Multimodal Blending
Thursday, February 9, 2023
04:00 UTC
Prof Seana Coulson
University of California, San Diego
Recording
Open recording
Hosted by Analogical Minds90 minutes
Abstract
In this talk, I’ll consider how new ideas emerge from old ones via the process of conceptual blending. I’ll start by considering analogical reasoning in problem solving and the role conceptual blending plays in these problem-solving contexts. Then I’ll consider blending in multi-modal contexts, including timelines, memes (viz. image macros), and, if time allows, zoom meetings. I suggest mappings analogy researchers have traditionally considered superficial are often important for the development of novel abstractions. Likewise, the analogue portion of multimodal blends anchors their generative capacity. Overall, these observations underscore the extent to which meaning is a socially distributed process whose intermediate products are stored in cognitive artifacts such as text and digital images.
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