Graphic Strategies Research Articles

Emotion, memory and storytelling: postmemorial emotion work in Vietnamese American graphic narratives

The article demonstrates how graphic narratives become a medium for managing inherited emotions in Vietnamese American second-generation works, GB Tran’s Vietnamerica and Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do. Highlighting the intergenerational transmission of emotions in Vietnamese American families through parental stories about the Vietnam War, the article argues that the authors’ attempts to represent these family stories transform graphic literature into a medium for postmemorial emotion work. While drawing theoretical insights from the sociology of emotions, the study employs textual analysis to thematically close read Vietnamerica and The Best We Could Do to understand the graphic strategies that aid emotion work. The graphic recreation of stories, which are narrativised versions of their inherited trauma memories, can offer potential trauma resolution and autobiographical clarity while fostering communal bonding. The analysis finds that in the works, emotion work is facilitated by various literary strategies, such as affective genealogies, affective geographies, affective pasts, and postmemorial re-embodiment. In a broader sense, the study concludes that graphic narrative strategies can aid in postmemorial emotion work for second-generation refugees grappling with inherited trauma, incoherent autobiographical knowledge, and detachment from the community or family.

Shifting shores

This article explores how Jan Saenredam and Claes Jansz Visscher, two of the Northern Netherlands’ leading printmakers in the early seventeenth century, employ varying graphic strategies to evoke the local coast’s unpredictable and rapidly changing environment. It focuses on two ambitious and relatively large-scale prints with widespread distribution: Saenredam’s 1602 engraving Beached whale near Beverwijk and Visscher’s etching of about 1615 View of Egmond aan Zee. Lively with activity and dense with figures, allegory, text, and civic insignia, the two images integrate cartographic convention, natural history illustration, and landscape imagery. Kase argues that the artists evoke the often imperceptible forces that animate and change the outermost edges of landscape, exhibiting environmental awareness through their concern for the shared facture of the landscape and the resultant prints. Their images, therefore, could act as a proxy through which seventeenth-century Netherlanders engaged with the instability of their coastal environs.

Boredom, Cohesion, and Transformation in Nick Drnaso’s Beverly

Nick Drnaso’s Beverly (2016) is a loosely-connected assemblage of graphic stories focused on suburban Midwest America. The stories appear to represent suburban life as so monotonous that experiencing intensity or meaningful interactions is almost impossible. One potential avenue to break the monotony is that of actively transforming the self, but transformative options are revealed to be superficial and ultimately unable to counter the experience of life as lack and isolation. In turn, the possibility that the repetitive interactions of everyday life in fact provide known and secure structures, compensating for their flat sameness, is revealed to be hollow by most characters’ frustrations, melancholy, and lack of joyful connection with others. While the marginalized characters of Sal and Tyler may suggest the possibility of rejecting the boredom of everydayness, it comes at the cost of meaningful connection with others. By representing this everydayness through bland graphic strategies, Drnaso might seem to run the risk of having created a book that is itself boring, and yet his precise observation and subtle use of limited panel arrangements and color palette overcome the risk and make Beverly an acute exploration of contemporary suburban American life as boredom.

Malaysian Non-native Chinese Students' Challenges and Learning Strategies in Chinese Characters Learning

This study investigates the challenges faced by non-native Chinese learners in learning Chinese characters and their learning strategies. This research applied quantitative research, where the questionnaire was delivered at the end of the semester to 370 students of Mandarin level two, selected through convenience sampling. The descriptive analysis showed that most of the students stated that being literate in Chinese characters and learning many Chinese characters was the most challenging act while corresponding between characters and their pronunciations was the least challenging. Next, the students listed repetitively memorising Chinese characters as the preferred learning strategy, followed by imitating each stroke of a Chinese character and picturing what Chinese characters look like in their minds. The finding of this study contradicts other research studies since the students in this study did not perceive the "lack of correspondence between characters and their pronunciation in Chinese character learning" as the main challenge since they only learned 105 Chinese characters for two semesters. Nonetheless, this study also supports similar research on learning strategies in that students have difficulty learning Chinese characters as there are too many characters, too many pronunciations, and too many strokes. Hence, they repeatedly imitate and memorise the characters as learning strategies. Thus, memory strategies and graphic strategies are the main learning strategies to help learners cope with learning Chinese characters. For future study, it is recommended to find out whether there is any correlation between the challenges for non-native Chinese learners and the learning strategies they apply, which will give teachers an idea of how to improve their teaching to support learners’ learning strategies to boost their Chinese character learning.

