進入21世紀，我們的寫作方式和閱讀途徑正在發生深刻變化，喜愛寫作和閲讀的你，是否意識到了呢？傳統上，寫作被理解為文字的藝術，是文字的抒情與敘事。一本文圖並茂的書籍，除非是繪本圖畫書，裏面的圖像通常是作爲解釋和陪襯的插畫。
然而，當下的“文圖時代”（Age of Text and Image），文字與圖像、媒介與空間的關係日益緊密，寫作早已超越書頁，進入多模態（Multimodality）的文化景觀。我們在書本上讀到的文字，常常伴隨著圖像的召喚；我們在展覽、舞臺、公共空間遇見的藝術，又常常與文字互通。寫作不再是單一的文字，而是一種流動的存在。
寫作與閲讀的改變，取決於多模態的整合。“模態”（mode）是人類用來傳達和理解資訊的不同表現方式或符號系統。常見的模態包括：
1.
語言模態（文字、口語）
2.
視覺模態（圖像、顏色、排版、表情符號）
3.
聽覺模態（音樂、聲效、語音的節奏與高低）
4.
空間模態（舞臺調度、身體動作、手勢、佈局）
5.
觸覺模態（雕塑材質、互動裝置）
人的感知和反應本來就是多模態的，但是表現在寫作上，受限於語文思維、使用工具以及傳達能力，偏向語言模態。閱讀，通常被理解為眼睛在文字行間的遊走。我們把自己交給一段文字、一個故事、一種情感，彷彿整個世界都濃縮在書頁之中，也是偏向語言模態。當意義的輸出和建構不依賴單一模態，而是通過多種模態共同作用，便為文圖時代提供了技術支撐。
“文圖時代”是指用文字和圖像（包括影音）文本做為主要資訊來源，辨識，判斷，解讀，形成知識和文化生產的階段。在文圖時代，文字已不再是單一的知識載體，圖像也不再是附屬的裝飾，而是文字與圖像並置、互文共榮，結合構成意義。換句話說，我們不再只是“讀字”，而是“讀文圖”。
在文圖時代之前，人類文明在18世紀經歷的是啟蒙時代，因工業革命後續引發的哲學思辨探討。19世紀是新聞時代，人們主要依靠成熟的印刷出版技術，從報紙刊物獲取資訊。到了20世紀的圖像時代，電視和電影成爲傳播和娛樂的主要媒體，便捷的視聽享受使得大眾逐漸脫離過去的閲讀習慣。20世紀末以來，隨著互聯網和科技普及，催生了文圖時代。2020年代的人工智慧生成文本（AIGC）工具高速發展，文字和圖像可以交互生成，更是呈現“AIGC文圖時代”的隨機性。
我根據詞頻使用的大數據，檢索相關1800年起的英語字詞，包括text, image, poem, picture,
literature, painting，發現文圖時代大約萌芽於1988年。那年使用text 和image 的頻率高於literature和 picture，此後沒有改變，符合文學和圖畫創作逐漸電子化、虛擬化的趨勢。1995年，Windows 95公諸於世，我們順著螢幕的游標點擊圖示（icon），加上互聯網，可以即時聯動自身以外的空間人群，於是確定圖像指引行爲，文字與圖像都作爲“文本”存在的時代到來。
文圖時代的特徵可以用4個英語單詞概括：
1.Production （生產）：使用電腦和智能手機生成大量文字影音圖像文本，人人都是文本生產者 。
2.Unlimited （無限）：生產工具和技術不再受限於物質材料，比如紙張、筆墨，電子文本源源不絕。
3.Spread （傳播）：生活中實存的人際網+虛擬社交互聯網，傳播迅速，人人都是接收者、詮譯者、傳播者。
4.Hyperlink （超連結/鏈接）：文字和圖像的界限模糊，跨媒介順勢而生。互聯網的去中心形態和@#等標注/標籤的方式，形成我們傾向發散思維和既定指涉的認知。
摘取這4個英語單詞的第一個字母，便是PUSH，我們自願或被動，時代的洪流推促我們前進。
因應文圖時代的變化，我在2014年提出了文圖學（Text and Image Studies）的語詞和觀點,並且在2017年於新加坡註冊成立文圖學會（Text and Image Studies Society），從學術創新和知識服務雙方面推廣研究和分享心得。
文圖學是一門跨學科的人文學科，研究以圖像形態被觀看或感知的文本，以及文圖之間的交互關係。“文”指廣義的文本（Text），涵蓋表達、溝通、記錄的符號形式；“圖”指廣義的圖像（Image），包括視覺再現、想像形態與文化意象。文圖學主張“萬物皆文本”，從詩文、繪畫、書法、影音到數位媒體與AI生成內容，都可納入考察，掘發文本的內涵意義。文圖學也研究文本的生成、使用、傳播、接受、轉化、變異等外部脈絡。目的在於提供一種觀看世界的方法，體察生活之細微，品味人生之意趣，探索文化與世界之深層意義。
