Grammar Of Design Research Articles

An algorithmic design grammar embedded with heuristics

Search and reasoning can be seen as two basic mechanisms for problem solving. Compared with the former, reasoning focuses upon accumulating the changes step by step, to establish a feasible linkage between initial problem state and desired solutions. An algorithmic design grammar, proposed in a prior study, is proved to be a valid approach for layout generation, based on local reasoning which encodes the interactions between design and design contexts in the rules. However, due to the information incompleteness and design complexity, a reasoning can only ensure to be correct at the time while it may pose a threat to subsequent design actions so that it cannot satisfy other design requirements. As such, this study enhances design grammars with heuristics, a kind of search algorithm, which enables the compensation or correction for the prior bad decisions without degenerating the current design. A general perturbation strategy is presented as a logic guidance for the development of grammars, with two sets of rules separately specified for the improvement of adjacency and area satisfaction as case studies. The comparison between design grammars with and without perturbation rules illustrates significant contributions from the real-time perturbation heuristics. Finally, complex algorithmic patterns, as well as their applicability, are extracted for the reuse in other design problems.

Identidade de gênero e os significados religiosos em pôster de filme queer

O tema deste trabalho são as implicações da religião cristã sobre a identidade de gênero no cinema queer. Nosso objetivo é investigar a relação entre ideologia de gênero, produção de significados e os aspectos religiosos no pôster do filme Pecado da carne, em suas versões original (inglês) e traduzida (português). A natureza do corpus nos insere numa perspectiva multimodal e, por isso, relacionamos, em nossa análise, os elementos verbais e visuais do cartaz. Quanto ao nosso principal eixo teórico, fundamentamo-nos no conceito de representação social (HALL, 1997), ampliado pelos pressupostos do cinema (LOPES, 2005; LOURO, 2008; PAIVA, 2007) e da Teoria Queer (BUTLER, 1998, 2002, 2003; PRECIADO, 2002). Para efetuar a análise discursiva do corpus, acolhemos o quadro tridimensional de Fairclough (2001); utilizamos a Gramática do Design Visual (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2006), para sustentar a leitura das imagens, e a Gramática Sistêmico-Funcional (HALLIDAY; MATTHIESSEN, 2004) e os Estudos da Tradução (RODRIGUES JÚNIOR, 2006a, b), para subsidiar a abordagem dos elementos verbais. Os procedimentos de análise revelaram que os padrões religiosos e heterossexuais subordinam a conjuntura queer, limitando a experiência da sexualidade. Concluímos que a religiosidade, tanto no campo artístico (cinema) como no social, normatiza os sujeitos, os corpos e os desejos.

Multimodalidade e a Gramática do Design Visual: a escrita em português como L2 no contexto de alunos surdos brasileiros

This article analyzes the visual design of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) taking into account recent studies related to Social Semiotics and to a current multimodal approach that emphasizes the use of different semiotic codes to express meanings. It comprises a documentary investigation from the perspective of the qualitative research. This environment was implemented on Moodle, a virtual platform that allows the orchestration of different semiotic modes to address the learning needs of its target audience, Brazilian deaf students. As instruments for our analysis, we used some of the categories of image-oriented grammar, the Grammar of Visual Design (GVD), and aspects related to typography, colors and reading paths. The focus of the VLE is on the educational context for the deaf and it incorporated pedagogical practices for the teaching of the writing of argumentative articles in Portuguese as L2 to Brazilian deaf students who were being prepared for the Exame Nacional do Ensino Medio (ENEM). Our study reveals that a VLE that comprises design choices like the ones discussed in this article can address the special needs of Brazilian deaf students. Our investigation results can be useful for those interested in different educational scenarios for the deaf in the Brazilian context. Keywords: visual design of a VLE, qualitative analysis, education for Brazilian deaf students.

BRINQUEDOS COMO REPRESENTAÇÃO SOCIAL E DE GÊNERO NA INFÂNCIA: A RESSIGNIFICAÇÃO DO CONCEITO DE FAMÍLIA

No mundo contemporâneo atual, caracterizado por discussões que trazem à baila a natureza multifacetada e multirracial da sociedade, a representatividade nos brinquedos ainda se mostra como algo incomum (ALMEIDA, 2017). Para nossa pesquisa, consideraremos os brinquedos como representações semióticas, no sentido de que eles significam a sociedade, refletindo seus papéis, tecnologias, identidades e práticas (CALDAS-COULTHARD; van LEEUWEN, 2002). Brinquedos como a coleção MyFamilyBuilders©, na qual é possível, através de várias peças, construir famílias com gêneros, etnias e características diversificadas, propõem ao mercado dos brinquedos expor uma realidade percebida socialmente. Destarte, consideraremos como objeto de análise a coleção de brinquedos MyFamilyBuilders©, focando em seus aspectos multimodais e trazendo à tona temas relevantes como representatividade e diversidade. Para tal, utilizaremos a Gramática do Design Visual de Kress & Van Leeuwen (1996;2006) e suas metafunções representacionais, interacionais e composicionais. Os resultados da análise das imagens do brinquedo apontam para uma representação da família que foge do conceito de família nuclear e abraça a diversidade da família contemporânea, impactando no atual cenário dos brinquedos.
 