Images to Evoke Decision-Making: Building Compelling Representations for Stakeholder-Driven Futures

Contemporary landscape planning challenges require an increasingly diverse ensemble of voices, including regional stakeholders, physical scientists, social scientists, and technical experts, to provide insight into a landscape’s past trends, current uses, and desired future. To impactfully integrate these disparate components, stakeholder-driven research must include clear lines of communication, share data transparently, and slowly develop trust. Alternative future scenario representations aim to generate conversations through discourse, evoke scenario-based stakeholder input, and ensure stakeholder-based revisions to research models. The current literature lacks a metric for gauging effectiveness and a framework for optimal evaluation for future scenario representations. We have developed and applied a metric for a ranked set of compelling scenario representations using stakeholder input from an active research project. Researchers surveyed stakeholders through a case study in Idaho’s Magic Valley to gauge the effectiveness of each representational approach. To improve future stakeholder-driven geodesign projects and gaps in the research literature, this project provides a ranking of graphic strategies based on the stakeholder survey. Additionally, we provide examples and evaluate graphic representation strategies that can stimulate meaningful conversations, create common understandings, and translate research processes and findings to a variety of audiences. The results of this study intend to provide landscape architects, landscape planners, and geodesign specialists with a framework for evaluating compelling future scenario representations for a stakeholder group.

21ĀM NŪṞṞĀṆṬU KAṞṞAL KAṞPITTAL CINTAṈAIT TIṞAṈ VARAIPAṬATTIṈ VAḺI VAḺIKĀṬṬIK KAṬṬURAI EḺUTUM MUṞAI [21ST CENTURY TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS OF USE (I-THINK MAP) IN WRITING TAMIL LANGUAGE

This article explores the benefits of using the I-Think map to enhance student performance in the Tamil alphabet. Understanding, cognition, and problem-solving skills using the I-Think graphic system will be taught in the form of essays at the end of a teaching session or test for Tamil language lessons. This study looks at how increased training for students' achievement in the essay subject using the I-Think map. Furthermore, this study examines the extent to which students' acceptance towards the I-Think map of the teaching and language learning process and the implications of the use of the map enhance student achievement in fourth year Tamil subjects. 28 students were sampled for the study. The findings of this study show that students can also improve their scores in Tamil by learning the algorithm for using I-Think graphic learning strategies. The writing energy strategy at the end of the study was a useful keyword. Not only the teacher but also the students can get a better learning instruction if used in the lesson in the classroom.

Embedding interactive, three-dimensional content in portable document format to deliver gross anatomy information and knowledge.

The Portable Document Format (PDF) is likely the most widely used digital file format for scholarly and scientific electronic publishing. Since format specification version 1.6, three-dimensional (3D) models in Universal 3D (U3D) format can be embedded into PDF files. The present study demonstrates a repertoire of graphic strategies and modes of presentation that exploit the potentials of 3D models embedded in PDF to deliver anatomical information and knowledge. Three-dimensional models and scenes representing anatomical structures generated by 3D surface scanning or by segmentation from either clinical imaging data or cadaver sectional images were converted into U3D format and then embedded into PDF files using both freely and commercially available software. The relevant steps and required software tools are described. Built-in tools in Adobe Acrobat and JavaScript scripting both were used to pre-configure user interaction with 3D contents. Eight successive proof-of-concept examples of increasing complexity are presented and provided as supplementary material, including both unannotated and annotated 3D specimens, use of bitmap-textures, guided navigation through predetermined 3D scenes, 3D animation, and interactive navigation through tri-planar sectional human cadaver images. Three-dimensional contents embedded in PDF files are generally comparable to multimedia and dedicated 3D software in terms of quality, flexibility, and convenience, and offer new unprecedented opportunities to deliver anatomical information and knowledge.