因此，文圖學既是一種理論框架，也是一種實踐方式。將文圖學用於寫作，交織文字、圖像、聲音，達到身歷其境的效果。用於閱讀，則結合形式媒介與環境空間，全方位的體驗。
以我的作品爲例，文圖學式的寫作表現在多模態、跨媒介和場域氛圍等層面。《星洲創意：文本．傳媒．圖像新加坡》獲選新加坡建國60周年的60本推薦優秀中文書，我將7篇文章設計成7個展廳，每個展廳一個主題，搭配合適的音樂歌曲，營造沉浸其間的感官情味。我不僅是作者，還是策展人和導覽員，陪同讀者順著我的文章思路和敘述，來一趟視聽享受，時空穿行之旅。
細心的讀者已經體會出我的文圖學式寫作情思，評論2024年上海書展暢銷書《第一次遇見蘇東坡》道：
淡而有味的書寫，東坡與著者之間的生命交集得以真實不虛地吐露，即便其間橫亙千年時空的巨浸洪流，一切悲歡離合、陰晴圓缺都彷彿似曾相識。書中十則故事如園林佳構，徜徉其間，可知一步一景，作者筆端的情思勾勒出迤邐回環的小徑，將讀者引入花木掩映的朱閣綺戶，與不眠的東坡月下相逢。
至於文圖學式閲讀，可與傳統文學閱讀比較，一目瞭然：
|
比較面向 |
傳統文學閱讀 |
文圖學式閱讀 |
|
對象觀 |
把文學作品視為文字藝術，重在語言、修辭、情節、人物 |
把文學作品視為“文本”，包括文字、圖像、聲音、排版、符號等多模態資訊 |
|
方法重點 |
注重解讀作家的意圖與作品的主題思想 |
注重文本與圖像、讀者、媒介的互動，強調意義在過程中的“生成” |
|
感知方式 |
主要通過線性文字閱讀與理解 |
強調視覺、聽覺、空間感、身體感等多重感知 |
|
跨學科維度 |
以文學研究、語言學為主 |
涉及藝術史、視覺文化、傳播學、設計學、數位人文等 |
|
形式 |
以書本、紙本文學為主要研究物件 |
兼顧傳統文獻（詩、畫、碑刻）與數位文學（電子書、網路文學、AI生成文本） |
|
目標 |
追求作品的“解釋”和“再現意義” |
探索文本與圖像結合的表達機制，研究意義的“生成”和“再創造” |
|
適用性 |
偏重古典文本的語言解讀與文學史定位 |
適合古典與現代結合，特別是數位時代與AIGC語境下的新文學研究 |
如果你的寫作和閲讀遇到瓶頸和疲乏，深嘆力不從心，何不試試文圖學式的新思路和新方法？或許就能和我一樣，享受文圖時代的舒暢自由。
參考資料
衣若芬《春光秋波：看見文圖學》。南京大學出版社，2020年
衣若芬《星洲創意：文本．傳媒．圖像新加坡》。新加坡八方文化創作室，2023年
衣若芬《第一次遇見蘇東坡》。上海人民出版社，2024年
衣若芬《AIGC文圖學：人類3.0時代的生產力》。北京中國社會科學出版社，2024年
衣若芬《文圖時代的高效閲讀》2021年新加坡大專閱讀節開幕演講。2021年11月6日（https://youtu.be/CD-f6dAMxNE）
The New Landscape of Writing and Reading
in the Age of Text and Image
I Lo-fen
As we enter the twenty-first century, our ways of writing and
reading are undergoing profound changes. Those who love writing and
reading—have you noticed this? Traditionally, writing has been understood as
the art of words, focusing on lyrical expression and narrative through
language. In books that combine text and images, unless they are picture books
or illustrated albums, images usually serve merely as explanatory or decorative
illustrations.
