Topic outline

  • STUDIO: Visual Narratives

    Teacher: Vilja Achté, vilja.achte@aalto.fi

    About the studio:

    In this studio, you explore and develop variations of visual narrative. Here, narrative is defined broadly, focusing on the communicative and multimodal aspects of storytelling, whether linear on non-linear. For example, your project might use the methods of motion graphics/animation, journalism, bookmaking, printmaking, or illustration and comics, and it might start from a standpoint that is either personal, documentary, or curatorial. Through developing your own extensive narrative project, you will gain confidence in defining your individual design approach, and an opportunity to (re)situate your own practice within the vast field of visual communication.

    The Visual Narrative Studio includes an optional brief for a narrative project that will be presented more in detail during the first session on 2.3. The brief is to create a narrative for earthly survival, by exploring the visual genres, modes of storytelling, narrative structures, and media formats that might be appropriate to communicate the present moment of planetary drama. You can work with this open-ended theme if you don’t yet have an idea about your individual project for this course.

    Assessment:

    The assessment is a synthesis of your design process, required milestones submitted on time, and the final outcome of the design project. Successful completion requires minimum 80% attendance. Your narrative project encompasses 50% of your grade in this course, from which 15% is for the final outcome and 35% is for your research and documented process, including the documentation on your personal Discord channel and your mid-point presentation. The other 50% of your grade will be evaluated based on your contributions during the group sessions, your interactions on Discord with other participants as well as your involvement in the P2P project support groups.

    Suggested reading: