Articulations of Irish Language Poetry as Multimodal Texts

In October of last year, visual communication students at Technological University Dublin took part in an exhibition of Irish language literature texts that were imaginatively extended, exploring an array of new literacies. Taking the Irish language texts as a starting point for this project, students creatively explored print, visual, digital and material modes to extend the meaning of the poetry.This paper explores, from a social semiotic perspective the creative potential this multimodal work offers design pedagogy in how we frame and articulate meaning across both print and digital media design education. With an emphasis on an ensemble of signs as a whole, towards meaning making, there are learning potentials in examining these representational forms and technologies. This is increasingly significant as our students will need to be conscious of how meaning changes as information migrates across more varied communication modes. It is important that design education explores the potential for new ways of describing design thinking through critically questioning our visual communication practices.