However, in today’s Age of Text and Image, the
relationship between words and images, media and space has become increasingly
close. Writing has long transcended the printed page and entered a multimodal
cultural landscape. The words we read in books are often accompanied by the
call of images; the art we encounter in exhibitions, on stages, and in public
spaces frequently communicates with text. Writing is no longer singularly
textual, but a fluid form of existence.
Changes in writing and reading depend on multimodal integration.
A “mode” refers to different representational forms or symbolic systems humans
use to convey and understand information. Common modes include:
· Linguistic mode (written and spoken language)
· Visual mode (images, color, layout, emojis)
· Auditory mode (music, sound effects, rhythm and
pitch of speech)
· Spatial mode (stage arrangement, body movement,
gestures, spatial layout)
· Tactile mode (materials of sculpture,
interactive installations)
Human perception and response are inherently multimodal. Yet in
writing, due to linguistic thinking, tools, and expressive limitations,
language mode has long dominated. Reading has usually been understood as the
eyes moving between lines of text. We entrust ourselves to a passage, a story,
an emotion, as if the whole world were condensed on the page—again privileging
language mode. When meaning is no longer produced and constructed through a
single mode, but through the combined action of multiple modes, technological
support for the Age of Text and Image emerges.
The Age of Text and Image refers to a stage in which text
and images (including audio and video) serve as the primary sources of
information for recognition, judgment, interpretation, and the formation of
knowledge and cultural production. In this age, text is no longer the sole
carrier of knowledge, and images are no longer subsidiary decorations. Instead,
text and image coexist, interact, and flourish together to construct meaning.
In other words, we no longer simply “read words,” but “read text-and-image.”
Before the Age of Text and Image, human civilization experienced
the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, driven by philosophical reflection
following the Industrial Revolution. The nineteenth century was the age of
news, in which people relied primarily on mature printing and publishing
technologies to obtain information from newspapers and periodicals. The
twentieth century became the age of images, with television and film as major
media of communication and entertainment; convenient audiovisual enjoyment
gradually distanced the public from earlier reading habits. Since the late
twentieth century, the spread of the internet and technology has given rise to
the Age of Text and Image. In the 2020s, the rapid development of AI-generated
content (AIGC) tools, enabling the interactive generation of text and images,
has further revealed the randomness of an AIGC Text-and-Image Age.
Based on big data from word-frequency usage, I examined English
terms from around 1800 onward, including text, image, poem,
picture, literature, and painting. I found that the Age of
Text and Image began to emerge around 1988. That year, the frequency of text
and image surpassed that of literature and picture, and
this trend has continued ever since—aligning with the gradual digitization and
virtualization of literary and visual creation. In 1995, Windows 95 was
released. By clicking icons on screens and connecting via the internet,
individuals could instantly interact with people beyond their immediate space.
Thus arrived an era in which images guide action, and both words and images
exist as “texts.”
The characteristics of the Age of Text and Image can be
summarized in four English words:
1. Production: Using computers and smartphones to
generate vast amounts of textual, audiovisual, and visual content—everyone
becomes a content producer.
2. Unlimited: Tools and technologies are no
longer limited by physical materials such as paper and ink; electronic texts
flow endlessly.
3. Spread: Real-life social networks combined with
virtual online networks enable rapid dissemination—everyone is a receiver,
interpreter, and transmitter.
4. Hyperlink: The boundary between text and
image blurs, giving rise to cross-media forms. The internet’s decentralized
structure and tagging systems such as @ and # shape our tendency toward
associative thinking and fixed references.
Taking the first letters of these four words spells PUSH.
Whether voluntarily or passively, we are propelled forward by the torrent of
our times.
In response to the changes of the Age of Text and Image, I
proposed the concept and perspective of Text and Image Studies in 2014,
and in 2017 registered the Text and Image Studies Society in Singapore,
promoting research and knowledge-sharing through both academic innovation and
public service.
