Podcast: Montage and visual juxtaposition

Harry, Jonathan, Joy, and Eric talk about theories of montage and relating images through sequence.

Listen to the episode
Duration: 20:03
Size: 13.7 MB

When you juxtapose or sequence images, meaning can be created, changed, or enhanced beyond that of each image alone. Show one image, then show another, and people see the second image differently than they would if they had seen it first. If you then show the first image again it takes on overtones of the second image. The brain seems to be wired to look for meaningful patterns.

Even juxtaposing colors can create meaning. For example, look at these two color paintings by artists that Jonathan mentions in the podcast. Why yellow, or why any of the colors?
Rothko: https://www.colourlovers.com/uploads/2008/01/rothko_painting.jpg
Mondrian: https://www.artchive.com/artchive/m/mondrian/mondrian_composition_a.jpg

When you give presentations, you're creating a sequence of images to support what you're saying. Is the sequence adding to the meaning, doing nothing, or interfering with the meaning?

Here's the Wikipedia article we talk about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_montage_theory

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https://media.libsyn.com/media/harrymiller/Viz001_Montage.mp3