The Visual Analysis of Visual Metaphor.

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

This paper presents an approach to understanding visual metaphor which uses metaphoric analysis and comprehension by graphic and pictorial means. The perceptible qualities of shape, line, form, color, and texture, that make up the visual structure characteristic of any particular shape, configuration, or scene, are called physiognomic properties; the mixing of these properties in different categorical matrixes is called bisociation. Combined, physiognomic perception and boundary breaking, through bisociation, form the basis for visual metaphoric communication. Sixteen adults (13 female and 3 male) participated in a workshop which focused on playing a visual game, Bisociative Pictionary, based on the current commercial game, Pictionary. A self-portrait pencil drawing was selecled as the visual metaphor for analysis. Participants were divided into teams and encouraged to find as many bisociations as possible within a 30-minute game period; only graphic, drawn responses were allowed for communication. A bisociation could only be confirmed when another member of a team guessed the name of the object or activity being drawn; successful matches were totaled at the conclusion of the game. Participants then analyzed the drawn responses for categorical patterns. Participants discovered three of the artist's six predetermined levels of meaning. The patterns of visual matches indicated that such a purely visual game can help individuals discover multiple levels of shared visual meaning. Selected participant drawings are shown, matched to the levels of meaning predetermined by the artist. Forty-seven photographs, drawings, and charts illustrate the discussion. (Contains 16 references.) (AEF) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best taat can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INF ORMATICr, CENTER ERIC, 13 This 0006mont has beer rerroliiced received Iron, ler origoalin9 it 0 M,not chanty., 1,011 impro,e rd.rdi,,, Polo!, oh VIPS,. ddiurnent dv no' ncy-i othc.,a! OF RI pc,3 , 0 The Visual Analysis Of Visual Metaphor Dennis M. Dake and Brian Roberts Most professional literature on metaphor says that metaphor is primarily a linguistic experience. Current theoretical and experimental models generally break metaphor into separate components, such as vehicle, ground, and subject and then further subdivide it into a large variety of types. (Ortony, 1993, Feinstein 1983, Kennedy 1982) Even the professional literature on visual metaphor, commonly uses verbal metaphor as its primary evidentiary base and uses analogies to verbal metaphor as its theoretical structure. This current paper presents a more visually based approach to understanding visual metaphor. The methodology suggested in this paper is that of metaphoric analysis and comprehension by graphic and pictorial means. It is the authors' contention that visual metaphor functions more simply and more visually than tie current theoretical models suggest. Yet in spite of this simple structure, the rich nature of perceptual and mental images can provide a multileveled complexity of significant metaphoric meanings. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY