LET’S START
The bytes of visual communication are: dot, line, colour, contour, direction, texture, scale, dimension and movement. It is from them that we start building up to get across to others in matters of visual literacy.
Hereby, amen of the The neverending story1’s Alfaguara edition in green and magenta (is it the same in English editions?); plus the infinite universe of children book titles, we are to abandon colour behind in this odyssey. Most novels and poem collections are odes to high contrast in black and white. Thus, colour is not included in the shared features of comics2 and poetry.
DOTS AND LINES
….Mmm. Dots are, as a matter of fact, the bytes. Lines are more like the kilobytes. Since lines are a group of dots one behind the other being perceived as something continuous. However, because it is easier to perceive lines, I’m not to get engrossed going deeper or I’ll forget the purpose of the nonsense I’m writing.
Lines are so basic, typography can’t exist without them. Literature, starts with typography… Unless we start with analog writing directly jotted down into a paper sheet. Something very few of us get to read directly or even write this way anymore for the simple reason there are smartphones and… tablets. How many of you, dear writers, do actually take a pencil or pen? And this is not to shame you. It is just to state what we have started to leave behind. Nonetheless, in comic and manga universe, the exhibition showing off the original sketch is a lot more common than writers’ spider legs handwriting encased in a glass box.
THE CONTOUR IS IRRELEVANT, BUT DIRECTION?
Contour… Contour might be relevant for sequences. Dimension requires the volume illusion. Thus contour and dimension are irrelevant for the moment.
Let’s talk direction. Can reading’s direction be altered?
TO BE CONTINUED
