Johnson’s Harold and the Purple Crayon: Thought Rendered Visible Per Aage Brandt1, Mark Turner2, Angelina Bair3

  Introduction

Can picturebook art be understood in terms of cognitive processes?

Can mental spaces account for meaning in picturebook art?

Mental Spaces can blend and form compositions that create new conceptual and semiotic networks.

Models

Conclusion These models show how picturebook illustrations makes sense by blending contents and by signifying them through the iconic sign (the art itself).

Crockett Johnson projects Harold into a blended world in which events and causality are shaped by drawing himself into the story space.

References: Brandt, L., & Brandt, P. A. (2005). Cognitive poetics and imagery. European Journal of English Studies, 9(2), 117-130. Turner, M. (2006). The artful mind: cognitive science and the riddle of human creativity. Oxford University Press. Turner, M. (2014). The origin of ideas: Blending, creativity, and the human spark. Oxford University Press. Turner, M. (2007). The way we imagine. In Theory of mind and literature. Purdue University Press: West Lafayette.

Acknowledgments: 1Director of the Center of Cognition and Culture, Department Cognitive Science, Case Western Reserve University 2Retired Faculty Department of Cognitive Science, Case Western Reserve University , I would also like to thank Kent State University, School of Library and Information Science Brown University, and Colorado University.

Representation=Reality

Reference SpaceBase Space Presentation Space

Blended Space

ObserverPainting

Painter & 2-D:StrokesColorslines

3-DMotifSurfacescontours

Strokes =motif…(seeing=touching)

Reference SpaceBase Space Presentation Space

Blended Space

ObserverPainting

Painter & 2-D:StrokesColorslines

3-DMotifSurfacescontours

Strokes =motif…(seeing=touching)

Painter, canvas ,unfinished female form

Painter’s model andreal woman in studio

Unfinished model with painter

Signifier=Signified Signifier is a Sign of Signified

Reference SpaceBase Space Presentation Space

Blended Space

ObserverPainting Painter & 2-D

StrokesColorslines

Interior=exteriorExterior=interior

3-DMotifSurfacescontours

Strokes =motif…(seeing=touching)

Figure = ground Colorado University, Tactile Picture Books Project

Colorado University, Harold and the Purple Crayon Tactile Picture Books Project

Brown University, Harold Prototype Program

3-dimensional modeling is a versatile and expressive means of communicating outside the confines of the 2-dimensional page similar to Harold sketching ideas through his purple crayon.