Training to 'read' multimodal objects: an artistic example

In the introduction, we explored a poem by Neruda read by Madonna. To start analyzing a multimodal digital object it is always useful to be attentive to the different modes one-by-one.

1) What about the text? Is there a reference somewhere, a source indicated? Are you sure it is the correct version written by the author or are you willing to check it?

2) What about the image(s): who has selected them? What information are they adding? What aesthetic impressions are they adding?

3) What about the sound: there is just one voice reading the text. What is it adding to the text and the image(s)? What kind of rhetoric is it using?

4) You can now compare these elements two at a time, then all three together, trying classify what new kind of communication is emerging.

Poem "If You Forget Me" by Pablo Neruda, read by Madonna (standard YouTube License)

You can then compare this version with others on YouTube, where music and/or glamorous images are added. From this comparison, a fifth question is raised: what do we require in order appreciate multimodal literacies? When do we perceive them as “too much” or inadequate?

When dealing with a multimodal digital object, you can always apply this set of five observations (see above for details), just be sure to read it fully, to grasp its complexity iteratively:

1) Focus on text(s)

2) Focus on image(s)

3) Focus on sound(s)

4) Compare two-by-two, then three-by-three (if relevant), and finally all together

5) Compare to other versions and evaluate the rhetorical impact

If you know French, you can do the exercise with the very complex artistic object, quoted in the introduction:

François Bon, Tiers Livre: http://www.tierslivre.net – vidéo #456 (standard YouToube License).