Episode 130 On comics and understanding visual narratives, with Neil Cohn

Lars og Pål

In this episode Lars is speaking with Neil Cohn, whose research focuses on how we understand comics and other visual narratives. We discuss how researching our understanding of visual narratives can show us more about how we process information, update our situation models (explained in the episode), and what neuroscience can learn from the study of comics. Are comics from different cultures written in different visual languages, and what does that mean? Neil also discusses what he calls the Sequential Image Transparency Assumption, the common assumption that we all naturally understand and can interpret sequences of images. As it turns out, it’s not that simple…

Neil’s three comic recommendations:

Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes

Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo

Larry Marder’s Beanworld

Neil Cohn is an associate professor at the Tilburg center for Cognition and Communication at Tilburg University, in the Netherlands

https://www.visuallanguagelab.com/neilcohn

Books mentioned:

Neil Cohn. (2020). Who Understands Comics? Questioning the Universality of Visual Language Comprehension. Bloomsbury Academic.

— (2013). The Visual Language of Comics: Introduction to the Structure and Cognition of Sequential Images. Bloomsbury.

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Our logo is by Sveinung Sudbø, see his works on originalkopi.com

The music is by Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen, see the facebook page Nygrenda Vev og Dur for more info.

Photo of Neil Cohn by Dan Christensen

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