Text and Image Studies is an interdisciplinary humanities field
that examines texts perceived or viewed in visual form, as well as the
interactive relationships between text and image. “Text” refers broadly to
symbolic forms of expression, communication, and record; “Image” refers broadly
to visual representations, imaginative forms, and cultural imagery. Text and
Image Studies advocates that “everything is a text”: poetry, painting,
calligraphy, audiovisual media, digital media, and AI-generated content can all
be included for analysis to uncover textual meanings. It also studies the
external contexts of textual production, use, dissemination, reception,
transformation, and variation. Its aim is to offer a way of seeing the
world—perceiving the subtleties of life, savoring the meanings of existence,
and exploring the deeper significance of culture and the world.
Thus, Text and Image Studies is both a theoretical framework and
a mode of practice. Applied to writing, it interweaves words, images, and
sounds to create immersive experiences. Applied to reading, it integrates media
forms and environmental space to achieve a holistic experience.
Taking my own works as examples, text-and-image–oriented writing
manifests in multimodality, cross-media approaches, and spatial atmospheres. Creative
Singapore: Text, Media, Image Singapore was selected as one of the sixty
recommended outstanding Chinese books for Singapore’s 60th anniversary. I
designed its seven essays as seven exhibition halls, each with a theme and
accompanying music, creating an immersive sensory experience. I am not only the
author, but also the curator and guide, accompanying readers along my narrative
paths on a journey of audiovisual pleasure and temporal-spatial travel.
Attentive readers have already perceived the sensibility of my
text-and-image approach. A review of the 2024 Shanghai Book Fair bestseller The
First Encounter with Su Dongpo observes:
With writing that is淡而有味—light yet rich—the life intersections
between Su Dongpo and the author are revealed with genuine clarity. Even across
a thousand years of historical distance, all joys and sorrows, partings and
reunions, waxing and waning seem uncannily familiar. The book’s ten stories
resemble a classical garden; as one strolls through it, each step reveals a new
view. The author’s emotions trace winding paths that lead readers into
vermilion pavilions shaded by flowers and trees, where they meet the sleepless
moon of Dongpo.
As for text-and-image–oriented reading, its contrast with
traditional literary reading is immediately apparent:
Traditional Literary Reading vs. Text and
Image Studies Reading
· View of the object
Traditional: Literature as the art of words, focusing on language, rhetoric,
plot, and character.
Text-and-image: Literature as “text,” including words, images, sounds, layout,
and symbols.
· Methodological focus
Traditional: Interpreting authorial intent and thematic meaning.
Text-and-image: Emphasizing interaction among text, image, reader, and medium;
meaning as processual generation.
· Mode of perception
Traditional: Linear reading and comprehension of text.
Text-and-image: Multiple senses—visual, auditory, spatial, bodily.
· Interdisciplinary scope
Traditional: Literary studies and linguistics.
Text-and-image: Art history, visual culture, communication studies, design,
digital humanities.
· Form
Traditional: Books and printed literature.
Text-and-image: Traditional documents (poetry, painting, inscriptions)
alongside digital literature (e-books, online literature, AI-generated texts).
· Goal
Traditional: Explanation and representational meaning.
Text-and-image: Exploring expressive mechanisms of text-image integration;
studying meaning generation and re-creation.
· Applicability
Traditional: Classical textual interpretation and literary-historical
positioning.
Text-and-image: Integrating classical and modern contexts, especially suited to
the digital and AIGC era.
If your writing and reading have reached a bottleneck, leaving
you fatigued and sighing at your limitations, why not try the new perspectives
and methods of Text and Image Studies? You may find, as I have, the ease and
freedom of the Age of Text and Image.
References
· I Lo-fen, Spring Light and Autumn
Waves: Seeing Text and Image Studies. Nanjing University Press, 2020.
· I Lo-fen, Creative Singapore:
Text, Media, Image Singapore. Bafang Culture Creative Studio, Singapore,
2023.
· I Lo-fen, The First Encounter
with Su Dongpo. Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 2024.
· I Lo-fen, AIGC Text and Image
Studies: Productivity in the Human 3.0 Era. China Social Sciences Press,
Beijing, 2024.
· I Lo-fen, Efficient Reading in
the Age of Text and Image, Opening Lecture of the Singapore Tertiary
Reading Festival, November 6, 2021.
