1. Ways of Seeing Narrative medicine

2. Today’s session  Focus on observation & description  How do we describe images?  How do images tell stories?  Task: 1. Write a description of an image (10 mins) 2. Think about how images are constructed. (25 mins) 3. Rewrite the description of the image (15 mins)

3. Write a description of this image

4. Systematic observation 1. frame (the location of the image) 2. form (the genre and its meanings; the metaphors and allusions used) 3. content (what is in the image, and their associations for the viewer) 4. composition (the relationship between the objects/people in the image) 5. desire (the viewer’s response) 4

5. Frame: The location of the image  Where does this take place?  Time?  Location?

6. Form: Genre, metaphor, allusions?

7. Form: genre  What is the difference between a photograph and a painting?  Does the painting attempt to  give a faithful image of an event (realist)?  show how the viewer perceives the scene (impressionist)?  portray an essential or hidden reality (abstract)?  manipulate your emotions (expressionist)?

8. Metaphor or allusion?

9. Content: what is in the image?

10. Content: what story does the painting tell??  David and Marjorie Landsborough  Kim Yao Chiu  The Christian hospital in Chunghua, 1928  Artist: Shi Qiao Li, commissioned by Dr Tsungming Tu

11. Composition: relationships Centre/Margins Left/Right Top/Bottom Gaze and Gesture

12. Composition: relationships Centre/Margins Left/Right Top/Bottom Gaze and Gesture

13. Desire: how do you feel about this picture?

14. Write about the painting again

15. NYU Literature, Arts & Medicine  http://litmed.med.nyu.edu http://litmed.med.nyu.edu 15