Journal of Advertising and Public Relations Volume 1, Issue 1, PP 15-20

From Intermediality to Plurimediality: Deleting the Lines of Medium Essentialism in Creative Media and Digital Rhetoric

Dr. Michael Odichi-Dan Ugorji UFR Langues et Communication, Université de Bourgogne, France *Corresponding Author: Dr. Michael Odichi-Dan Ugorji, UFR Langues et Communication, Université de Bourgogne, France

ABSTRACT Adopting an inter-disciplinary meta-semiotic approach this article studies the inter-medial framing of creative media narratives and cogent arguments in the process of successfully leveraging individual narratives in and across various media channels. It does this with a keen gaze on the interplay of intermediality and its corollaries in digital simulacra. It also explores the psychosocial agency and the pedagogical potentials of this phenomenon and further explicates the concept of intermediality as its interpretive model. Thus, intermediality is also reviewed through the lens of its emancipatory aesthetics even as it is firmly located at the centre of narrativity in digital rhetoric. Keywords: Intermediality, digital rhetoric, creative media, digital media, contemporary Advertising, narratology, medium essentialism

INTRODUCTION well as screen shots from her YouTube The performance environment, as earlier videos and makes use of several different observed by Philip Auslander (1999), is modes, such as changing background increasingly and progressively mediatized with colors and fonts. All of these components the growth and dominance of television and make the whole book into a plurimedial digital technologies. This trend has emphasised experience that relies on visual and the tangent role of intermediality and also textual elements almost in equal measure. generated other concepts allied to it such as; All of these sub-concepts refer to the various multimediality, transmediality and hybridity (or manifestations of intermediality in the hybridization). For emphasis, multimediality contemporary world of a digitally driven refers to the meeting of two media in one and mediatic system and by implication in the entire the same object, while transmediality describes narratological enterprise. Irrespective of the media change or transfer from one medium to mode of its manifestation in any given situation, another, and hybridity means the combination of intermediality functions as a meta-medium by the forms and the interaction of the artistic which narratology navigates through and products across media channels. Irina O. traverses the boundaries of form and genre from Rajewsky (2005: 44) identifies an extended list the original or framing medium to other media of multifarious affiliate terminologies and and back again. This interaction of genres and concepts associated with intermediality media channels therefore essentially shatters including; plurimediality, cross-mediality, infra- every notion of essentialism by which a piece of mediality, media-convergence, media- narrative could be solely ascribed to a particular integration and media-fusion, etc. Of all these genre and to that genre alone. seminal corollaries of intermediality, plurimediality stands out in the context of digital Hence, what would for traditional convenience rhetoric in this paper. Silke Jandl (2017) be described as a piece of theatrical describes it in the following lines, performance, could now find its way into the television advertising scene as part of the Plurimediality, thus, describes how a content by which a marketer connects to their range of media might co-exist to make targets and at the same time becomes expressed and add to meaning in any particular in the electronic format, which in itself attracts work. Grace’s Guide is quite obviously the paraphernalia of that medium. In a similar plurimedial: it includes lots of pictures, as way, the same piece of theatrical narration could

