How exactly is the ‘world told’ different to the ‘world shown’?
| The world told | The world shown |
 |
 |
| Makes explicit types of relation – causality, agency and power are explicit. |
Makes explicit position in a framed space – relations of |
|
Objects are vaguely specified |
Objects are fully specified |
|
Fixed order of ‘reading’ determined by the author |
Open order of ‘reading’ established by the designer/viewer |
|
Causality is inescapable |
Causality barely figures |
|
+ve empowers/stimulates the reader to paint the scenes and -ve linearity determines our path and can constrain our |
+ve empowers/stimulates the viewer to generate several -ve down plays our visual imagination – shape, form, |
Some of these gains and losses show how these modalities have ‘different positionings in and to the world’ and bestow ‘different powers on the makers and remakers’ of these representations. However will multimodal communication just fill in more blanks and leave less for the ‘reader’ to ponder?
Perhaps not, perhaps it will help highlight different perspectives for example optical illusions can challenges our reading of the visual and literary devices such as puns can do likewise in the textual world.