'Now I know their secrets': kineikonic texts in the literacy classroom.

Mills, Kathy

Moving images play a growing role in contemporary literacy practices in the world outside of schools, given the ease of producing and distributing moving images through increased Internet bandwidth, and the advent of Web 2.0 tools--the social web. Similarly, the prevalence of the moving image is expanding with the rise of digital television and the improved capabilities of mobile telephony. These trends are changing the dominance of print to accommodate visual modes, and more specifically, the predominance of still to moving images in a digitised communications environment.

This paper applies two powerful theoretical approaches to analysing a claymation movie collaboratively designed by a group of culturally and linguistically diverse Year Six students. It advances the visionary project of multiliteracies begun by the New London Group (1996), a group of ten educators (1) who met together in New London, New Hampshire, to envisage new directions for literacy teaching and learning for the twenty-first century. The term 'multiliteracies' was coined by the New London Group to describe two key arguments for changing literacy practices: the multiplicity of communication channels, modes, and media; and increased cultural and linguistic diversity. Conventional literacy practices must be extended to include the powerful affordances of new technologies, modes and multimedia that are needed for participation in the multiple semiotic and social practices of the changing times.

Why combine functional and multiliteracies approaches?

Throughout the 1990s, Halliday's functional grammar was applied in Australian schools as the genre-based or functional approach, extended by leading language educators including Martin and Rothery (1986), Kress (1993), Christie (1989), and Cope and Kalantzis (1993). A genre approach to literacy teaching involves being explicit about the way language works to make meaning. It was an attempt to counter the implicit teaching methods of progressive pedagogies that had failed to improve patterns of educational attainment (Cope & Kalantzis, 1993). Four stages of the genre approach building knowledge of the field, modelling, joint construction, and independent construction of the text--were taught using examples of genres, showing how purpose and context influence the generic structure and linguistic features of texts (see, for example, Derewianka, 1990). The genre approach was successful in gaining the support of Australian educational policy and funding, having a direct contribution to the Years P-10 English Language Arts Syllabus in Queensland in 1994.

Literacy education in Australia was strengthened by the explicit teaching of the purposes and features of discourses and genres (Richardson, 1991). Yet genres rarely exist in static, predictable forms, but are dynamic and always changing in response to the purposes, social contexts, audiences and technologies used to produce them. For example, explanations are often found within procedural genres, or recounts within narratives. The multiliteracies argument has highlighted the limitations of static descriptions of the textual features of genres and text types, and the need to expand these with the increasing variety of multimodal texts and blurring of genres that students need to negotiate. Functional approaches to literacy curricula, particularly multimodal semiotics, are now including multimodal, digitally mediated genres and texts (see, for example, Jewitt, 2006).

Why a multimodal metalanguage?

An emerging body of international research examines the intersection of multimodality and social context in specific ways to observe subtle meanings of textual elements (Hull & Nelson, 2005; Jewitt & Kress, 2003; Luke, 2003; Mills, 2010a, 2010b; Stein, 2006). These theorists observe that digital technolo gies have clearly changed conventional notions of language, curriculum and literacy research.

The term 'multimodal' describes the complexity and orchestration of more than one mode of meaning, combining visual, linguistic, gestural, auditory or spatial modes (New London Group, 2000). For example, a web page can combine background colour and sound, audio elements, words in various fonts, styles, colours, still or moving images, and gestural elements, such as the postures of human subjects in images. Multimodal design differs from independent modes because it connects the modes in dynamic relationships and engages the whole body in making meaning (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996; New London Group, 2000).

The communication environment is changing from one dominated by monomodality (one mode--linguistics) to one of rapidly emerging multimodal forms of communication via multimedia, digital technology and the internet (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000). For example, consider the way one navigates the reading of an Internet news homepage by first glancing at the eye-catching image and header at the top left. The home page functions as a site map for the networked web pages. The digital newsbytes are arranged spatially in columns that require the reader to scroll down to the less salient topics. It is not merely that literacy tools have been altered; texts, language and literacy are undergoing fundamental transformations.

This paper draws from both multiliteracies and functional or genre approaches to examine a digital multimedia form of communication. This synthesis of analytic tools leads to the generation of a flexible multimodal metalanguage for work in kineikonic design--textual practices involving moving images (Burn & Parker, 2003). In particular, the paper will move fluidly between Halliday's (1994) three meta-functional categories of text organisation--representational, interactive, and compositional meanings. Representational or ideational meanings refer to the way in which semiotic resources are used to represent ideas about the world--what is included or excluded. For example, the moving images, gestures, spatial layout, words and sounds of movies present certain understandings of the objective world.

Interactive or interpersonal meanings concern the interpersonal relationships established between the represented participants and the reader or viewer. This is particularly relevant in discussions of camera angles and the way they position the viewers. Compositional or textual meanings concern the distribution and organisation of the information value or relative emphasis among elements of the text (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996; Unsworth, 2001). For example, in a silent movie, the moving images, including the gestures of the characters, convey a significant proportion of the text's meaning, while the accompanying live pianist complements the images to establish the mood.

What conventions of kineikonic and written texts are similar?

There are certain genre-specific conventions of kineikonic texts--texts in which the moving image is central--that parallel those of written texts. For example, like written procedures, such as recipes and self-help books, films can demonstrate how to accomplish a task. They can include an orientation to establish the goal of the action, followed by a logical series of step-by-step instructions to realise it. However, while the textual structure of procedural films often mirror print-based instructions, the hybrid, mixed or linguistically heterogeneous nature of texts means that their boundaries are often blurred. In an era of electronically mediated textual practices, changes and modifications to discursive practices have become more prevalent.

Daria, Ted and Julia, Queensland Year Six (age 11 years) students of differing ethnicities, created a claymation movie 'The Healthy Picnic'. The purpose was to entertain an audience comprised of parents and siblings and their preparatory buddies (ages 4 1/2-5) for whom they were required to communicate an educational message. A claymation movie uses stop-motion techniques in which static clay figures are repositioned slightly between each still photo. When the photo sequence is replayed quickly, the objects appear to move of their own accord. Popular claymation productions include 'Wallace and Gromit' and 'Chicken Run'. The filmic process began with planning a storyboard on paper, sculpting plasticine characters, designing three-dimensional movie sets using natural and manufactured materials, and filming using a digital camera. After filming, the students recorded the sound and digitally edited the movies with teacher assistance.

The opening scene of 'The Healthy Picnic' showed a female character and a dog walking through a park. The second scene depicted the close-up assembly of a salad sandwich on a plate, with the sandwich fillings--meat, cheese, tomato and sauce--moving in a line around the plate and onto the sandwich. A cup of juice was filled, and the sandwich was consumed by an unseen person in bite-sized pieces. The movie climaxed as a plasticine ant consumed the remaining crumbs. The students stated that the two messages of their text were: (a) 'To eat healthy food', and (b) 'How to make a healthy sandwich'.

The movie combined the genre-specific features of procedural texts. It was divided into two main scenes, a prologue or brief scene preceding the main action, and an epilogue. The establishing scene was comprised of long shots of a Western suburban park--to orient the locale and time for the scene and action that followed--a close-up of a sandwich on a plate being assembled and consumed (see Figure 1).

The sequential, naturalistic arrangement of sandwich fillings on the slice of bread followed the structure of a procedural text. The characters were not named or introduced. Rather, they were ancillary to the central theme--the step-by-step preparation of a healthy sandwich (see Figure 2).

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

What conventions are unique to kineikonic texts?

Kineikonic texts also differ in specific ways from the semiotic codes and conventions of texts that include still images. Four categories of sign-making codes are unique to kineikonic texts (Mills, 2008).

1. Screen Elements--how the images are constructed for filming (e.g. three-dimensional setting and props, background scenes, clothing, appearance and gestures of plasticine-on-wood figures).

2. Spatiotemporal Elements--how the movements of people and objects are depicted.

3. Technical Conventions--how the text is constructed, from shooting the scenes to the final editing of the film (e.g. camera angles, framing, lighting, creation of time, transitions, editing).

