Integration

The reader/beholder is not only invited to penetrate the picture with his gaze but also to integrate it with his knowledge and previous media experience. We can distinguish at least four types of integrations: synaesthetic, hermeneutic, associative and transpositive. Synaesthesia is when the ekphrasis appeals other senses (voice, touch etc.); hermeneutic integration appeals to the knowledge of the reader (history of art, aesthetics etc.); associative integration works through comparisons with other media experience (other paintings, other visual artworks); transpositive integration occurs when a painting or a picture becomes the setting, the scene of the narrative.