Typefaces are manufactured images designed for infinite repetition (Lupton 13). However, that does not mean that typefaces and fonts don't have personality.

Renaissance artists sought standards of proportion in the idealized human form (Lupton 17). This idea has both persisted and perhaps paradoxically transformed typeface, font families and typology. This image, taken from the Comical Hotch-Potch or Alphabet turn'd Posture-Master, a hand colored print published in London in 1782 by Carington Bowles, shows a whimsical view of 'the idealized human form'. In this case, the print may have been developed to educate children as cavorting, jovial characters provide an instructive view of the alphabet with posture and rhyme (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation publication).

Perhaps it is in the humanist tradition to anthropomorphize type. Typeface can be used as a way to express the personality of the text content, authorial context, and designer influence while attracting and maintaining attention. A 'one-size-fits-all' approach to typeface is neither universally appropriate nor necessary. However, like people, some typefaces work in more domains than others. We shouldn't squander the coveted commodity of someones attention by not paying attention to the details (Lupton 75).

One would be well served to take a Who, What, Where and When approach to typeface. The role of typeface is critical to mood, personality, and tone as these attributes emphasize the importance of a document's genre, purpose and context. (Brumberger).

Citations:
Brumberger, Eva. R. "The Rhetoric of Typography: The Awareness and Impact of Typeface Appropriateness," in Technical Communication; May 2003; 50, 2; Humanities Module, p. 224.

Lupton, Ellen. Thinking With Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, and Students. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press,2004.

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, "Comical Hotch-Potch: Print Reproduction." Worcester, MA: The Charles Overly Studio, 1991 copyright, printed 2007.

Haitian Orphans 'Saved' by American Kids

Over the last few days I have been looking at the pictures of the Haitian earthquake aftermath and trying to absorb the horror of the situation. As I watched the local news last night, a local news segment interpellated my attention.

The 'feel-good' story of the day focused on a group of local school children. They had forgone the traditional gift exchange that is held near winter break for many American middle school kids. Instead, they chose to send a gift bag to Haitian orphans. The story was that the American children had 'saved' this group of orphaned Haitian children because they donated items to them and the Haitians received the gift the day of the earthquake. Hence, the Haitian kids were outdoors playing with their new objects when the earthquake struck.

I had conflicting emotions when I watched this 'feel-good' story. Initially, I thought, "How nice." As the story progressed, I became more conflicted. The Caucasian children 'saved the day' by shipping a few trinkets to these Haitian children. Now, the orphans are living in a chicken coop because it is the only orphanage building to survive. The American children are raising money to help the Haitian orphans. I suppose it is a step in a positive direction. However, the specter of colonialism lurks in the background. If the Haitian children had had decent structures to begin with, then the devastation might not have been as severe.

However loosely, the sense of faith in God and religious ideology seemed to be a common cultural tie that bound the two cultures together and was an undercurrent in the news report.

People try to make sense out of the world with whatever tools they have at their disposal. I think the news report was trying to denote an act of generosity, but connotes an act of superiority that troubles me.

Just in case you were wondering, I did donate to the Red Cross Haitian relief effort. I probably should have given more.

To view the original newscast go to: http://www.centralillinoisnewscenter.com/news/local/82844282.html

Chapter Two - Viewers Make Meaning

According to Louis Althusser, what is interpellation (p. 50-51)?

"In Althusser's theory of ideology, interpellation is the mechanism that produces subjects in such as way that they recognize their own existence in terms of the dominant ideology of the society in which they live" (Macey 203). The French term interpellation can mean being taken in by the police for questioning (Macey 203).

"An individual walking down the street hears from an officer --'Hey, you there!' --and turns to recognize that in fact she is the one being addressed or hailed" (Macey 203).

Find an ad online and explain how you have been interpellated by it.

Fred Astaire appeared to dance on the ceiling in Royal Wedding in 1951. The cultural codes of America in the 1950's are encoded in this advertisement for wallpaper (shown above). The figure in the picture is a female, which in this instance connotes the domestic domain. The female figure is bare-foot and scantily, if elegantly, clad, which is again suggestive of 1950's American roles for women. The mirror reflects her cleavage and little else.


Is there a failproof method of controlling how an image is received by its audience(s)? What are some of the variables that affect how a viewer perceives and interprets an image?

No. However, that does not mean that image makers do not try. There are many variables that affect how a viewer perceives and interprets an image. First, a viewer brings personal experience and different kinds of training when viewing an image. Second, a viewer's gender or sexual orientation affects image viewing. Third, race, nationality, ethnicity, religious affiliation, and self-identity all affect how one perceives an image.

What is hegemony? How is it constructed in a given society?

According to Macey, the term hegemony "derives from the Greek hegemon, meaning leader, prominent power or dominant state or person, and is widely used to denote political dominance" (Macey 176). Gramsci' notion of hegemony distinguishes between the two superstructural levels of political society, or the state and its agencies, and civil society or the private realm (Macey 176). The state dominates primarily through direct coercion including, laws, military, etc.... Civil society dominates primarily through the realms of intellectual and economic production. An hegemonic conception of the world forms when the popular culture adopts the rationale of the ruling classes and that rationale permeates the whole of civil society.


