I think that a good visual narrative is one that is capable of telling a good without using too many words. An ideal narrative is one that would not require any words but I think this would be difficult to accomplish. One of the better visual narratives we looked at was, I believe, “The Journey of Eric Wooten’s Literary Experience.” He had little text and his pictures told an interesting and amusing story regardless. I could see where a clear beginning, middle, and end was.
A bad visual narrative is one that does not tell a clear story or one that would require even more words to express what is happening in the visual. I won’t give any actual examples because that seems slightly rude, but a less-than-exemplary visual narrative would be one wherein I could discern no clear beginning, middle, or end. If it were just a “visual,” then I wouldn’t need those elements. But this is a “visual narrative,” indicating at least some sort of story is being told and ought to be perceived as such by the audience looking at it.
This isn’t to say that all visual narratives ought to have all of the elements of a story. What I mean instead is that a visual narrative, especially the assignment in this class, could follow an actual sequence; could have a beginning, middle, and end; or it could follow the conventions of any other type of narrative. As long as it is not simply a muddle of various images that are rumored to have some sort of logical connection, I think that is a good visual narrative.
Hey Jilian, I think you have some great stuff here. I agree whole heartedly with your comment that a narrative should not need excessive amounts of text in order to convey its meaning. It should also contain the elements of a story as well, despite the lack of text. I’m excited to see what yours will turn out like!
Comment by kowalsa — January 28, 2009 @ 11:09 am