{"id":63,"date":"2014-07-28T14:03:11","date_gmt":"2014-07-28T18:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/photowriting\/?page_id=63"},"modified":"2014-08-01T14:08:23","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T18:08:23","slug":"assignment-3-visualrhetorical-analysis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/photowriting\/assignments\/assignment-3-visualrhetorical-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"assignment 3: visual\/rhetorical analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Length: \u00a0<\/strong>1000 words (roughly four double-spaced pages)<\/p>\n

Due Dates:<\/strong> \u00a07.29.14 (proposal<\/em>), 7.30.14 (rough draft<\/em>), 8.4.14 (final draft<\/strong><\/em>)<\/p>\n

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Your task in this assignment is to choose a particular image or visual specimen (a short music video or ad, etc.) and unpack it in the terms we’ve been using, both visual and rhetorical. \u00a0Visually, you should consider all the elements of visual composition, aesthetic, and style we’ve discussed: \u00a0framing, perspective, aesthetic, color scheme, expressive qualities, use of text<\/em>, and so on. \u00a0Both\u00a0Understanding Rhetoric<\/em>\u00a0and Scott McCloud’s\u00a0Understanding Comics<\/em>\u00a0will be useful to look back at here. \u00a0Rhetorically, you should be thinking about things like\u00a0audience,\u00a0ethos\/pathos\/logos<\/em>,\u00a0context, intent,<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0effect<\/em>. \u00a0We seek here not just to understand whether a given image is appealing or successful in some general sense, but to unpack how it is being used rhetorically, to what ends, for what audience, under what assumptions, and so on. \u00a0The question, as always, is not what the thing in front of us\u00a0means,<\/em>\u00a0but what it\u00a0does<\/em>. \u00a0What is its force in the world, intended or actual? \u00a0What is the gap between its intended force and its actual force?<\/p>\n

The task of analysis is to break down its object and think about each of that object’s components as\u00a0choices<\/em>\u00a0rather than as inevitable features of that object. \u00a0The analytical mind always remembers that every aspect of its object of analysis\u00a0could have been otherwise<\/em>, and that therefore the individual features of that object always have particular sets of effects (effects that are different from the hypothetical effects of different design choices). \u00a0The easiest way to make analytical headway is to ask what the effect would be of this or that aspect being different: \u00a0what if this image were in color? \u00a0What if it were zoomed out? \u00a0What if it were more crisply in focus? \u00a0What if the text were smaller? \u00a0What if it were framed differently? \u00a0What if it were published in print rather than online? \u00a0By breaking down an image into a series of choices, each of which has concrete and identifiable effects, you will be able to think of it as a kind of rhetorical machine, its various parts working in concert with one another to produce an experience in the person consuming the image.<\/p>\n

The analytical task also requires that you be more charitable than you might otherwise be inclined to be. \u00a0If you don’t like a particular image, or a particular image makes you angry or uncomfortable, that shouldn’t be the end of your analysis\u2014<\/em>it should be the\u00a0start<\/em>, the catalyst, the thing that tells you the image is worth analyzing rather than merely consuming and abandoning. \u00a0If there are design choices or rhetorical choices made by the creator of the image that rub you the wrong way, instead of immediately dismissing them as bad or ineffective choices, try to think about what rhetorical purposes they might be serving. \u00a0This doesn’t mean you have to pretend to like or respect your object of analysis more than you actually do. \u00a0It just means that in-depth analysis depends on generosity\u2014generosity in the sense of a willingness to spend time with a particular object, thinking about it and taking it seriously, interacting with it more deeply and thoughtfully than you would in “the real world.”
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Some questions to think about, to kick-start your analysis:<\/p>\n