 Palavras-chave: Brinquedos; Multimodalidade; Representatividade; Família.

A GRAMÁTICA DO DESIGN VISUAL E A RELAÇÃO PALAVRA-IMAGEM NA PRODUÇÃO DE SENTIDOS DE TIRAS DA TURMA DO XAXADO

Esta pesquisa fundamenta-se na abordagem Sociossemiótica e tem por base teórica a Gramática do Design Visual – GDV – de Kress e Van Leeuwen (1996). Objetiva investigar a pertinência das interações entre palavras e imagens nas tiras da Turma do Xaxado, do cartunista Antônio Cedraz. O corpus tematiza às problemáticas do sertão nordestino brasileiro, especificamente, aqui tratadas as da relação sertão-sertanejo-universo de trabalho e do coronelismo. Tais problemáticas estão intimamente relacionadas às relações de poder, às desigualdades sociais e aos interesses ideológicos ainda persistentes nessa região. Metodologicamente, a pesquisa circunscreve-se na exposição dos quadros teóricos – quadros comunicacionais, paisagem semiótica e esquematização das metafunções representacional, interacional e composicional – aplicando-os à prática de modo a favorecer a compreensão, sensibilização e notoriedade da ampliação da produção de sentidos estabelecida por esses recursos semióticos comunicativos. Examinam-se, portanto, como resultados obtidos as transgressões e rupturas permissivas nessas semioses por intermédio das relações dialógicas via negociações e acordos entre esses recursos semióticos que remetem ao cômico, risível e, por fim, ao crítico.
 Palavras-chave: Produção de sentidos; paisagem semiótica; relação palavra-imagem.

Audiodescrição das imagens dos livros didáticos: uma proposta de análise comunicacional

Após a Lei 10.753/2003 ter assegurado às pessoas com deficiência visual o acesso à leitura, e o decreto 186 ter atribuído ao Estado a responsabilidade de assegurar-lhes, inclusive, o acesso à informação, em 2009 o Ministério da Educação lançou o Mecdaisy, que possibilita a geração de livros digitais falados e sua reprodução em áudio, gravado ou sintetizado. A partir daí os alunos das redes municipal e estadual passaram a receber os livros didáticos em formato digital acessível. O meio de tradução das imagens dos livros didáticos é a audiodescrição, que é orientada pela Nota Técnica 21, composta por procedimentos basicamente descritivos. Este artigo propõe a incorporação de aspectos analíticos às audiodescrições, a partir das metafunções representacional, interacional e organizacional propostas pela Gramática do Design Visual de Kress e van Leeuwen, com o objetivo de dar aos alunos com deficiência visual subsídios para que eles interpretem aspectos do significado ideológico das imagens, tendo, assim, uma maior apropriação da mensagem contida no gênero imagético.

Multimodalidade e argumentação no género textual Reportagem

Este artigo pretende estudar o papel do visual na argumentação do género reportagem. Para isso, analisamos dois textos deste género textual da revista portuguesa: Visão. Para esta análise, seguimos a proposta teórica da Semiótica Social, incluindo o quadro metodológico da Gramática do Design Visual. De fato, tal como indicado, o presente artigo procurará levar em consideração o papel do não-verbal no género Reportagem e em relação à função social do género. Os resultados indicam que os significados das representações visuais participam como argumentos da reportagem e são construídos a partir das práticas sociais para atender a função comunicativado género.

