Transmedial Ekphrasis. From Analogic to Digital Formats

Art is a way to give autonomy to sensorial experiences beyond natural perception. Thus, it serves as a form of meta-representation, a model for raising awareness in recognition and cognition. In the West, the first discussions on aesthetics, coming mainly from ancient Greece, inscribed art within analogy and representation (mimesis) and, simultaneously, within telling and narration (diegesis). The term ekphrasis was used to describe the skills that enabled the translation of artistic content and its expression in different formats, whether painting, sculpture, oral poetry, writing, dance, performance and so on. Until the 20th century, ekphrasis was mainly contemplated as the verbalization of aesthetic aspects from visual media (mostly painting and sculpture). In this paper, I examine Lewis Carroll’s poem “Jabberwocky” included in the novel Through the Looking-Glass, and compare it to Jan Švankmajer’s 1971 movie by the same title. I also explore Simon Biggs’ 2010 installation reRead, inspired in the novel. The three works are used as examples of art works which break analogic principles and bring to the fore, each in a different medium, the metamorphosis of ekphrastic processes.[1][1] I am indebted to Prof. Lars Elleström (Linneaus University, Sweden) for bringing Jan Švankmajer’s work to my attention. For more information on Švankmajer’s “Jabberwocky”, see Elleström’s recent volume Media Transformation (2014)