Multimodality, according to Gunther
Kress, is an assortment of modes all bunched together. Modes are basically
things that express something else, like a picture, text, object, symbol, et
cetera. Multimodality aims to communicate a general meaning, with the use of
many different modes. Having just one mode will not be able communicate
everything effectively. For an example, someone has writing, or text on a
specific side and has an image on the other side. The writing, or text gives
the frame and background of the image, while the image gives a depiction.
Multimodality can communicate many messages because it has different modes that
have been specialized to communicate a certain message.
The tension between
Kress and Wysocki’s view of multimodality is about space and time; on the other hand, they agree on many other topics. Kress
believes that when reading we must ask, “What are the salient events and in
what (temporal) order did they occur?” Wysocki believe that his question is
incomplete. Wysocki believes that we must consider “How they use the spaces and
not just one time that can be shaped on pages. They also need to question how
they have come to understand the spaces of pages so that they can, if need be,
use different spaces, potentially powerful spaces that have been rendered
unavailable by naturalized, unquestioned practice”. They both treat space and
time differently. Kress focuses on the layering and ordering of the multimode,
while Wysocki is more logical in his approach with space, words, and time.
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