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  • For what audience does this image seem to be intended? \u00a0Where did the image appear? \u00a0How well does its intended audience match up with the actual set of people likely to see it? \u00a0What would the image’s effect be on people who might be likely to see it but aren’t necessarily part of its intended audience?<\/li>\n
  • What are the expectations\/conventions of the medium\/context in which the image appeared? \u00a0Did it appear online or off? \u00a0On Facebook? \u00a0In a magazine? \u00a0If so, what kind of magazine? \u00a0Who are its subscribers? \u00a0Did it also appear in the online version of the magazine, or only in print? \u00a0Are people who don’t subscribe likely to be exposed to the image somehow? \u00a0Is it on a billboard? \u00a0If so, where? \u00a0Who’s likely to see it? \u00a0How does the image compare to other images in similar contexts? \u00a0How does it fit with or deviate from the expectations someone might have of an image in this particular context?<\/li>\n
  • How does the image affect members of its audience overall? \u00a0What are its\u00a0pathos<\/em>\u00a0effects, its effects on an audience’s emotional state? \u00a0What specific formal or aesthetic properties of the image can you attribute those effects to? \u00a0Are there aspects of the image that have effects different from an audience’s overall\/dominant impression of the image? \u00a0What rhetorical purposes do these emotional effects serve? \u00a0Do they enhance or detract from the image’s overall rhetorical aims? \u00a0If the image makes you angry, is there a way you can understand that anger as serving a rhetorical purpose, rather than as a careless and stupid failure on the part of someone who is obviously not as smart as you?<\/li>\n
  • What purpose is the image serving? \u00a0Is it an advertisement? \u00a0If so, is it obviously an advertisement, or does it mostly hide its commercial agenda? \u00a0Is it a political image of some sort? \u00a0Is it a public service announcement? \u00a0Is it an image that ended up serving different or bigger aims than it was initially intended to serve (e.g. many documentary\/news images are captured without much of a rhetorical agenda but end up being used for various rhetorical purposes after the fact)?<\/li>\n
  • Does the image operate purely on\u00a0pathos<\/em>\u00a0impact, or does it have an implicit or explicit argument (a\u00a0logos<\/i>\u00a0appeal)\u00a0to it? \u00a0If so, what is the logic of the argument (e.g. “here is a cool person, and if you consume our product, you will be cool too, so maybe get with the buying!”)? \u00a0If it’s an advertising image, does it make any particular claims about the product being advertised, or is the image largely disconnected from the product? \u00a0If it’s a political image of some sort, how much does the image focus on promoting a particular logical argument or set of claims (vs., say, stirring your emotions or making you trust the brand)?<\/li>\n
  • Is there an\u00a0ethos<\/em>\u00a0component? \u00a0If it’s an advertising image, is there a brand visible? \u00a0How prominent is it? \u00a0Is there an implied spokesperson? \u00a0Is the point of the image to sell the\u00a0product<\/em>\u00a0or to sell the\u00a0brand<\/em>? \u00a0How much does the image seem to care about what you think of its creator (or of the person or people appearing in it, if they are standing in some way for the company or organization represented)?<\/li>\n
  • What does the image want you to do after you’ve seen it? \u00a0Is it primarily trying to change the way you feel or think about something, or is it trying to get you to take a particular action (buying a product, voting for a candidate, ceasing some behavior)? \u00a0What is its desired rhetorical impact? \u00a0What is your impression of its\u00a0actual<\/em>\u00a0rhetorical impact? \u00a0If there is a gap between the two, to what choices can you attribute that gap? \u00a0Are there different choices the creator(s) of the image could have made, regarding some specific components of the image? \u00a0What costs and benefits would there be to those different choices?<\/li>\n
  • What larger issues, phenomena, or debates does this image resonate with? \u00a0For instance, does it open up conversations about the use of sexual attraction in advertising, or the use of fear in politics, or the importance of branding? \u00a0Does the image contribute to larger trends? \u00a0Does it have things to say about those larger trends, or is it merely riding the wave? \u00a0This is a version of the “so what?” question I’ve mentioned in class: \u00a0if everything about your analysis of this particular object is true,\u00a0so what?<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0What broader insights does your analysis lead us to? \u00a0What bigger things can you hook this image and this analysis up to? \u00a0(I’m not looking for “since the dawn of time, mankind has consumed images, bla bla bla”; I’m looking for a sense that you’re thinking broadly and nimbly about how the arguments you’re making here might be important to people other than the guy grading your paper.) \u00a0When we talked about Art Spiegelman’s post-9\/11\u00a0New Yorker<\/em>\u00a0cover, for instance, we talked about the representation of violence and tragedy, we talked about the predominance of nationalist imagery in the wake of 9\/11, we talked about personal vs. impersonal reactions to tragedy, we talked about the “too soon” phenomenon, and so on.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

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    Consider, too, your voice in this paper. \u00a0The task is analytical, but that doesn’t mean your writing has to be dry. \u00a0If anything, the point of being trained in various kinds of analysis is to be able to say\u00a0things that are\u00a0more<\/em>\u00a0interesting,\u00a0more<\/em>\u00a0thought-provoking. \u00a0Intellectual curiosity of the sort required to spend a lot of time with a particular object, asking lots of questions about it and taking it seriously, is not\u00a0opposed<\/em>\u00a0to producing stylish, interesting, or funny writing. \u00a0It is very much of a piece with those things.<\/p>\n

    You are certainly not beholden to the five-paragraph essay structure that I’ve spent so much time in class bemoaning. \u00a0Again: \u00a0analytical doesn’t necessarily mean\u00a0dry<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0uninteresting<\/em>. \u00a0This isn’t high school, so I’m not requiring you to have a thesis statement sentence at the end of your introductory paragraph or anything like that, but at the same time, you should be clear about what you are and aren’t arguing\u2014and your essay should be more than a checklist of answered questions about visual form. \u00a0Your writing should not just answer the series of questions listed above; it should use those questions as a jumping-off point to produce a coherent and cohesive account of the image you’re looking at, and of what larger issues that image brings up. \u00a0Good analysis opens up avenues for further thought, which is to say that ideally, your analysis of this image could serve as the\u00a0start<\/em>\u00a0of a conversation, not just the end of one.<\/p>\n

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    Length: \u00a01000 words (roughly four double-spaced pages) Due Dates: \u00a07.29.14 (proposal), 7.30.14 (rough draft), 8.4.14 (final draft)   Your task in this assignment is to choose a particular image or visual specimen (a short music video or ad, etc.) and unpack it in the terms we’ve been using, both visual and rhetorical. \u00a0Visually, you should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":35,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-63","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/photowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/photowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/photowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/photowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/photowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/photowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69,"href":"http:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/photowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63\/revisions\/69"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/photowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/photowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}