Journal of Advertising and Public Relations V1 ● I1 15 From Intermediality to Plurimediality: Deleting the Lines of Medium Essentialism in Creative Media and Digital Rhetoric also find its way into digital advertising scenes extension digital rhetoric) in order to determine such as YouTube, thereby also adopting the how sociocultural values and cognitive styles trappings of that media space. It could influence the development of intergroup eventually return to the original framing interaction and behaviour change. medium (the theatre scene) with some of the attributes of those other media genres where it METHODOLOGY has been exposed and then be expressed afresh This article utilizes an inter-disciplinary meta- as an advertorial or even as a live demonstration semiotic approach to study the framing of in an open theatre stage. The energy that creative media narratives rhetorical intermediality and its corollaries have brought to communication across media channels. This is narratology and rhetorical communication done with an understanding of the ‘meta- compels a deeper understanding of the semiotic’ as that which relates to the description interaction between rhetorical narration and or analysis of any given semiotic system. Hence, digital cultures. What then is the link between this paper embarks upon the description and rhetoric and digital mediality? analysis of intermediality as a semiotic agent and catalyst in media convergence and cross- James Zappen (2005: 319) in his seminal essay, fertilisation of narratives across media “Digital Rhetoric: Toward an Integrated boundaries. The paper also explores some Theory”, demonstrates how traditional rhetorical cogent arguments that either support or oppose strategies of persuasion operate and their the practice of leveraging individual narratives processes of reconfiguration in digital spaces. in various media channels. It also forays into He further suggests that digitization has brought important arguments made on the practice of along a big challenge to the age-old persistent merging different media channels to constitute a view that simply associates rhetoric exclusively singular narrative, especially via the digital with persuasion (Zappen, 2005: 321). Douglass media. The highpoint of this study is the reading Eyman (2015: 12-13) also posits; of the psychosocial agency and the pedagogical potentials of intermediality and its corollaries as If nearly all human acts of communication valid emancipatory social agents. Drawing engage rhetorical practice (whether inferences from existing research and instances explicitly acknowledged or not), then from some known narratives in contemporary rhetoric-as-a method can be applied to all popular culture, this paper also further communication events. While I do take a explicates the concept of intermediality as an very broad view of the scope of rhetoric, I interpretive model. Therefore, intermediality is also believe that articulating a definition eventually seen in this paper from the of the field provides a focus for future perspective of its emancipatory or liberating deliberation upon the acceptable methods aesthetics, even as it is firmly rooted in the core (derived from the epistemological of narratology and within the praxis of digital assumptions underlying such a definition) rhetoric. and practices that may constitute digital rhetoric as a field. INTERMEDIALITY: THE CONCEPT AND THE In tune with the foregoing argument, this paper DEBATES advances the notion of intermediality as the The concept of Intermediality and theories connecting tissue that binds rhetorical narration propounded on it are central to this paper. This to digital cultures by demonstrating how a key concept describes the interconnectedness of creative media narrative or a rhetorical the various modern media of communication. It construction transcends any particular medium has also been described as the incorporation of and could effectively be expressed and digital technology into theatre practice and the represented interculturally and also in other presence of other media (film, television and media channels that are non-traditional to its digital media, etc) in contemporary theatre original medium of representation. Hence, productions (Chapple & Kattenbelt, 2007). theatre norms and form can be effectively Mikko Lehtonen (2001: 76) portrays this deployed in film, advertising media, animations, concept as “intertextuality that transgressed and other digital formats in tune with the rapid media borders”. Thus, elements of popular evolution of media technologies. This paper also culture and the sociocultural intertexts that importantly explores the underlying pedagogic emanate from public spheres can also easily methods of applied intermediality (and by form the core of other modes of creative media

