text and image

For today's discussion of words and image, it will be useful to refer to Picture Theory by WTJ Mitchell. He distinguishes between three ways in which image and text can interrelate, each signified by a different typographic convention. "Image/text," with a slash, designates "the problematic gap, cleavage, or rupture in representation." In other words, if the image and text seem to point in different or even opposite directions, the slash indicates the tension between them. On the other hand, if the image and text are related and work in the same direction, Mitchell uses the term image~text, with a hypthen between them. Then "imagetext" , written as a single word, indicates "composite, synthetic works (or concepts) that combine image and text " (89). Here the lack of space between the two terms indicate that they have fused, creating a single inextricably combined effect. I hope these terms will be useful in discussing the different effects of the works we will be exploring today.