4. Kineikonic Compositional Meanings--how the moving images are orchestrated with other modes to convey meaning.

Each of these important features of the kineikonic mode, applied specifically to claymation moviemaking, is illustrated using examples from 'The Healthy Picnic'. Table 1 summarises the conventions of claymation moviemaking that are discussed in this paper.

Screen elements

Screen elements concern how the images are constructed for filming, including the three-dimensional sets, props, background scenes, clothing, appearance and gestures of plasticine-on-wood figures (Anstey & Bull, 2004; Mills, 2008). Screen conventions are used to represent people and material objects in the world in a recognisable way for the viewer--constituting representational or ideational meanings (Halliday, 1994). These screen conventions are discussed in the following sections.

Sets and props

An important diegetic aspect--that is, existing within the story content of the film--of pre-filmic design, is the physical design of a three-dimensional movie set comprised of a base, backdrop and props. For example, 'The Healthy Picnic' utilised many material affordances of claymation stage and prop design, combining natural and manufactured materials and objects of various textures, such as a sandbox, crockery, food, tablecloth, craft supplies and plasticine. Through the material qualities of the figures and props, such as their size, weight, shape, form and texture, they became embodiments of the students' vision to create a model of a tranquil recreational environment in which to locate a healthy picnic lunch.

Characters and costumes

An essential pre-filmic feature of claymation screen codes is the material design of the characters and costumes. A key difference between the characters in written texts and those of claymation films is that rather than using words or drawings, students create meanings through visual and spatial modes using tangible material resources. The students reflected and defined their own identities through the characters, each member contributing elements of their personal history and culture. For example, Daria, a Sudanese girl who arrived in Australia as a refugee, designed the central actor in the film. There were striking resemblances between Daria's physical markers of identity and those of the figure, such as an African skin tone, dark braided hair and prominent lips. Yet, these were blended uniquely with her identity in a Western sociocultural context, marked by contemporary fashion trends and clothing accessories. Similar to Stein's work with African doll figures, the main character was a synergy of traditional African and the contemporary Western image, combining 'the local and the global, the past and the present' (Stein, 2006, p. 133). Similarly, the costumes of the plasticine figures showed attention to stylistic detail, and demonstrated the many layers of representational resources available to the students from multiple cultural contexts.

Spatiotemporal elements

Spatiotemporal elements refer to how the movements of people and objects are depicted in a kineikonic text, contemporaneously constituting representational or ideational meanings (Halliday, 1994; Mills, 2008). This includes animation techniques such as stop-motion in which characters and objects are repositioned slightly between each shot while maintaining a static background. It includes the postures, gestures, facial expressions, gaze and lip movements of the clay-on-wood figures. Similarly, it involves the background movements of less important characters and objects to create a sense of life and rhythm. Spatiotemporal elements also include the screen layout--the positioning of objects on screen--such as left, right, top, bottom, foreground, background, centre and margins. The spatiotemporal elements--animations and screen layout--are discussed in the following sections.

Animations

When designing the spatial and temporal axis of a claymation film, students have to envisage how the accumulation of still frames and the constant repositioning of figures and objects in each frame will result in various qualities of movement on the screen, such as flow, speed, continuity, pace and spatial direction (Burn & Parker, 2003; Mills, 2008). The affordances of stopmotion animation techniques were utilised effectively in both scenes of 'The Healthy Picnic'. For example, in the park scene, birds and insects were moved randomly and constantly, creating backgrounded animations to sustain the spatial rhythms of the movie and to signal life (Burn & Parker, 2003). The students ensured that each moving object formed a vector or line of action pointing in purposeful directions (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996). The gaze, gestures and other bodily meanings of the characters were immaterial, since the scene simply functioned to establish a context for the assembly of a healthy salad sandwich.

In scene two, the students shot the sandwich ingredients one frame at a time, and then moved or repositioned them slightly between each frame, giving the clever illusion that the ingredients moved by themselves. This visual effect was accomplished in-camera, rather than during editing. The sandwich was subsequently consumed in bite-sized pieces, and an ant was the final actor that formed a vector towards the crumbs (goal) on the plate.

