Shedding Light on “Knowledge”: Identifying and Analyzing Visual Metaphors in Drawings

ABSTRACT Drawing extends the capacity to communicate, since it allows individuals to use graphic objects and symbols to articulate complex ideas not easily communicated using words alone. Similarly, theorists argue that metaphors are commonly used to communicate complex and abstract concepts. Though, the interpretation of visual metaphors has been studied in relation to film and advertising, referencing common metaphors used in language, research has yet to examine how individuals construct their own visual metaphors and whether existing language-based metaphors are used, as a basis. Studying the underlying structure of drawings, using organizing frameworks and mapping systems, provides insight into how individuals use metaphors to communicate and the interdependent relationships between text and image. This study applies conceptual metaphor theory and frame semantics to identify and map visual metaphors in drawings of Knowledge. Three research questions guided the study: How are visual metaphors [of Knowledge] inferred in participant drawings using existing language-based metaphors?; Can language-based metaphor ontologies and semantic systems be used for interpreting visual metaphors?; and How are inferences found in language-based metaphors evident in the design of visual metaphors? Data were collected as part of the study: What does knowledge look like?, where participants (N = 404) were asked to draw what they thought Knowledge looks like to them, and explain why they drew what they did in writing. Five example cases are presented in the results: 1) the Illuminated Light Bulb, 2) the Electric Brain, 3) the Brain as a Container for Knowledge, 4) Knowledge (Ideas) as Food, and 5) the Open Mind. The findings present three notable conclusions: the combination of multiple metaphors within a single drawing; the use of a language-based metaphor ontology (i.e., Master Metaphor List) and frame semantics as analytic tools to examine visual metaphors; and the potential for additional language-based metaphor categories to emerge.