Elements of continuity and discontinuity between orality and visual narrative

Reflexive analysis after the creation of a stop-motion animated short film

Abstract

To understand the current audiovisual production it is crucial to look further back to the origins of language and communi- cation, mainly to language and oral narrative. Both oral and visual narratives have emerged nearly at the same time, and their origins are in the dawn of humanity. Further, primitive visual language made possible the appearance of writing. Conjugated writing and orality have become a sort of hege- mony in the construction of culture and human tradition for many years until the Industrial Revolution. The great change of cultural paradigm, the sudden technological advances, and the emergence of new tools that made possible an even more complex communication in the human society, took an unexpected turn in the languages, and the visual took the su- premacy keeping it until today. Under these circumstances, it was considered legitimate and relevant to question about the equivalences and differences between various languages as well as among their own tools and instruments, but above all the ultimate purpose of communication. For a better delimita- tion of the investigation, the creation of an animated short film was chosen, and it served as a field of action and experimen- tal laboratory about oral and visual language.