Throughout Chapter 3, Kress seems to disregard the temporality of video. Meaning in image is related exclusively to the spatial and temporal significance belongs only to writing. The temporal is central to meaning-making in the moving image. Kress lumps all kinds of images together.
The discussion of the term "literacy" is interesting. Kress argues against the wide application of the term. "Something that has come to mean everything, is likely not to mean very much at all." (p. 22) I think it's wise to apply specific language to different circumstances, but I doubt that this word can be reclaimed in any meaningful way. "Literacy" is too widely used and means too many different things.
JW
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I also found that throughout Kress and vanLeeuwen's work, they tend to focus on still images. Even in their grammar of visual design book, most of the grammar issues focus on the page. Space vs temporal. As we discussed, in video, we need to focus on both space and time.
Also, on page 66, Kress discusses the social semiotic theory of Halliday in terms of three essential demands of a fully functioning human semiotic resource:
1) ideational function: represents affairs or events in the world
2) interpersonal function: represent social relations
3) textual function: represent all the above as a message-entity or a text.
While these are essential at a functional level, what actually transforms these into higher-level literacies? When dealing with media or multimedia, we are now relying more in intertextuality and intersemiotic complementarity. How do these fit into this social semiotic theory? How do these further extend the theory? I think we are dealing with a “live” theory. Extending our work from last semester, using rhizomatic structures and the complexity of new forms of communication, text construction follows more of a system or a flow. What is the best semiotic system for communication? How can we put forth our message with the most meaning (connotative and denotative) using memes from multiple modalities (image, gestures, text, audio).
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