Syncretic Modality in Slideshows in the Era of Digital Humanities: Towards a Reconceptualization of Visuals?

The pervasiveness of slideshows in present-day academic lectures calls for a continuous redefinition and problematization of the nature and functions of modes, as well as of their interaction in a multimodal space such as the slide. Indeed, intense visuality in lectures is linked to a growing need for the ability to decipher the complex semiological landscapes that slides represent. This work is based on the analysis of a corpus of lecture slides drawn from the MIT OpenCourseWare initiative. Through a qualitative approach, it observes the fluidity of the different types of resources, with particular attention paid to visuals. This study offers an analytical framework which represents an embryonic rubric for operationalizing the grammar of visuals. It is based on a fluid and dynamic conception of visuals and focuses on the hybridity of the different semiotic resources, which often cannot be ascribed to specific categories without running into reductionist simplifications. The approach adopted aims to go beyond the investigation of the contribution made by individual modes, and to consider the meaning created dynamically by the interaction of the different resources, in a circular process which goes from the singular to the global and vice versa. Results show that the multiple semiotic resources involved develop syncretically and have a reciprocal transformative function in the meaningmaking process. Also, they synergically convey the information desired through their mutual validation.