Crosstalk, Mutation, Chaos: the use of Scientific Visualizations as analogies for textual reception; In-depth version Any visual analogy opens, arguably, a porthole on the infinite ‘whole’ of intellectual discourse. Given that conventional text-based reasoning represents only part of the picture in cognition and education, visual analogies could help to galvanise important new modes of creative-critical teaching across the disciplines. Applied chiefly to literary studies, the type of analogy emphasised here derives from observable phenomena in technology and science. A spectrum analogy for Intertextuality is introduced, developed later into a filter analogy casting a particular light on translation. Further examples include reception processes framed in terms of genetics, crosstalk and chaos theory. These attractive scientific forms, offered in a spirit of serious play, are very much a work in progress; but, once consolidated, the hope is that they will prime the more ambitious enterprise of extending the approach into many fields of study. With students increasingly attuned to visual input, and tertiary education involved in the modular degree, visual analogy not only contributes a fascinating and pertinent tool for exploring fresh learning interfaces between disparate subjects, but also carries the potential to ignite deeply participatory discussions within literary studies. The approach is novel yet accessible, facilitating a range of cross-disciplinary research and teaching prospects. This version of the paper provides a thorough discussion of its underlying ideas and principles. For a more straightforward take on the subject, one that concentrates more squarely on the application of visual analogies in classroom and seminar, see the Practical version [click here]. To inspect any particular figure (whilst reading text on screen): To download text (In-depth version): click here. To download all figures (In-depth version): click here. WHEN PRINTING: note that the text pdf does not include figures. PDF in-depth + Thumbnails for 11 figures
Endorsement: “This is a substantial and valuable piece of work that makes some genuinely innovative as well as practical links across the sciences and literary/textual studies. The emphasis is firmly pedagogic, heuristic and experimental, and the result is an array of suggestive and well-formed visual devices that are there to be extended and refined, not just applied mechanically as they stand. A methodological strength of the piece is that it introduces potential users to the principles informing the generation of different kinds of Visualization (making some important distinctions from illustration and diagram along the way) and thereby encourages them to become discoverers and makers of genuinely (re)generative Visualizations of their own. This makes for something much more than a box of visual tricks. It helps them/us to fashion tools and toys for ‘serious play’.” Professor Rob Pope |