words *and* pictures

[Judy Malloy]

WORDS *AND* PICTURES

Both words *and* pictures are valuable communication tools. The communication
form with the most potential for conveying many levels of meaning is likely
to use both words *and* pictures - in such a way that neither are the words
exact descriptions of the pictures nor are the pictures exact illustrations
of the words. This combination of words and pictures is capable of conveying
many levels of meaning. And, computers will soon make it possible for anyone,
not just those who like to draw or take photos.

Forinstance, the sentence "I was angry with my computer" accompanied by a
picture of a man hitting an IBM PC with a sledgehammer is more effective
than the sentence: "I was angry with my IBM PC so I hit it with a
sledgehammer". The picture gives us information, like the condition of the
computer after impact, which could take many words to convey. But the
picture alone might not convey why the computer was being smashed. An angry
expression on the man's face could be caused because he was mad at his boss
not at the computer.

The sentence "Lucy filed the 3x5 cards" accompanied by a picture of Lucy
throwing a lot of 3x5 cards into a big trash can, or, The words "It was
calm on the lake when we started out", accompanied by a photo of two
teenagers in a canoe convey many levels of meaning and invite imagination.

The combination of words and pictures is one of the reasons movies and TV
are so powerful. But some, myself included, would prefer to read a good
book than to see a movie of it because one's own mind is freer to add levels
of meaning and interpretations when they aren't completely spelled out.
However, drawings of the characters, or photos of the author, add meaning
to books without making imagination unnecessary.. Many ways of combining
text and static images are still unexplored.

I've been making word picture combinations where neither are the words
descriptions of the pictures or the pictures illustrations of using words,
photos, drawings, found images in 3x5 card files. Acquiring the right image
makes it a slow difficult kind of work. Forinstance, it could take quite a
while to get 2 teenagers into the canoe on a lake and photograph them. And,
I can't afford to publish them so they are sometimes seen one-of-a-kind
works. This will change for me, for other artists and for *everybody* as
computer systems with digitizers, image databanks, and high quality printers
become more widely available.

Judy Malloy