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multilinearity
visual rhetoric
theory in practice

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One of the earliest theorists of the impact of hypertext on writing, David Bolter (1998) speculates that there are two possible futures for graphics. In one of these futures, graphics take the place of the written word through a kind of interactive television. An interactive television model of graphics and hypertext leaves little room for the printed word. As Bolter (1998) sees this it, this approach would simply displace writing (p.9). While this future is possible, compositionists exploring the future of academic writing in a hypertextual medium are more likely to be interested in the alternative model Bolter sketches.

This alternative establishes a more cooperative relationship between text and image through the "the hypertextualization of the image" (Bolter, 1998, p.8). This cooperation emerges when the images on a webpage become active links. "The graphics become part of the network of associations that constitute the hypertext and so acquire the qualities that belong to all hypertexts" (Bolter, 1998, p.8). Iconographic navigation, the use of GIF-formatted text buttons, and thumbnail JPG images linked to larger JPGs are all examples of this cooperation between text and image in the production of meaning in a hypertext. These versions of textual-visual cooperation abound on the web, and they are a relatively straightforward way to use the visual as hypertext.

Broadening one's conception of the visual beyond the linked JPG or GIF opens up the possibility of integrating images into academic hypertext. While some cutting-edge approaches might come close to Bolter's (1998) interactive television model (hypertexts built mostly of Flash movies, for example), academic hypertexts need not displace the textual as they integrate the visual. One begins to tie the visual to the textual in academic hypertext when the project is recognized as both graphic design and academic text.

Page layout, color palette, navigation design, and selection (or creation) of graphics all become elements of the reader's visual experience of a hypertext. While some of these graphical elements may be hypertextualized, non-hypertextualized elements become just as important in developing the relationship between the textual and the visual. While the relationship between the text and this larger graphical packaging is perhaps most obvious in poorly designed websites where the visual effectively displaces the textual (font color="#FF0000" on bg color="#0000FF", for example), effective web designs weave the textual and visual so that the graphical elements contribute to the meaning of a hypertext.

visual rhetoric | configuring meaning | transparency

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