Part 1: Collection and Identification
For this exercise you will be working with both traditional forms of media and new forms. You will also be using the language of visual iconography as it is used and explained by Scott McCloud in his book Understanding Comics. One goal here would be to identify and apply different forms, variations, and degrees of the icon using the “pictorial vocabulary” (McCloud 51) of comics.
First, use newspapers, magazines, textbooks, appliance or game “feelies” to assemble and group icons used by these “texts,” including the use of strips, logos, graphs, and other visuals. You may use non-pictorial and pictorial icons for this assignment. Describe where these icons fall on McCloud’s version of the picture plane (52-53) and how the icons are used in their context to shape narrative or a meaningful sequence of ideas or concepts. You should address at least three examples of a range of icons. (Minimum of nine icons).
Secondly, take your show on the web or to other digital texts, such as cellphone/iPod/Zune displays, and do the same for these, assembling and grouping icons according to the same criteria as in part one.
For collection use: scissors, box cutters, cameras, screen captures, Diigo.
The Non-Digital Icons
Icon #2 is the picture used with Colin McEnroe’s weekly column in the Sunday edition of the Hartford Courant. It’s down near the representational edge (the bottom line) and very close to the retinal edge (the left-hand diagonal line) because the detail of the picture is very close to reality. I see Colin’s nose, glasses, eyes, facial hair, and the grumpy look on his face–it’s unlikely that anyone but Colin will identify himself with that picture. However, I didn’t rank the icon all the way over in reality corner because it’s a low resolution newspaper print and it’s in black and white.
Icon #4 is the word “DIRECTIONS” cut from a box of Easy Mac. I placed this icon nearly all the way to the right, and slightly above the absolute meaning intersection because it’s just a word. It’s barely dressed up with a little bit of color and boldness, which helps the reader to “receive” the message faster than the words in this paragraph. If I didn’t know what the word meant or was illiterate, there’s virtually no way for me to interpret the importance of the icon (word) aside from it’s placement and coloring on the package. It’s only because of my accumulated knowledge that I can interpret this icon.
Icon #7 is the Nike® Swoosh. Besides being a ubiquitous icon/logo for their brand, I can’t think of anything that it actually represents. The fact that I call it a Swoosh is interesting to me because I can’t recall where I picked up the whole concept of the swoosh. Swoosh seems onomatopoeia-ish (onomatopoeiac?), but since it doesn’t closely resemble anything real or tangible, McCloud says on page 49 panel 3 that it requires “greater levels of perception, more like words.” That’s why I placed the Swoosh in the picture plane at the intersection of the retinal edge, the language border (second line from right) and the conceptual edge (right-hand diagonal line).
The Digital Icons
Icon #1 was included for comparison with Icon #2 in the non-digital icon set. That’s the picture of Colin McEnroe that is used on his official blog at the Hartford Courant. It being in color makes it more representational and realistic.
Icon #2 is from Bloglines.com and is a rendering of the earth from outer space. It’s recognizable as our planet, but it doesn’t contain so much detail that it could not be mistaken for something else. However, just because we’ve never seen pictures or drawings of a planet similar to ours doesn’t mean that such a planet does not exist. The icon is closer to reality than it is to language.
Icon #6 is from Courant.com and is a digital rendering of the words in the masthead from their print edition. I ranked this icon between the language border and the conceptual edge because the words are dressed up a bit, in order to help them stand out and be more easily received.
Icon #9 is from Wunderground.com and is supposed to indicate forecasted rain. What’s interesting to me about this icon is that the cloud has been personified. It’s been given a mouth, nose and eyes. I ranked it far to the right and near the top because it is hardly representative of reality. Though we often perceive figures in the clouds, rarely are rainclouds seen with pursed lips.
Icon #11 is the universal RSS icon. Like the Nike® Swoosh, it’s almost perfectly abstract. It’s not quite in the picture plane, because the lines, colors and shapes are assembled to represent something–but RSS? That’s why it has to be near the language border. Only through learned experience does this icon have any meaning whatsoever. The concept of RSS as a kind of broadcast (hence the dot and “airwaves” in the icon) is still a strange one to grasp. Broadcast television is something that is ongoing. If you tune in to the 6:30 news at 6:40, you can’t start watching from the beginning. RSS is a time and place shifting concept that a great many people still don’t get. Perhaps I didn’t rank this icon as abstract enough…
Part 2: Application
In comic book format, use both pictorial and non-pictorial (but no words) icons to teach a person how to make a hot cup of tea on the stovetop. This person, for some reason, is from a place where tea and technology and alphabetic reading are not common.
For both Parts 1 and 2, you may team up with a partner and develop a collaborative work. You may be called upon to present this work to the class, so be sure you are prepared to make your audience understand what you have done and why.
Here is a scan of my comic book format instructions on how to make tea. Now that I’ve read the directions again, it seems that perhaps I should have used pictorial icons (as in cut out pictures) but I’m not quite sure–I try not to make things more difficult than necessary.
Partly because my drawing is crappy, partly because I wanted a 10-minute diversion, and partly because JPEGs are static, I made a “video” of the instructions, and set it to music:
Professor Ersinghaus is taking photographs at 7 megapixels. Now he’s asking what to do with the pics. Put the SD card into the slot. Open the folder, and view the pictures in thumbnail format in a folder. He copied the pictures into a folder named “Tunxis” on the computer, which he could do because they were recorded in a digital format.
Editing is the joining of two shots.
Some examples of pictorial icons:
And there’s a clear passage of time between that image of the cover and this one: