Typography and Motion Graphics: The 'Reading-Image'

Michael Betancourt is a research artist/theorist concerned with digital technology and capitalist ideology. His writing has been translated into Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Persian, Portuguese, and Spanish, and published in journals such as The Atlantic, Make Magazine, CTheory, and Leonardo. He is the author of The ____________ Manifesto, and books such as The History of Motion Graphics, and The Critique of Digital Capitalism, as well as three books on the semiotics of motion graphics: Semiotics and Title Sequences, Synchronization and Title Sequences, and Title Sequences as Paratexts. These publications complement his movies, which have screened internationally at the Black Maria Film Festival, Art Basel Miami Beach, Contemporary Art Ruhr, Athens Video Art Festival, Festival des Cinemas Differents de Paris, Anthology Film Archives, Millennium Film Workshop, the San Francisco Cinematheque’s Crossroads, and Experiments in Cinema, among many others.

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

Motion Typography



A History of Formalist Approaches
Legibility
The Technical Lineage
Typography and Titling

The ‘Reading-Image'



Kinetic Action
Graphic Expression
Chronic Progression

Conclusions



Motion versus Static Design
Reading / Discourse
The Role of Kinesis
Constraints on Semiosis

Index