전쟁그림책 이미지의 시각문법 분석 - ‘에리카 이야기’와 ‘곰이와 오푼돌이 아저씨’를 중심으로 -

전쟁그림책 이미지의 시각문법 분석 - ‘에리카 이야기’와 ‘곰이와 오푼돌이 아저씨’를 중심으로 -

Multimodalidade e persuasão em uma peça publicitária audiovisual

Multimodalidade é a integração de dois ou mais sistemas semióticos na construção dos sentidos dos textos. Com a popularização das mídias digitais, como a internet, textos multimodais estão cada vez mais presentes no dia a dia de leitores provenientes dos mais diversos contextos sociais, servindo como instrumentos de persuasão, seja para o consumo de bens, serviços ou ideologias. O presente artigo busca analisar as estratégias utilizadas pela publicidade audiovisual, naturalmente multimodal, para induzir seus leitores ao consumo. Para isso, apresentamos um olhar sobre a propaganda “O que faz você feliz?”, do supermercado Pão de Açúcar, divulgada tanto na TV quanto na internet. Como suporte teórico, utilizamos a Teoria da Multimodalidade (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2001; KRESS, 2010) e a Gramática do Design Visual (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 1996), que estabelecem categorias de análise de textos multimodais visuais. Os resultados da análise mostram que a peça publicitária em tela utiliza uma mescla de elementos dos videoclipes e outros recursos multimodais para construir sentidos que levam os leitores a consumir as ideologias e os comportamentos veiculados pelo comercial, tal como a ideia de que a felicidade pode ser encontrada na rede de supermercados.

An algorithmic design grammar for problem solving

Abstract Shape grammars, in conjunction with description grammars, have potential for applications beyond stylistic design generation, such as problem solving. However, few case studies elucidate how to map design logic or knowledge onto the development and organization of rules. As such, the application process usually remains manual or controlled by an optimization algorithm. The aim of this study is to create a design grammar which can rely on logic embedded within or between rules to guide the derivation process towards an objective in an automated way. We propose a general approach to develop an algorithmic design grammar which allows logic to be embedded at varying complexity level. To improve the clarity of logic and automate the application of grammars, rules are structured in algorithmic patterns using sequence, selection and iteration. A layout generation problem is used as a case study for demonstration, and design grammars with different deduction strategies are compared regarding their applicability and limitations.

TEACHERS’ REFLECTIONS ON THE VISUAL RESOURCES IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS FOR VIETNAMESE LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS

The prominent role of visual resources in language classrooms has long been advocated, as many argued that images could go beyond providing students with a visual background of the context or arousing motivation (Unsworth & Ngo, 2014). This article explores the roles of the visual resources drawn from an English textbook series used in Vietnamese schools, and the teachers’ reflections on their use of those visuals in practice. A qualitative approach was employed, involving in-depth interviews with teachers, along with an analysis of the visual resources using Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (1996, 2006) framework of grammar of visual design. The findings show that the theoretical perspective resonates with the teachers’ reflection in using visual resources in teaching and learning activities. The findings confirmed the importance of visuals in teachers’ practices, but also highlighted the limitations of some images as useful resources for classroom learning. It was suggested that more attention be given to the multimodal nature of the text, and their significant contribution to meaningful learning activities. The selection of images in language textbooks should be more strategically and theoretically driven in order to prepare language-learning students with the ability to negotiate meanings across semiotic modes.

Show me a story: narrative, image, and audience engagement on sports network Instagram accounts

ABSTRACTSocial media is a growing space for interpersonal and masspersonal communication, and the shared image that often accompanies these messages has become a factor in increasing audience engagement. This study seeks to understand what types of images generate more engagement from social media audiences. A group of communication scholars argue that narrative is the most basic form of human communication and therefore messages with strong narrative themes more easily connect the message from the communicator to the audience. This study performed a content analysis of nearly 2000 images shared by Sports Networks on Instagram. Operating under Kress and van Leeuwen’s (Kress, G. R., & van Leeuwen, L. T. (2006). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. London: Routledge) methodology for determining a narrative in an image, the study found that images that contained narrative or metacommunicative messages (Bateson, G. (1951). Information and codification: A philosophical approach. Communication: The Social Matrix of Psychiatry, 168–211) resulted in greater interest and engagement by audiences through the manifestation of likes and comments. The study offers a methodology for organizations seeking greater engagement from social media audiences.

Efficient probabilistic grammar induction for design

AbstractThe use of grammars in design and analysis has been set back by the lack of automated ways to induce them from arbitrarily structured datasets. Machine translation methods provide a construct for inducing grammars from coded data which have been extended to be used for design through pre-coded design data. This work introduces a four-step process for inducing grammars from un-coded structured datasets which can constitute a wide variety of data types, including many used in the design. The method includes: (1) extracting objects from the data, (2) forming structures from objects, (3) expanding structures into rules based on frequency, and (4) finding rule similarities that lead to consolidation or abstraction. To evaluate this method, grammars are induced from generated data, architectural layouts and three-dimensional design models to demonstrate that this method offers usable grammars automatically which are functionally similar to grammars produced by hand.