Screen layout

Screen layout is a spatiotemporal element that refers to the organisation and spatial arrangement of characters and objects on the screen. In kineikonic design, attention is given to creating movement across all dimensions of the screen, and to varying the level or spatial plane of the action. Additionally, screen layout in film follows general aesthetic principles and rules of visual and spatial composition such as balance, symmetry, unity and harmony. Aesthetically pleasing screens can attract and hold the learner's attention more successfully than screens constructed with minimal regard for aesthetics (Heum Lee & Boling, 1999).

In the park scene, the students created a realistic sequence of continuous life-like movement throughout all spatial zones, from top to bottom, and from left to right. This multidirectional action in the film created interest for the viewers. The placement of a subtitle at the top left of the screen--'What a lovely day to have a picnic!'--followed the conventional meaning potential of top-bottom and left-right in Western alphabetic cultures (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996). In scene two, the sandwich ingredients entered from the right, left, top, bottom and midline in random order, creating a curious element of unpredictability. The plate and slice of bread are positioned in the centre of the screen, functioning to mediate the other ingredients in the composition. The sandwich fillings move from a marginalised position on the perimeter of the screen to become one with the central element of the movie--the sandwich. The students' engagement in an innovative physical and conceptual design space fostered new understandings of the art of communicating and of literacy itself (Eagleton, 2002).

Technical conventions

Technical conventions concern how the movie is constructed, from the shooting of the scenes to the final editing of the film (Anstey & Bull, 2004; Mills, 2008). The following section addresses technical conventions: lighting, framing, camera angles, audio, transitions, and screen writing.

Lighting

Maintaining constant lighting within a scene is an important technical convention in claymation moviemaking. This is because the image sequence is composed of separate still shots. When the photographs are spliced together and digitally assembled on the screen, the aim is for consistency between the lighting and colour rendition of the shots (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996). A second issue is the need to minimise shadows from the students' bodies or other objects in the filming area. The students who created 'The Healthy Picnic' were instructed about the role of lighting in filmic design, as illustrated in this transcript. The teacher addressed the class who were seated in front of the filming studio. A movie set was positioned on a table, illuminated by a lamp on either side, facing inward.

Teacher: Why do you think I've got a lamp that is going to be turned on here? Rhonda? (2)

Rhonda: For the light.

Teacher: What about the light?

Rhonda: So you can see?

Teacher: What do you notice about this light when I'm moving?

Brianna: There are shadows.

David: Shadows.

Teacher: There are shadows. Where are the shadows coming from?

Julia: The light through the windows.

Teacher: The light coming through the window is very bright. So to balance that, we need light coming from this direction, because we really don't need your shadows in the movie. So if we had two lamps that are shining this way, then it will give some of your characters depth and dimension. Ok? Lighting is very important.

Throughout the filming of each scene, the students consciously attended to this instruction. They maintained constant lighting and minimised the shadows from their bodies, resulting in a consistent colour rendition in the final film on screen.

Framing

The technical code of framing in kineikonic design refers to the composition of each shot that determines what the viewer does or does not see (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996). The three-dimensional movie set must be constructed to match the proportions of the digital camera lens. This is because the framing of a shot leads the viewer to assume that the scene extends beyond the perimeters of the screen. The photographer ensures that neither the top nor the bottom edges of the set are visible in the viewfinder of the camera, nor are the essential details missed in the effort to film inside the perimeter of the movie set. Once the framing of the composition or alignment of the camera is established, the camera position must remain constant for the duration of the scene. The framing of 'The Healthy Picnic' caused certain difficulties due to a difference in aspect ratio--the relative size of the horizontal and vertical components of the movie set and the screen. In other words, the proportions of the movie set did not match the proportions of the camera lens. The teacher showed the students how to resolve the problem with an additional strip of grass to lengthen the vertical component of the park scene. By taking on the role of photographers, the students discover that the camera often hides reality. The students learned to reduce a film to single frames, and comprehend its silences and boundaries.