16 Journal of Advertising and Public Relations V1 ● I1 From Intermediality to Plurimediality: Deleting the Lines of Medium Essentialism in Creative Media and Digital Rhetoric production. These elements and intertexts of intermediality as a disruptive concept in generate narratives that can be leveraged across media studies. media boundaries, manifesting in film stories, Chiel Kattenbelt (2008) conceives theatrical productions, comedy sketches and intermediality as “the correlation of media in the advertising concepts, etc. A good instance is the sense of mutual influences between media”. He endless parodies and satire focused on the acknowledges that the arts and media should not mannerisms of US President Donald Trump. be studied in their own historical developments These parodies and satirical narratives operate and with their own rules and specifications but within the paradigms of intermediality, rather in the broader context of their differences especially those of transmediality and and co-relations. He proceeds to describe how plurimediality. Mr. Trump’s idiosyncrasies and this definition relates to his definitions of allied peculiar speak have so far generated a concepts of multimediality and transmediality, multiplicity of enactments in various comic while distinguishing intermediality as one aspect sketches, stand-up comedy, mimicry, clownery, that involves resensibilization. According to cartoons, social media memes and even in him, these three concepts (inter-, multi- and advertising concepts that spin off from the transmediality) interrelate on different levels in man’s unweaning relevance in popular the same discourse and are perspectives from imagination. Imprints of his characterisation which media phenomena can be studied with have lately flooded various digital media spaces respect to their mediality, where the different including YouTube. Trump’s character has not artistic expressions are regarded as media. This been spared by YouTube content producers. It conception of intermediality corroborates the has featured in speech performance parodies, earlier view expressed by Freda Chapple and comic sketches, stand-up comedy and YouTube Chiel Kattenbelt (2007) which locates theatre music memes, in which different components of and performance at the heart of the ‘new media’ various media forms are often combined to tell debate. They conceive ‘intermediality as an holistic stories that speak to Trump’s unique integration of thoughts and media processes’. characterization and that also connect with Thus, the intermedial is situated in a space YouTube audiences. Some of the top music where the boundaries soften and we are in- memes featuring this character include those between and within a mixing of space, media with: Trump and former President Barack and realities, with theatre providing the staging Obama singing Aqua’s Barbie Girl, Trump’s space for intermediality (Ugorji, 2017). This character singing Camila Cabello’s Havana, and staging space could also in many other Trump’s character singing Ed Shearan’s Shape circumstances be any other media of of You, among many other parodies. There are representation functioning as the framing also some parodies featuring Trump’s character medium, while incorporating others in a way making ludicrous speeches such as Do You that boosts its own capacity to effectively Wanna Build a Wall among others. It would not convey its narrative goals. be long before Hollywood makes a full movie based on this ‘Trumpomania’, going by the Friedrich Kittler much earlier stated his aversion connectedness and revolving nature of these to this translatability or transformability of almost trite representations of Trump’s character media by defining media in absolute terms; “A across media spaces. Hence, Trump’s character medium is a medium is a medium, thus cannot has effectively transformed into the Cinderella be translated” (Paech, 2000). Another theorist or Dracula of contemporary performance scenes who theorized against the use of one artform in and the digital media has not been left out of the another medium not traditional to it is Noël ongoing frenzy. The above example would be a Carroll who clings to ‘medium essentialism’. classic case of plurimediality in action. In a While asserting his views on what he terms slightly similar context, it could also be media specificity, he posits that “each artform described simply in terms of any of has its own distinctive medium, a medium that multimediality or transmediality, or in the words distinguishes it from other art forms” (Carroll, of Lehtonen “intertextuality that transgressed Noël. 1996). As a film theorist, he maintains his media borders”. One element that stands out notion that the definition of the medium within the web of intermediality, as described determines the aesthetic value of any artform. above, is the intersection and interjection of its He alludes to Kracauer and Arnheim’s film sub-concepts with one another; which in itself theory which drew from the doctrine of ‘media- perfectly describes the typical discursive nature specificity’ to reinforce the medium of film at

Journal of Advertising and Public Relations V1 ● I1 17 From Intermediality to Plurimediality: Deleting the Lines of Medium Essentialism in Creative Media and Digital Rhetoric its infancy. In tune with Carroll is the digital media, as long as they function as a semiologist Christian Metz (1977) who subject or theme on the level of narration or conceives film as a textual system that depiction. ‘Material intermediality’ occurs constitutes its own original singular totality with where the representational layer itself no significant authorial involvement (Paech, (mechanical dispositive, painting, etc) reappears 2000). In the views of these apostles of media constitutively in a different medium (Paech, specificity or medium essentialism the free- 2000). flowing intermedial simulacra of Trump’s Christopher Balme in the introduction to Beyond performative megalomaniac character in various Aesthetics: Performance, Media and Cultural media would be a taboo, since it could not be Studies, (Balme & Wagner, 2004: 7) observes confined to a singular medium. This kind of a that theatre is changing rapidly in response to restrictive creative order would seem what can be calls media culture. He emphasizes unimaginably anachronistic, impracticable and that theatrical performances can still be just above all anti-creative in the prevailing plays performed on box sets, but increasingly decentralised world of media democracies. they are not. Balme goes ahead to distinguish Thus, the Kitlerian code of “A medium is a intermediality under three fields thus: medium is a medium, thus cannot be translated” would fall flat in the face of contemporary non-  the transposition of diegetic content from one essentialist creative media practice. medium to another; However, despite its close links to the discipline  a particular form of intertextuality; of film, media specificity is still not an invention of film theory. According to Balme (2004), it  the attempt to realize in one medium the finds its roots in Lessing’s Laokoon essay of aesthetic conventions and habits of seeing 1766, which famously critiqued the old formula and hearing in another medium. of ut pictura poesis (one artform being a model Christopher Balme further reviews Lepage’s for another) and distinguished between temporal efforts in using his production company (Ex- and spatial arts. Even modernists such as Machina) to establish how different media can Clement Greenberg held tenaciously to this interact and influence one another. In the review notion of medial purity as the ultimate goal for of Lepage’s Seven Streams of the River Ota (in every modernist artform. This view of the which theatre performance integrates film, apostles of media specificity and essentialism television, photography and video), Balme sharply contrasts with those who believe in conceives theatre as a ‘framing medium’, with Intermediality, such as André Bazin, Peter the ability to frame other media within itself Greenaway, Christopher Balme, Marshall with one particular medium standing out as the McLuhan, Chiel Kattenbelt, Freda Chapple, ‘thematic medium’ (the central motif). Also among others. The latter believe in ‘hybridity’; working on Lepage’s ‘intermedial theatre’, the combination of the forms and the interaction Aristita Albacan (2004) examines what she and of the arts across media channels, which would Lepage call ‘cross-breeding’ of media be closely linked to plurimediality. It is the conventions, while engaging her study with the perspective of this latter group on media that has knotty issue of how intermedial performances seminal relevance to the central argument in this reconfigure audience perceptions. She affirms paper. Lepage’s firm belief in hybridization or ‘cross- André Bazin in the 1950s noted that films were breeding’ as a method of constructing in principle works by authors who at certain contemporary performance. She therefore times and with certain technical and aesthetic defines hybridization as “the merging of two means had managed to create certain distinctive different media or artistic conventions in order cinematic artworks. Hence, he conceived film in to enhance the meaning or the way of the light of what would later be described as expressing meaning”, in a manner not intermediality. Taking the concept a little obtainable by a simple juxtaposition of those further, Marshall McLuhan classified two elements (Ugorji, 2017). intermediality into two categories; the Similarly, Philip Auslander (1999) sets out to ‘symbolic’ and the ‘material’. According to him interrogate the subject of live performance and ‘symbolic intermediality’ occurs with all forms its proponents’ rigid ascription of it solely to the of medial inscriptions of older media such as theatre. In his view, the growth and dominant photography into newer forms such as the posturing of digital technologies and television

