Making Sense of Multiliteracy under the same context-MY VISUAL ARTEFACT
October 17, 2010 by Sindhu Radhakrishnan
“Hamlet Act 3, Scene 1, To be or not to be” multimodal ways of communication in picture,texts and video.
October 17, 2010 by Sindhu Radhakrishnan
“Hamlet Act 3, Scene 1, To be or not to be” multimodal ways of communication in picture,texts and video.
No context – David Tennant speaking the words wins hands down over the text or the still image. However, being in the actual theatre WITH David Tennant speaking the words would be even better – this is a situation where digital will never supercede actual!
I am a bit of a traditionalist about drama though, particularly Shakespeare, having been an English teacher for 23 years! Similar to a digital performance, a live performance is multimodal in the sense that it uses multiple channels of communication but the immediacy of the embodied presence – actors, audience etc just can’t be reproduced digitally – at least not yet.
Oh for some reason I can now see in my minds eye a secondlife production looming!
We could all take a part and dress our avatars accordingly…
Sindhu – I found that I initially thought this was embedded into a scene from doctor who and my brain could not cope with this potential multimodal mixing….
Once I got passed that, I agree with noreen the voiced rendition with the moving facial expression of delivery won hands down.
In terms of sequencing your visual artefacts – why did you select the ordering above – was it consciously done? Do you think its impact might have altered if you has chosen a different order?
Sindhu – your artefact is simple but effective in showing different ways of seeing/reading the ’same’ thing. I like also that you chose a clip of a contemporary and well-known actor reading the part – giving us more layers to peel back (celebrity, the effects of time on Shakespeare’s work, etc). As Noreen says, though, all still digitally mediated – you can’t represent the non-digital in a digital format.
Hi Noreen
Thank you for this thought provoking comments…
Hmmm ” Context” I may be wrong. Same theme or idea much suited? I agree with you that an actual performance of Hamlet would be better than any digital representation. I wasn’t suggesting that digital media would be better suited to conveying this section of the play; just that it’s possible to convey the same message using all of these different media/ or a combination of all of these. “Transliteracy” and “Multiliteracy” have two different meanings I think. Can we say transliteracy has the possibility to multiliterate-ability to produce multiple levels of communication and different levels of knowledge by using different media?
I agree with Noreen – definitely being in the theatre with David (or dare I say the lovely Derek Jacobi many years ago), would for sure win hands down – that live “charge” is unbeatable.
I love the way you have laid this out in the Wallwisher, as well as having it here – and it was a surprise to click on the first video image of David and be taken to the text. It was a brilliant mixed-option – the expectation of the movie faced with the flat text.
We studied this play in school, so of course I did my own version, but only I got to see that
All
Glad to know that this simple contribution did produce some ripples in this big ocean of highlevel innovative ideas..
Ali,
Well spotted..Thought it is appropriate to start with a still image with that catch phrase to produce the desired multimodal effect rather than a theatre effect ( as you all mentioned) which delivers a high level of communication-in the ascending order of visibility .
Sorry about the typo in my comment – should have said “No contest” rather than ‘context’!
That is fine,Noreen.