Camera angles

In claymation movie making, another essential technical convention is the varied use of camera angles to suit the designer's purposes. The use of camera angles or viewing positions encoded in a movie can be used to analyse what Halliday (1994) referred to as interpersonal or interactive meanings. For example, aerial perspective and high angle shots look down on the action and can be used to indicate a detached or objective point-of-view. Eye-level perspective--an 'equal plane'--can be used to establish an interpersonal level of engagement between the characters and the viewers. Similarly, close-up shots can be used to create intimacy or social proximity with the viewers or between alternating characters in a dialogue. Alternatively, close-up shots can make possible the selective indication of important details within a scene (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996).

In 'The Healthy Picnic', the park scene was taken from high-angle shots, looking down on the action to indicate a detached point-of-view. This created low interpersonal engagement between the embodied agents (characters) and the viewer. Scene two of the sandwich was taken from a close-up aerial perspective using a zoom lens. This camera angle afforded a naturalistic view of the ingredients, while establishing objectivity, detachment and clarity.

Audio

Audio design in claymation movies can include dialogue, narration, music, sound effects and various combinations of these elements. The sound tract of 'The Healthy Picnic' consisted of an acoustic guitar digital tract (blues) that continued uninterrupted throughout the duration of both scenes. The moderately paced music complemented the moving images by establishing a relaxed mood and performed the specialised task of maintaining the rhythm and continuity of the movie against the conjunctions of scene transitions in the visual montage. The decision to use visual montage without dialogue was effective, since the image sequence and subtitles communicated the meaning of the text with clarity. A boundary of silence accentuated the closure of the visual sequence.

Transitions

Unlike spoken or written texts, in which past, present and future verb forms often make time explicit, temporal shifts in movies are frequently implicit. In kineikonic texts, time is signified by transitions--conjunctions between scenes that signify a temporal shift of some kind. The combination of moving images and transitions creates an overall effect of rapid sequence in which time is partitioned, absent, omitted or condensed (Burn & Parker, 2003). For example, between the two scenes in 'The Healthy Picnic', a transition slide effectively functioned as a timing device, fast-forwarding the action to the procedural demonstration. The words 'Lunch Time--I'm Hungry!' bridged the transition between the orienting scene of the park and the close-up images of the sandwich being assembled. This indicated a change in both spatial and temporal meaning--there was a new location and a gap in time--that could not be easily inferred from the images.

Screen writing

Digital authoring in claymation filmmaking necessitates the use of certain print literacy skills. Unlike words in written texts, linguistic elements on the screen are reconfigured with strong spatial and visual elements such as font style, colour and positioning (Jewitt & Kress, 2003). During digital editing, linguistic elements are added to the title pages, transitions, subtitles and credits. Students must attend to typography, that is, the visual and spatial treatment of screen text, including the placement of text in relation to the whole screen and other modes of design (Heum Lee & Boling, 1999). Decisions about font style, size, colour, aesthetics and positioning are as important in communicating the message as the letters and words. For example, the static words 'What a lovely day to have a picnic!' were positioned at the top of the screen during the park scene using a playful font in navy blue which contrasted with the light blue sky. Screen writing takes on new meanings when intersected with different multimodal elements since it is not an exclusively linguistically oriented practice; rather, digital writers combine words, colour, motion, interactivity and visuals to make meaning.

Kineikonic compositional meanings

Drawing on Halliday's (1994) understanding of 'textual meanings', kineikonic compositional meanings concern how the moving images are combined, juxtaposed and orchestrated with other modes to convey meaning (Mills, 2008). For example, in claymation moviemaking, the moving image frequently carries the greatest role or 'functional load' in creating meanings, while other modes such as audio elements perform a lesser, but complementary role (Jewitt & Kress, 2003). Editing a claymation movie largely concerns making decisions about kineikonic compositional meanings.