(Sub)titles in cinematic virtual reality: a descriptive study

Virtual reality has attracted the attention of industry and researchers. Its applications for entertainment and audiovisual content creation are endless. Filmmakers are experimenting with different techniques to create immersive stories. Also, subtitle creators and researchers are finding new ways to implement (sub)titles in this new medium. In this article, the state-of-the-art of cinematic virtual reality content is presented and the current challenges faced by filmmakers when dealing with this medium and the impact of immersive content on subtitling practices are discussed. Moreover, the different studies on subtitles in 360º videos carried out so far and the obtained results are reviewed. Finally, the results of a corpus analysis are presented in order to illustrate the current subtitle practices by The New York Times and the BBC. The results have shed some light on issues such as position, innovative graphic strategies or the different functions, challenging current subtitling standard practices in 2D content.

“De ces cartes on verra surgir les lois de la distribution des styles d’Architecture.” Cartografiar la historia de la arquitectura en el siglo XIX (II): Arcisse de Caumont y los mapas pasigráficos

(en proceso)

Efficient modelling of optimised pure acoustic wave equation in 3D transversely isotropic and orthorhombic anisotropic media

ABSTRACTCompared with full elastic wave equations, pseudo-acoustic wave equations (PWEs) derived from the acoustic approximation can significantly reduce computational cost, thus they are widely used in seismic modelling, imaging and inversion in anisotropic media. However, these PWEs tend to suffer from inevitable SV-wave artefacts and numerical instabilities during wave propagation. The most effective solution to resolve the above issues is to adopt pure acoustic wave equations (PAWEs) which can produce pure P-wave responses without SV-wave residuals. Because the PAWE involves a complicated pseudo-differential operator (PDO), which is difficult to be solved using some common numerical algorithms. Here, we develop a new approach to implement pure acoustic wave propagation in 3D general anisotropic media. By minimising the difference between PDO and the new approximation, we compute optimal coefficients based on a least-squares method, and then derive the new time–space domain PAWEs in both 3D transversely isotropic and orthorhombic anisotropic media. Although the new PAWE contains a Poisson’s equation, we introduce a fast Poisson’s solver by using fast Fourier transform. To further improve computational efficiency, parameter gridding, coefficient reutilisation and graphic processing unit acceleration strategies are employed during wavefield extrapolation. Several numerical examples demonstrate that our proposed schemes can generate a pure and stable acoustic wavefield with high accuracy in general anisotropic media.

Pervivencia y evolución de lugares y valores de la argumentación en la publicidad gráfica

A partir de fuentes clásicas y contemporáneas de retórica, publicidad y diseño, junto al análisis cualitativo de ejemplos, se explican los tipos y características de los lugares (o tópicos) más relevantes, ya sean concebidos como contenedores de argumentos o como estereotipos. Incluso, se adelanta la posibilidad futura de investigar específicamente una tópica visual. Se ha constatado la importancia de la jerarquización y variabilidad de los valores en función del contexto: según el asunto, los posibles destinatarios y grupos sociales, así como su evolución con la propia sociedad. La tradicional promesa publicitaria de beneficio conecta con los valores en su papel argumentativo y ha experimentado una evolución desde el argumento racional, privilegiado en la publicidad de mediados del siglo XX, hacia la conexión personal con la marca, a través de la experiencia emocional, sensorial o estética. Precisamente, estos últimos son efectos buscados por los recursos gráficos o retóricos, lo que hace ver la necesidad de que la argumentación sea creativa, así como la inseparable relación entre argumentación (inventio) y expresión (elocutio) verbal y visual.

