by the accompanying lengthy labels, on which words were endeavouring to tell us what the pictures were already saying far more successfully.
As Le Corbusier famously said, "I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies."
Best wishes,
Martin
Professor Martin Salisbury
Course Leader, MA Children's Book Illustration
Director, The Centre for Children's Book Studies
Cambridge School of Art
0845 196 2351
[log in to unmask]
http://www.cambridgemashow.com
http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/microsites/ccbs.html
________________________________________
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Jinan K B [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2015 3:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Unflattening by Nick Sousanis
Friends
I hope you would hold the issues i am raising here with kindness and patience.
Nick Sousanis is raising an important issue regarding the Bias in the
western culture. But he misses the point because he is also victim of
the same bias. I wouldn't call this 'western bias' but literate's
bias. When book becomes more important than the world or when we learn
the word instead of the world fundamental changes occurs to the
Being-ness of humans. Alphabetization of the mind has rewired our very
being-ness.
He mentions two points in this. one is the comparison made between
text and image and the other is the use of eyes. (The abstract is
pasted below for ready reference).
The comparison he makes about the text and image should be replaced
with book and the world. The flatness is brought about by the book.
Even if images are used it does not change anything in any fundamental
way. The physiological functioning of the eye would be to see the flat
image. It only gives illusion of depth. The physiology is replaced
with psychology. Mind comes to act before the eye can see.
My contention is that Unflatness can not be achieved by having images
but only engaging with the real world and keeping the eyes intact to
see the real world.
Book or any other via medium changes the cognitive tools and re
configures the cognitive process. The left brain right brain division
is brought about by the book/computer etc. The normal functioning of
the eye is changed with the constant use of these medias and that too
from the formative stage.
The 'discovery' of visual thinking is a case in point. Among the non
literates memory is related to whole sense experience and the visual
aspect is a dominant one. Whole incidents with the visual image gets
stored as memory. Their normal seeing can be called as ' non attentive
seeing' (even all children has this kind of memory). This is like
scanning the place or becoming aware of what is around. With too much
time spend with books and laptops this behavior changes to focused
attention and then slowly the act of seeing which is physiological
changes to thinking which is psychological. One uses the eyes for
thinking or thought directs seeing.
We who have lost the ability for visual memory is suddenly re
discovering this that too in a distorted way and thinking this is a
new way.
We can observe ourselves and feel that the body is present but mind is
else where or vice versa. very rarely does the body and the mind come
together!
I have always felt that the failure in communication is due to failure
in cognition. World is what needs to be cognized and word is for
communication instead word has become the cognitive source!
Nick Sousanis's abstract and few other relevent lines
While the importance and effectiveness of visual thinking and
multimodality in teaching and learning have been demonstrated and
discussed at great length, for the most part it has still only been
talk. Academic discourse remains a text-based endeavor at all levels.
Our bias for what serious thinking looks like runs deep to the roots
of Western culture. Images are relegated to the sidelines, at best
used as example or ornament, but never seen as complete on their own
and always expendable.
The work weaves its argument through an interdisciplinary framework -
drawing on science, philosophy, art, literature, mythology - and
employs the very means by which we see as metaphors for considering
new approaches to how we think and how we learn. By integrating the
different views from our two eyes, we create perspective. Similarly,
by making an observation a half year apart on the earth's orbit around
the sun, we make "two eyes" to find the depths to the stars.
Perception is thus not only this distance between, but the way in
which our movement in space changes our relationship to our
environment. It is an active process of constantly evaluating how
things appear and incorporating a multitude of views to expand our
understanding. In contrast to this is the static contraction of sight
I call "flatness." Taking my cue from Herbert Marcuse's notion of
"one-dimensionality," I see flatness as conforming to a narrowness of
thought aligned in a single dimension. Edwin A. Abbott's Flatland
provides a more literal metaphor. A flatlander's inability to fathom
the concept of "upwards" suggests that perhaps we too are limited in
our sight and may be unable to see beyond the boundaries of our
current frame of mind. The work challenges the fixed viewpoint,
recognizing that the Copernican revolution is never finished.
The primacy of words over images has deep roots in Western culture.
But what if the two are inextricably linked, equal partners in
meaning-making? (MEANING OF WHAT? WOLRD OR THE WORD?)
Nick Sousanis defies conventional forms of scholarly discourse to
offer readers both a stunning work of graphic art and a serious
inquiry into the ways humans construct knowledge. (KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT?)
Unflattening is an insurrection against the fixed viewpoint. Weaving
together diverse ways of seeing drawn from science, philosophy, art,
literature, and mythology, it uses the collage-like capacity of comics
to show that perception is always an active process of incorporating
and reevaluating different vantage points. (AGAIN BOOK IS THE SOURCE
AND REALLY THERE ARE NO VANTAGE POINTS!)
In its graphic innovations and restless shape-shifting, Unflattening
is meant to counteract the type of narrow, rigid thinking that
Sousanis calls “flatness.” Just as the two-dimensional inhabitants of
Edwin A. Abbott’s novella Flatland could not fathom the concept of
“upwards,” Sousanis says, we are often unable to see past the
boundaries of our current frame of mind. Fusing words and images to
produce new forms of knowledge, Unflattening teaches us how to access
modes of understanding beyond what we normally apprehend. (ANOTHER
MYTH. see what images have done. AUSTRALIA IS DOWN AND UNDER, NORTH
STAR IS UP, LOWER NILE IS UP AND UPPER NILE IS DOWN...........)
Hope my mails will initiate another direction of enquiry.
Jinan
--
Book an Open Day
http://www.anglia.ac.uk/study/open-day
UK Entrepreneurial University of the Year
In the official 2014 government assessment of our research the following 12 areas were found to have world-leading research: Allied Health Professions; Architecture & Built Environment; Art & Design; Business & Management Studies; Communication, Cultural & Media Studies; English Language & Literature; Geography & Environmental Studies; History; Law; Music, Drama & Dance; Psychology; and Social Work & Social Policy.
This e-mail and any attachments are intended for the above named recipient(s) only and may be privileged. If they have come to you in error you must take no action based on them, nor must you copy or show them to anyone: please reply to this e-mail to highlight the error and then immediately delete the e-mail from your system. Any opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Anglia Ruskin University.
Although measures have been taken to ensure that this e-mail and attachments are free from any virus we advise that, in keeping with good computing practice, the recipient should ensure they are actually virus free. Please note that this message has been sent over public networks which may not be a 100% secure communications.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
