ABSTRACT
The chapter introduces compositional structures for designing narrative visual representations, that is, representations which represent what they represent as physical or mental actions or events. Narrative compositions consist of ‘participants’, realized by visual volumes; ‘processes’, realized by vectors; and ‘settings’, realized by backgrounds. Participants can function as Actor, the doer of the action, or Goal, the entity to which the action is done or which undergoes the event. Narrative visual representations can be unidirectional or bidirectional – in the latter case each participant combines the function of Actor and Goal. They can also be transactional or non-transactional – in the latter case they contain only an Actor. Five kinds of narrative visual representations are defined and exemplified: Actions, Events, Reactions, Mental Processes and Speech Processes. Any given subject matter can be represented in any of these ways, resulting in different interpretations of the represented reality.