Trasgresión, experimentación y comunicabilidad de lo gráfico en arquitecturas colectivas. Índices de una expresión gráfica implicada

The different ideals and purposes of the groups of architects around the “collective” derive in architectures and other very diverse productions. The important attention to the graphic will be a common element between this heterogeneity. The disclosure of its architecture and its processes are in general an essential objective in the “collective” ... plans, drawings and models will be an ideal material to disseminate their work and their ideas in publications and networks. Some collectives chosen for their care in “the graphic” leave evidence of the exposed. Six selected studies provide the graphic imaginary to be analyzed from three sections: transgression, experimentation and communicability, as characteristic components of graphic strategies in the architecture of collectives.

“Diarios chicos” y “diarios grandes”: la crítica visión de la prensa chilena según los periódicos satíricos, 1880-1910

Se analizan las estrategias textuales y graficas utilizadas por algunos de los principales periodicos satiricos de la capital chilena (que se llamaban a si mismos “diarios chicos”) para describir la actividad de la prensa a partir de las ultimas dos decadas del siglo XIX y, en especial, para cuestionar la posicion enunciativa de los “diarios grandes”. Al denunciar las sospechosas relaciones entre hombres de finanzas y periodistas, asi como ridiculizar el trabajo dentro de las salas de redaccion, se erosiono la posicion dominante que tenian publicaciones como El Ferrocarril y El Mercurio . Las imagenes y textos satiricos mas certeros se dirigieron sin embargo contra los diarios catolicos, cuyos redactores fueron representados como seres irracionales y, por tanto, inhabilitados de participar en el espacio publico, en contraste con los propios editores de los “diarios chicos”. El blanco de los ataques vario hacia 1905, cuando la pugna contra el clericalismo dejo de ser primordial y la prensa satirica adquirio un lenguaje clasista, a partir del cual interpreto la actividad periodistica durante los siguientes anos. Palabras clave: prensa satirica popular, periodismo moderno America Latina, periodistas chilenos c. 1880-1910.

Sobre el mapa: estrategias de gestión de la información en la cartografía actual

El mapa se ha transformado en el soporte ideal sobre el que gestionar múltiples las capas de información que afectan al territorio. Históricamente, las estrategias gráficas empleadas para la representación y comunicación de toda esa información, merece nuestra consideración en la medida en la que pueden extrapolarse estrategias proyectuales aplicables sobre el territorio. Tomando como punto de partida una serie de cartografías que, a lo largo de los años, han supuesto un avance en materia de comunicación gráfica, se hace un repaso de la contribución cultural que supone este soporte. Desde unos inicios que evidencian un tránsito desde el espacio topológico al de representación cartesiana, pasando por la búsqueda de herramientas de gestión gráfica de elementos cambiantes, así como la incorporación del Big Data en cartografías más próximas al diagrama que al mapa tradicional, podemos observar una necesaria confluencia de todos esos niveles de información. Todos estos recursos, sirven en la actualidad a los arquitectos y urbanistas, como punto de partida que permite no solo representar los aspectos más intangibles del proyecto, sino también explorar nuevas formas de comunicación multidimensional. En definitiva, nos otorga la capacidad de cartografiar no solo lo real, también lo imaginado.

Filling the Silence: Giving Voice to Gender Violence in Una's Graphic NovelBecoming Unbecoming

Written in the style of a memoir, Una's graphic novel, Becoming Unbecoming, takes readers on a poignant journey with a young girl who experiences silence, shame and blame after being subjected to male sexual violence. The protagonist's story is played out against the backdrop of the rapes and murders committed by the notorious Yorkshire Ripper. This paper examines the text's multilayered narrative, which uses a range of graphic strategies and artistic styles to challenge its readers to make meaning, fill in the gaps and piece together their own version of events. The text's fragmented and disconnected sequences mimic the nature of traumatic memory, and the shifting linguistic–visual narration moves between fact, story, experience and emotion.

