Modal Analysis of Superflat Aesthetics
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James G. Nobis
James Nobis is a language instructor with experience teaching both high school and university language arts, with additional expertise in the areas of multimodality and Japanese translation. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts from the University of Washington, and he earned a Masters in Japanese Language & Society from the University of Sheffield and a Masters in Applied Linguistics from the University of Birmingham.
Abstract
This article explores the cultural association of modality in relation to Japanese art. It identifies the modality configurations between a set of Superflat images by Takashi Murakami and a set of Edo era images by three seventeenth and eighteenth century painters. The analytical framework employed in this study is Kress and van Leeuwen’s concept of the modality of images, which was developed in their book Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (2006 [1996]). A focus on modality allows for a bottom-up investigation of the key aesthetic elements that act as a visual foundation for the images. The research reveals aesthetic similarities between the two sets of images and shows potential for creating historical andcultural associations with an artist’s determined manipulation of certain modality features within images.
About the author
James Nobis is a language instructor with experience teaching both high school and university language arts, with additional expertise in the areas of multimodality and Japanese translation. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts from the University of Washington, and he earned a Masters in Japanese Language & Society from the University of Sheffield and a Masters in Applied Linguistics from the University of Birmingham.
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The life-sized sculpture of a cartoon female figurine, Miss KO2, was sold to Stefan Edis, a Chicago collector, for US$567,500 (Sharp 2006: 8).
©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin / Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- The Multimodal Dimension of Claims in Food Packaging
- Modal Analysis of Superflat Aesthetics
- Multimodal Hyperbole
- Conducting Multimodal Rhetorical Analysis of TV Ads with Atlas.ti 7
- Multimodal Aspects of Representation and Interdiscursive Hybridity in Corporate Films
- Interview with Professor José A. Rueda
- Visual Essay
- WhatsApp Omani Teachers: Social Media and the Question of Social Change
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- The Multimodal Dimension of Claims in Food Packaging
- Modal Analysis of Superflat Aesthetics
- Multimodal Hyperbole
- Conducting Multimodal Rhetorical Analysis of TV Ads with Atlas.ti 7
- Multimodal Aspects of Representation and Interdiscursive Hybridity in Corporate Films
- Interview with Professor José A. Rueda
- Visual Essay
- WhatsApp Omani Teachers: Social Media and the Question of Social Change
