e-space
Manchester Metropolitan University's Research Repository

    The materiality of the intangible: Literary metaphor in multimodal texts

    Skains, R Lyle (2017) The materiality of the intangible: Literary metaphor in multimodal texts. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 25 (1). pp. 133-147. ISSN 1354-8565

    [img]
    Preview
    Accepted Version
    Available under License In Copyright.

    Download (286kB) | Preview

    Abstract

    Based on a larger practice-based research project in digital writing, this article examines how the materiality of digital media contributes to a layered metaphor that delivers meaning, reflects on the cognitive processes (the writer’s and the reader’s) of navigation and generates a dynamic narrative structure through multimodality, unnatural narration and user interaction. Many writers and artists engage with their chosen medium through an instinctive understanding of the materials at hand, gained through experience; the explicit study of a medium’s materiality is not always required for artistic success, however, that may be judged. This article offers insights into the creative process of creating digital, multimodal fiction, based on a practice-based research project designed to explore the effects of digital media on author and text, and argues that digital media have a significant effect on the outcome of the artefact itself. Awareness of these effects, their variations according to hardware and software, and the affordances of these various materials offer the digital writer greater insight and capability to craft his/her texts for the desired metaphorical meaning.

    Impact and Reach

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    382Downloads
    6 month trend
    111Hits

    Additional statistics for this dataset are available via IRStats2.

    Altmetric

    Repository staff only

    Edit record Edit record