For this assignment, we’ll think about the ways that visual art interprets a story through particular meaningful choices just as literary adaptations do. The assignment will also get us comfortable with the major figures of The Ramayana.
The assignment has three parts. As always, I encourage you to begin early in case you run into any technology trouble.
1) Explore Artstor, an incredible database of images that Baruch has special access to this month. You’ll go to this library site and click on Artstor. (You may need to log in with your Baruch email/password if you’re using the site from off campus.) Once there, you’ll need to register at the top right corner of the page so that you have access to all of the site functions; it’s quick. Then, explore a bit! For the assignment, you’ll want to search for “Ramayana” in the search bar, but I encourage you to look around the site at other art you might be interested in. The range and quality of the images are better than you’ll find on, say, Google Images. After searching for “Ramayana,” you might also limit your search to a particular character (like Hanuman or Laksmana) depending on your interests. You’ll choose just one image for this assignment, but you should look at at least ten before deciding. Get a sense of the variety of visual representations inspired by this text: across time, media, and culture.
Once you’ve decided on an image you’d like to analyze, click on it and then, on the top bar, click “Share” and then “Generate Image URL.” At that point, you can follow these directions to insert the image into your blog post.
(Here’s an example of an image inserted with HTML. If you click—and you’ve disabled AdBlocker—it will come up in a separate window.)
2) In one paragraph, analyze the image carefully, pointing to details of composition that strike you as crucial to this artist’s interpretation of the story. Here are some questions to consider (though you may not choose to answer them all): Does the image suggest movement or action? How so? What stage of the story is depicted? How does the image use color/contrast of light and dark/texture/composition/the impression of depth? Note repeated images, lines, curves, or motifs and try to explain their significance. How does the piece use scale (the size of various components) to indicate value (how important something is)? (As always, aim to be as specific as possible in your paragraph, even though this will likely mean that you’ll need to focus on only a few important aspects of the image. Your analysis needn’t be thorough—that would take far more space than you have here—but it should be deep. You should be focusing on how, not just what.)
3) In a second paragraph, compare the visual representation you’ve chosen to that of the story we’re starting to read (remember: you should be reading up to pg. 61 in The Ramayana for Tuesday). How do the two interpretations of the story show different values or emphases? Which details are highlighted in each case? You should quote from the text at least once in this paragraph. The aim here is to think about the ways in which images are not “just” illustrations but are, like literary texts, offering a thoughtful interpretation of a source.
As always, email me if you have any questions!