Multimodal Media

"Media that communicates meaning through multiple modes or channels, such as visual, auditory, textual, spatial, and gestural elements, often interacting simultaneously to create a richer and more dynamic experience for the audience."

Reading and writing that now encompass digital media are referred to as multimodal media.

In a media studies context, multimodal refers to the integration of different forms of communication—like images, sound, text, movement, and interactivity—within a single piece of media.

These modes can be used individually or in various combinations to communicate.

Examples include:
digital storytelling, video essays, interactive installations, and even analog media collages that combine sound and visuals.

In an art-making context, a definition of multimodal media would be:
"Art that combines multiple modes of communication—such as visuals, sound, text, movement, spatial arrangement, and interactivity—to construct layered meanings and engage audiences in dynamic, multi-sensory experiences."

This can include:

experimental film
interactive installations
analog-digital hybrids
performance art incorporating projections
sculptural works that integrate light and sound

The key is that multiple sensory or conceptual channels work together to create meaning beyond a single mode of expression.

Concept 1:
Glitch Aesthetic

Team 1 will create a project the exemplifies the glitch aesthetic.

Objective: Students will manipulate analog or digital media (e.g., VHS distortion, circuit bending, corrupted digital files) to create intentional "glitches" as artistic expression.
Materials: Old TVs, VHS tapes, broken cameras, CRT monitors, image corruption software.
Output: A short video, still images, or sound piece that uses distortion as a meaning-making tool.

Concept 2:
Analog / Digital Storytelling via Chance

Team 2 will use analog objects and digital technology to create a storytelling experience using what we know of the different eras of modernism.

Objective: Create a short, narrative using only analog or obsolete media (e.g., Polaroids, cassette recordings, overhead projectors).
Materials: Cassette recorders, instant cameras, overhead projectors, typewriters.
Output: A multimedia collage or installation that tells a fragmented or nonlinear story.

Concept 3:
Camera Obscura Creations

Camera Obscura Experimental Film

Objective: Using a simple camera obscura or pinhole camera students will create a short film that serves as a documentary and maybe even a meta-modern story.
Materials: Cardboard, tape, wax paper, lenses.
Output: capture video and photos using the camera obscura and construct a short film ostensibly about the camera obscura and its seemingly otherworldly powers.

Concept 4:
Media Reconstruktion

installation and Space Transformation
Analog Objects, Light, Sound as Medium

Objective: Students take a piece of "dead media" (e.g., an old film strip, broken radio) and reconstruct it into a new medium (e.g., a film strip woven into a sculpture, a broken radio as a rhythmic sound device).
Another Approach: Students take an old technology object (typewriter, rotary phone, cassette, floppy disk) and find a new way to make it "speak" outside its original function.
Materials: Typewriters, Old film reels, VHS tapes, walkmans, discarded tech.
Output: A video or performance of the object being used to "communicate" in an unexpected way.