Modality in the digital age

Kress and Van Leeuwen’s book Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (2006[1996]) provides a robust framework for describing modality in visual texts. However, in the digital age, familiar markers of modality are being creatively reconfigured. New technological affordances, including new modes of production, multiple platforms for distribution, and increased user control of modal variables, raise questions about the role of modality in contemporary communication practices and require the framework to be adapted and further developed. This article attempts to set the agenda for such adaptations and, more generally, for rethinking visual modality and its impact in the digital age.

Current Research: Ceramic Production and Distribution during the Formative Caddo Period: A Stylistic and Provenance Investigation of the Arkansas River Valley

The Formative Caddo Period (A.D. 850-1100) of eastern Oklahoma was marked by dramatic material and ritual changes, culminating in the construction of aggregated villages and ceremonial centers. Formative Caddo groups are notable for their highly complex and ritually-charged ceramic vessels that were unlike anything archeologists have seen in the American Southeast. Tracing the rapid development and spread of this early fine ware assemblage across a variety of social, ritual, and mortuary contexts is key to understanding the shared religious and ritual traditions of the pre-Columbian Arkansas River valley and surrounding Coastal Plain drainages. Yet despite nearly 60 years of archeological research, insight is still lacking into the organization of Formative Caddo ceramic production and the mechanics of exchange between the northern and southern Caddo areas. While archeologists have shown Formative Caddo fine wares were locally produced in the Red River valley and surrounding Coastal Plain drainages, they have assumed that Caddo people in Arkansas River valley and Ozark Plateau locally produced them. However, they are not recovered from the same contexts across both Caddo areas. Formative Caddo pottery is commonly found in both domestic and ritual contexts at Coastal Plain sites but are restricted to ritual contexts at ceremonial centers on the Ozark Plateau. The ritual contexts in which Formative Caddo ceramics are recovered are also quite different. At Coastal Plain ceremonial centers, such as George C. Davis in Texas and Crenshaw in Arkansas, Formative Caddo ceramics were deposited in off-mound, on-mound, and mortuary contexts. Yet, at ceremonial centers of the Ozark Plateau, such as Spiro, Harlan, and Brackett in Oklahoma, Formative Caddo ceramics were deposited exclusively in mortuary contexts. The marked contrast between Formative Caddo pottery use and deposition between the northern and southern ceremonial centers provides insight into the development of Formative Caddo ritual practices and traditions. It suggests there may be fundamental differences in the ritual programs of the northern and southern Caddo areas. To examine the emergence and spread of these traditions, I am conducting a regional-scale study of the production and distribution of Formative Caddo pottery in the northern and southern Caddo areas. This project has two major components. First, it involves the analysis of clay chemical composition of 264 fine ware sherds from five ceremonial sites in the Arkansas River Basin. I applied for and was granted a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant to pay for Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) on these sherds. Once the INAA is completed, I will compare the Arkansas Basin results with previously generated elemental sourcing data from the Coastal Plain region. Secondly, this project involves a stylistic analysis of the forms and designs on 199 fine ware vessels to understand their overall design grammar and structure. The sites to be studied include Spiro, Harlan, Norman, Reed, and Brackett in the Arkansas River drainage and Crenshaw, Boxed Springs, George C. Davis, and Mounds Plantation in the Gulf Coastal Plain region. I hypothesize that either (1) Formative Caddo fine wares found in the Arkansas River basin were imported from the Red River valley and surrounding Coastal Plain drainages, where they were fabricated, or (2) Formative Caddo vessels were manufactured in the Arkansas River Basin, but intended use was restricted for mortuary purposes. Whether the first or second hypothesis is supported by this research, it will determine whether this is a single or separate communities of practice, and will have major implications for how we view the integration of these communities and the origins of Caddo ritual traditions.

REPRESENTAÇÃO DA SITUAÇÃO DE RUA NO JORNALISMO ELETRÔNICO EM TEXTOS VERBO-VISUAIS - A VIOLÊNCIA EM DISCURSO NO CORREIO BRAZILIENSE (2011-2013)

Resumo Este artigo é recorte de projeto de pesquisa em que se investigam os textos publicados entre 2011 e 2013 nos jornais web Correio Braziliense, O Globo e Folha de S. Paulo sobre população em situação de rua. Neste recorte, analisam-se apenas os 95 textos publicados no Correio Braziliense cruzando as temáticas situação de rua e violência, e as 19 imagens que compõem estes textos. As análises apresentadas são favorecidas pelo uso de software para análise qualitativa e têm por base teórico-metodológica a análise de discurso crítica e a gramática do design visual. Tomados juntos, os resultados de análise sugerem naturalização da violência contra a população em situação de rua, em um efeito retórico de distanciamento, que não provoca empatia entre quem lê o jornal e as pessoas vítimas da violência representada.

Extraction and evaluation of transportation network grammars for efficient planning applications

Grammars, with their generic approach and broad application potential in many planning fields, are accepted as adaptable and efficient tools for design and planning applications, bridging design rules and technical planning requirements. This paper provides a formal introduction of grammars for effective consolidation and application, including a rule-based notation and required specification information. Two proposed grammar evaluation methods – based on technical planning knowledge and using recent computational development – foster understanding of a grammar’s effects, often missing in other definitions. Knowledge gained enables efficient grammar rule application, e.g. in burgeoning planning software. This research focuses particularly on urban network design and road intersection grammars to validate proposed grammar evaluation methods. Results are specified in the proposed grammar notation with corresponding application specifications. Results generally show that network topology and intersection type choice both depend on transport mode characteristics and flow. Specifically, medium-dense gridiron networks are car-efficient in terms of travel costs and reliability at urban densities, when combined with high road and intersection capacities. Pedestrian networks ideally have higher intersection and road densities with lower capacities than car networks. Highly meshed networks improve overall travel cost efficiencies for all transport modes at various flow levels.

As representações femininas da personagem Iron Heart

This article aims at presenting a reflection about the feminine representations of the character Iron Heart, from the comic book publisher Marvel Comics. For this purpose, the character’s advertising poster and the variant cover of the second edition of the graphic novel were selected and analyzed under the theoretical perspective of the Grammar of Visual Design (GVD) and of the social representations. This article tries to make an analysis of the construction and reconstruction of the character in the face of the audience’s intervention, which transits between a standardization of feminine aesthetic, followed by hypersexualization and culminates in the infantilization of the character, who is an adolescent.Keywords: gender, comic book, social representations.

Political cartoons as carnivalesque: a multimodal discourse analysis of Argentina’s Humor Registrado magazine

ABSTRACTPolitical cartoons, although generally neglected by academic criticism, are often one of the only forms of socio-political critique permitted during authoritarian rule (Barajas, Rafael. 2000. “The Transformative Power of art: Mexico’s Combat Cartoonists.” NACLA Report on the Americas, 3: 6–41). This paper explores the reasons behind this, reading the genre as a form of Bakhtin’s carnivalesque, a participatory space of oppositional discourse outside the official version with which it has an “ambivalent” relationship (Bakhtin, Mikhael. 1984. Rabelais and His World (Trans Iswolsky H). Bloomington: Indiana University Press) and can be allowed to circulate as a “safety valve” (Holquist, Michael. 1984. “Prologue.” In Rabelais and his World, edited by M. Bakhtin, xiii–xxiii. Bloomington: Indiana University Press) of controlled protest. Drawing on tools of Multimodal Discourse Analysis, Social Semiotics (Kress, Gunther, and Theo Van Leeuwen. 1996. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. New York: Routledge) and Semiology (Barthes, Roland. 1968. Elements of Semiology. New York: Hill and Wang) for methodological purposes, this study investigates this hypothesis through the political cartoons of the covers of satirical fortnightly publication Humor Registrado during the final year of Argentina’s last dictatorship, 1982–1983. The magazine’s role in challenging the dictatorship is explored through an analysis of its representations of key social actors and events during Argentina’s difficult period of transition from dictatorship to democracy following defeat in the 1982 Malvinas/Falklands War.

Monument as semiotic landscape

Abstract As semiotic spaces, monuments convey messages through multiple information design modes, including language, materiality and emplacement. As research on semiotic landscape has pointed out (e.g., Shohamy and Waksman 2009, Abousnnouga and Machin 2010, Train 2016), these messages are often contested in nature and convey competing discourses inherent in the spaces they occupy. This paper explores those competing discourses manifested in a monument dedicated to the 1976 student protest and violent suppression of it by the Thai military and right-wing paramilitary groups. Working within a production of space framework (Lefebvre 1991) and drawing on insights from the grammar of visual design (Kress and van Leeuwen 2006) and nexus analysis (Scollon and Scollon 2004), the paper attempts to show how these contested discourses are reflected in the monument’s historiography as conceived, in its physical appearance and emplacement, and as it is experienced today. The analysis is based on photographic data of the monument and its immediate physical context, published accounts of the events of October 6, and interviews with survivors, commemoration planners, and the monument’s designer.