18 Journal of Advertising and Public Relations V1 ● I1 From Intermediality to Plurimediality: Deleting the Lines of Medium Essentialism in Creative Media and Digital Rhetoric is increasingly and progressively mediatising the the mixing of forms, styles and media in ways evolving performance environment. He thus that may be arcane to essentialist narrativity, but categorically situates performance of cultural that are effectively creative and also forms beyond strict adherence to the theatre, communicative. In such a liberalised and thereby extending its spheres to the deregulated mediatic system, authors and ‘economically superior mediatized forms’. As producers are encouraged to express themselves Douglas Eyman (2015: 26) puts it, in ways and in combinations of ways that would best represent their narratives and connect with As digital technologies have continued to their target audiences. Loyalties to form and develop (at an amazingly brisk pace), the genre are then replaced by loyalties to possibilities of constructing hypertext storytelling and other diegetic content. work that includes a variety of media- Aggregate contributions to the goals of video, audio, animation, interactive communication and entertainment, and not processes-has further marked the allegiance to generic aesthetics, become the departure from our traditional notions ... main purpose for which the non-diegetic content Thus there has been an increased interest are constructed. The growth and impact of in exploring the possibilities of visual intermedial narrativity in creative media and rhetoric(s) as they are foregrounded in digital rhetoric within the last two decades has digital media. become so mainstream that it is now almost Thus, in the face of the digital onslaught, live inconceivable to restrict creativity and narration performance strives to become like the popular to any particular narrow window of expression. media as much as possible. This contrasts Thus, the emancipatory role of intermediality sharply with the notion of Peggy Phelan (1993) also encourages the rejection of and resistance that firmly believes in the resistance of live to all forms of essentialisms, in order for society performance to market forces and the mediatic to make progress. system. Yet to scholars such as Kees Epskamp (2006) mediality is a perceived reality CONCLUSION influenced through the media that one is In the foregoing, intermediality has proven to be exposed to. Perhaps the most relevant the essential string that binds creative media explication of the concept is that given by narratives (and also rhetorical communication) Asuncion Lopez-Varela Azcarate and Steven to digital cultures and gives them the verve to Tötösy De Zepetnek (2008: 65). They describe revolve and traverse spaces that are ordinarily intermediality as the employment of theoretical unfamiliar to their original forms. It is also presuppositions in application together with the important to note that the persuasive powers of application of new media technology in action rhetorical communication energized by dynamic for the betterment of society against digital cultures and driven by intermediality essentialisms and towards inclusion and have the potential to effectively convey interculturalism; thereby replacing resignation sociocultural values and cognitive styles that with resistance and participation (Lopez-Varela could in turn influence the development of Azcarate & Tötösy De Zepetnek, 2008: 65-82). intergroup interaction and eventually motivate Typical of most revolutionary histories and behaviour change towards social emancipation. grand liberation acts, the growth of Finally, the liberating or emancipatory intermediality did not only make a huge positive aesthetics of intermediality and digital rhetoric impact on unbridled creativity, but also is a call to action for society to eschew shattered the strongholds of essentialisms that essentialisms and advance towards inclusion, had hitherto hindered free interaction of inter-culturalism and a more meaningful social different media platforms and the inherent engagement. artistic expression thereof. It has also created an atmosphere of creative democracies and REFERENCES liberated the entire creative enterprise from [1] Albacan, Aristita (2004). “Examples of arbitrariness and narrowness of options. In tune Hybridizing Conventions and Cultural / Artistic with the prevailing decentralized media Stereotypes in Robert Lepage’s Polygraph” in environment as typified by the digital media, Balme, C. & Wagner, M. (eds.). Beyond intermediality encourages the exploration of Aesthetics: Performance, Media and Cultural various kinds of narrativity, thereby embracing Studies, Johannes Gutenberg Universität,