Text Citation: Macey, David. Dictionary of Critical Theory, pg. 203 and 176. London, U.K.: Penguin Books, 2000.
Image Citation: Wacky wallpaper

Chapter One - What is truth or fiction?

How is Magritte’s painting an argument about the relationship of words and things?

Magritte admonishes us to beware of the "treachery of images" with his pipe that is not a pipe but rather an image of a pipe. In the image to the left, the egg is referred to as a tree, the shoe as a moon, the hat as snow, the candle as the ceiling, the glass as a storm, and the hammer as a desert. The title to this painting is "The Key of Dreams". If Magritte had not used words with his images, we would engage with this painting in a completely different way. As it is, I had to engage with the painting to translate the French words to English. What did I lose in translation?

What do the authors mean by the “myth of photographic truth?”

The general assumption is that whatever image is captured in the silver of the film becomes irrefutable truth. However, the camera is operated remotely or directly by a person. The person has the power of capturing the image as she sees fit. She can crop and frame what she likes and filter what she sees when she wants. One can equate this to a storyteller's art.

Digital cameras and image software like Photoshop have changed the nature of the photograph's perceived truth. Perhaps photography is more like painting now than in Barthes era. For example, I used Photoshop to remove the words that Magritte used on his painting (shown above right). I altered his painting and could do the same to a digital photograph.


What the difference between the denotative and connotative meanings of images (p. 20)?

"The denotative meaning of the image refers to its literal, explicit meaning. ... Connotative meanings are informed by the cultural and historical context of the image and its viewers' lived, felt knowledge of those circumstances --all that the image means to them personally and socially" (Sturken 20).

Arguably, I changed both denotative and connotative meaning of Magritte's painting by manipulating the image. Moreover, the connotation of the original painting is subject to change depending on the person looking at the painting.

Introduction to Visual Rhetoric

If our lives are, as the authors argue, “increasingly dominated by the visual” (p. 1), why is it that we still privilege print so much? Why is it, for instance, that books are still predominantly made up of words and letters?

I think we privilege print for three primary reasons. First, it is a way to record complicated thoughts in a way to aid or influence collective memory. (I swiped this idea from Derrida.) Second, it can promote deeper understanding of those complicated thoughts because it takes time to absorb and process the written word. Finally, it is relatively durable and fairly inexpensive to produce and distribute thanks to the printing press.

On the other hand, the authors claim that “We are thus at a moment in history in which the visual matters more than ever” (p. 1). Do visuals matter more than they did in the past? If so, why?

I do not know that I agree that we are at a point in history where the “visual matters more than ever” (Sturken 1). The visual is perhaps more present than ever. However, the ubiquitous nature of the ‘visual’ does not make it matter more today than in the past. For example, following the Council of Trent (1545-63) and the Catholic Reformation the importance of the visual gained a renewed sense of purpose that was a reaction against the iconoclastic aspects of the Protestant Reformation. The power of the visual messages via painting, sculpture and architecture of the Catholic Church to the illiterate masses was meant to bring wayward sheep back into the fold. Those images are still very powerful to many for various reasons.

Therefore, I would assert that visuals do not matter more than they did in the past but are probably more widely available. I am not convinced that that makes them more ‘powerful.’ I suppose it depends on how you ‘look’ and that is determined by a myriad of factors including culture.

How is culture defined in the introduction? What does culture have to do with visual rhetoric?


Certainly, how one ‘looks’ is filtered by one’s culture. Sturken and Cartwright define culture in several ways. However, I will defer to their italicized form of culture in the anthropological sense. Culture is “ a whole way of life” (Sturken 3). In terms of visual culture, Sturken and Cartwright define it as the shared practices of a group, community, or society through which meanings are made out of the visual, aural, and textual world of representations and the ways that looking practices are engaged in symbolic and communicative activities (Sturken 3). How one ‘looks’ can certainly influence how one uses visual rhetoric.

Citation: Sturken, Marita and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, Inc. 2009.

Image: Caravaggio, Entombment of Christ, 1602 now at the Vatican in Rome, Italy. http://www.artinthepicture.com/artists/Caravaggio/entombment.jpg

What is visual rhetoric anyway?

The simplest definition for visual rhetoric is how/why visual images communicate meaning. Visual rhetoric is not just about great design and aesthetics but also about how culture and meaning are reflected, communicated, and altered by images and text.

Visual literacy involves all the processes of knowing and responding to a visual image, as well as the all the thought that might go into constructing or manipulating an image.

Duke University has a couple of .pdf's to help you figure out how to think a bit more critically about what you experience as a visual consumer and producer.

Barbara Kruger is a queen of visual rhetoric. However, the billboard owner profits from both sides of this particular argument. Check out Art21 at http://www.pbs.org/art21/ for more information about Kruger's artwork.