Editing

Digitally editing the montage is an advanced form of artistic control. By digitally editing a film, the creator can manipulate and modify a performance more fluidly than traditional art forms such as live theatre. During editing of 'The Healthy Picnic', the syntagmatic groupings of music, words and images were digitally combined and synchronised (Burn & Parker, 2003). The digital hardware and animation software become important technologies for meaning making, facilitating the uploading, importing, modifying, combining and editing of the digital image and audio files (i.e. narration or music). Certain linguistic elements of the screen, such as the title, transitions, subtitles and credits were added during digital editing. The most important aspect of digital editing is that the screen space became a site for learning that meanings in multimedia are not fixed or additive; rather, they are multiplicative (Lemke, 1998). For example, the animations of the moving sandwich ingredients appeared to come to life when accompanied by the upbeat rhythm of the sound tract, making the complete text greater than the sum of its parts. The students discovered how the options for meaning through each mode multiply in a combinatorial palette.

Conclusion

It is increasingly the case that a worldwide industry not only produces and markets a proliferation of images to promote the consumption of products, but also for the vested interests of services, governments and institutions. The power of the moving image is more pervasive than ever before with ever more sophisticated capabilities of technologies. There is an urgency for students to have metalanguages to describe, design and critique kineikonic texts--videos, podcasts, internet pop-ups--that pervade their everyday textual environment.

Australian teachers have witnessed the writing gains for students when they embrace the systematic and explicit teaching of genres and text types through functional approaches. Innovative teachers are extending their literacy curriculum to include a wider repertoire of screen-based genres that resonate with students and ignite the creative imagination. Kineikonic texts are gaining salience in a multimedia textual environment, each with their unique metalanguages of description. Literacy educators are extending their repertoire of familiar genres, building on the strengths of functional approaches to address new screen-based texts.

Whether critiquing or creating filmic media, teachers can focus the students' attention on the function of multimodal elements and how they are used to represent the world and position viewers for certain social purposes. By articulating the sign-making conventions of kineikonic texts, teachers and students can draw these multimodal elements consciously into the process of textual production and critique. To explore the important connection between creating and critiquing texts, I asked a student: 'How has making this movie changed the way you think about movies that you watch? Do you think differently about them at all?' She confidently replied, 'Yes ... Now I know their secrets!' It is time to harness the power of the moving image for the benefit of students.

Appendix Table 1. Textual Features of Claymation Movies in Kineikonic Design Textual Elements Examples Modes Genre-Specific Conventions Audience, To entertain and educate younger purpose and students message Narrative text Setting, characters, plot-- structure orientation, complications, climax, resolution, coda Screen elements Sets and props Representing place through 3D Visual, backgrounds, foregrounds, 2/D and 3/D Spatial forms, colour, texture, material, weight, size, stability, shape, contrast, symmetry/asymmetry Characters Representing identity, gender, age and 3D Visual so forth, through skin colour, hair, Gestural facial features, physique, costume, Spatial accessories Spatiotemporal Elements Animations Stop motion animation (repositioning Gestural objects or characters to create Visual movement while maintaining a static Spatial background), gestures, posture, facial expression, lip synchronising, gaze. Background movements to create life and rhythm. Screen layout Positioning of objects on screen (e.g. Gestural left, right, top, bottom, foreground, Visual background, centre, margins). Spatial Technical Conventions Lighting Constant/varied, bright/dull, dark/ Visual light, soft/harsh Spatial Framing What is included or excluded in each Visual shot. Spatial Camera angles Aerial, high, low, or eye-level camera Visual angles. Long, medium, or close-up Spatial shots to show social distance between viewer and characters. Audio Music, sound effects, silent, or Audio dialogue (e.g. diction, volume, pitch, Linguistic pacing, modulation, inflections) Transitions Words on static background, fade, Visual dissolve, wipe Spatial Screen writing Title page, credits, and subtitles Linguistic Visual Spatial Multimodal Compositional Meanings Editing Storing or converting files, deleting, Multimodal rearranging, combining sound and image

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Kathy Mills

Queensland University of Technology

(1) Original members of the New London Group who met in September, 1994 and authored the 'Pedagogy of Multiliteracies' manifesto in the Harvard Educational Review (1996) include Courtney B. Cazden, Bill Cope, Norman Fairclough, James Paul Gee, Mary Kalantzis, Gunther Kress, Allan Luke, Carmen Luke, Sarah Michaels and Martin Nakata.

(2) All names in this paper are pseudonyms to maintain the anonymity of the participants. Camera angles