Significados de la representación histórica en algunas novelas gráficas contemporáneas

One of the most important features of the recent Spanish production of graphic novels consists in its evident compromise with the historic and literary reality of the country. Many scriptwriters and sketchers, in fact, have chosen to analyze some of the more significant periods of the Spanish history and literature in order to reproduce them in their works through different graphic techniques and narrative strategies. The thin equilibrium which is reached between the representation of the historic and literary reality and the employment of the artistic fiction can be considered, then, one of the most impressive features within their works. The aim of this article is to analyze how some Spanish contemporary authors of graphic novels wish to reinterpret history of well-known personalities and to think about the different aims and techniques used in theirs works.

Imaginario arquitectónico e imagen del maestro moderno, tres publicaciones de Hellman, Focho y Babina

En el artículo se realiza una doble selección, en la primera se escogen tres publicaciones de tres arquitectos y dibujantes que crean unas series de ilustraciones sobre arquitectos relevantes, a partir de su obra gráfica y construida; un libro, una revista y una página web, con estrategias gráficas diferentes y un factor común, la intervención del imaginario característico del arquitecto para crear un imaginario gráfico sobre ellos. De estas publicaciones extraemos una segunda selección de dibujos sobre cinco maestros modernos.

Limit Analysis and the Study of Building Stages in Masonry Structures. Experiences with the Gothic Apse of Tortosa Cathedral (1345–1441)

ABSTRACTLimit analysis is a commonly used method in the assessment of masonry constructions. This article deals with the use of limit analysis in order to study the equilibrium conditions during the intermediate building stages of the Gothic apse in Tortosa cathedral (1345–1441). This analysis is typically used in completed structures, but its use in the intermediate building stages may provide relevant data beyond the existing historical information. The design of this heptagonal apse entails a greater calculation complexity than the cathedral’s central body. Besides, the intermediate building stages generate asymmetry situations at the pillars. The results obtained shall enable us to determine the building stages in which the structure’s equilibrium may have been endangered, and therefore a temporary thrust countering system was required. Two different graphic statics strategies have been used. These strategies are based on the same principles, but imply a different degree of simplification.

Effects of a computer-assisted argument map learning strategy on sixth-grade students’ argumentative essay reading comprehension

Numerous studies have proved that graphic strategies, such as graphic organization and concept mapping, can facilitate improving reading comprehension. However, the question as to what graphic strategies can improve argumentative essay reading comprehension ability is not yet resolved. To determine whether graphic strategies can improve students' reading comprehension ability, we designed a computer-aided argumentative essay reading system that can construct graphic strategies. In the designed system, three approaches, namely a traditional teaching approach without graphic strategies, concept mapping, and argument mapping, are created for determining the effects of graphic strategies on students' argumentative essay reading comprehension ability. In addition, the proposed argument mapping system provides a function for helping students identify three key argumentative essay elements, namely claims, reasons, and evidence, to enable them to construct an argument map with no burden. The designed system can help students learn how to read argumentative essays easily, improving their reading comprehension ability. The experimental results from 373 sixth graders showed that the argument mapping method enhanced students' argumentative essay reading comprehension ability compared with traditional and concept mapping approaches. Statistical results revealed that between-group differences were statistically significant (p value between the experimental and Control Group 1 was 0.001 and that between the experimental and Control Group 2 was 0.013).

Dessin de la main et habiletés numériques chez des enfants d’âge préscolaire.

This study aims at studying the relationship between manual and digital representations and numerical skills through the drawing of a hand. Sixty-two children (ages from 4 years old to 5 years and 6 months old) were asked to draw a hand and to carry out 2 numerical tasks: first to produce 2 equivalent collections and then to use the order-irrelevance principle. The statistical implicative analysis shows that more elaborated graphic strategies more strongly imply success producing 2 equivalent collections