Journal of Advertising and Public Relations V1 ● I1 19 From Intermediality to Plurimediality: Deleting the Lines of Medium Essentialism in Creative Media and Digital Rhetoric

WVT, (= Mainz University Studies in English; [10] Kattenbelt, C. Intermediality in Theatre and 6), Mainz, Germany. Performance: Definitions, Perceptions and [2] Auslander P Liveness: Performance in a Medial Relationships. Culture, Language and mediatized culture. London: Routledge; 1999. Representation (Cultural Studies Journal of Universitat Jaume). 2008; 1 (6). p. 19-29. [3] Balme C. Wagner, M. (eds.) Beyond Aesthetics: Performance, Media and Cultural [11] Lehtonen, M. On No Man’s Land”: Theses on Studies. Mainz: WVT, (= Mainz University Intermediality. Nordicom Review. 2001; 1. p. Studies in English; 6); 2004. 76. [4] Balme C. Intermediality: Rethinking the [12] Lopez-Varela A. A. Tötösy-De-Zepetnek, S. Relationship between Theatre and Media. In: Towards Intermediality in Contemporary Balme C. Moninger M. (eds.) Crossing Media: Cultural Practices and Education. Culture, Theatre – Film – Fotografie – Neue Medien. Language and Representation (Cultural Studies Mainz: Munich ePodium, (=Intervisionen 5); Journal of Universitat Jaume). 2008; 1 (6), p. 2004. 65-82. [5] Carroll N. Theorizing the Moving Image [13] Lopez-Varela A. A. Bridging Intertextuality (Chapter 2). Cambridge: Cambridge University from a Cultural and Literary Perspective. Press; 1996. Electronic Literature in Europe (University of Bergen, Norway). September 11, 2008. [6] Chapple F. Kattenbelt C. (Eds.) Intermediality in Theatre and Performance, (Themes in [14] Metz, C. Le Signifiant Imaginaire: Theatre – Collective Approaches to Theatre and Psychanalyse et Cinema. In: Union Generale Performance). New York: Rodopi; 2007. d'Editions, Paris. 1977 [7] Eyman D. Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, [15] Phelan, P. Unmarked: The Politics of Practice. Ann Abor: Michigan University Press; Performance. London: Routledge; 1993. 2015. p. 12-26. [16] Rajewsky, I. O. Intermediality, Intertextuality, [8] Jandl S. Adapting Big Sisters: The and Remediation: A Literary Perspective on Intermediality of YouTubers Autobiographical Intermediality. Intermédialités. 2005; 6. p. 43– Advice. Views. March 20, 2017. Available 64. from: http://reviewsmagazine.net/adapting-big- sisters-the-intermediality-of-youtubers- [17] Ugorji, M. O. Creative Media for Development autobiographical-advice/ in Africa: The Synergy between Narrative [9] Joachim Paech, K. Artwork – Text – Medium: Empathy and Popular Culture. Saarbrücken: Steps en route to Intermediality. ESF - Lambert Academic Publishing. 2017. Changing Media in Changing Europe, [18] Zappen, J. P. Digital Rhetoric: Toward an (Translated from German by Thomas La Presti, Integrated Theory. Technical Communication Siegen). May 28, 2000. Quarterly. 2005; 14 (3). p. 319–325.

20 Journal of Advertising and Public Relations V1 ● I1