Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Pictura, Inscriptio and Subscriptio


As a final note to my 'traveling' panorama, today I realized that I intuitively employed some of the theoretical strategies that Hanno Ehses and Ellen Lupton suggest in their joint article Design Papers: Rhetorical Handbook.

When I created the panorama, I used principles of the didactic emblem books of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (see Ottavio Scarlattini (1623-1699) image on this post for an example). Those principles were pictura, inscriptio, and subscriptio. Pictura refers to images; inscriptio, refers to titles or mottos; and, subscriptio refers to narrative text.

Ehses and Lupton say that, "The combination of image and narrative usually results in a riddle, the solution of which comes about through an explanatory third part, the narrative text. An emblematic image is not simply a mute representation but refers to didactic and moral meanings" (Ehses and Lupton 5-6).

While I realized that my rhetorical strategy for this module was not new, it was interesting to see that the intuitive process I used could be justified on another level than the way I justified it in my memo.

Ehses, Hanno and Lupton, Ellen. "Design Papers: Rhetorical Handbook." Cooper Union, NY. 1988. Call letters: P 93.5 . R54, 1988.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Uncle Tom's Pancake House

As I was recording my visual experience for the module five, I noted a particular sign that I find troubling every time I pass by it. It is just off of I-55, exit 165 to be precise, when you are entering Bloomington. The sign is yellow and red and says Uncle Tom's Pancake House. Can you imagine why I find this troubling. If not, a quick google search should give you a 'heads-up'. "Uncle Tom is a perjorative term for a black person who is perceived by others as behaving in a subservient manner to white authority figures, or as seeking ingratiation with them by way of unnecessary accommodation." (Wordnet.princeton.edu. Retrieved March 31, 2010)

I pass by this sign every day and even though I am not a person of color, I find it offensive. The stock characterization of a group of people isn't right and I think signage like this perpetuates stereotypes.

I know I'm on a soapbox here, but really what's in a sign is more than mere letters. The visual rhetoric of this particular sign screams 'slur'.

Colonialism, Orientalism and Cultural Imperialism


I selected Slumdog Millionaire for (re)interpretation. I did this for three reasons. First, the representation of Indians by white, Englishmen disturbed me because the representations smack of residual colonialism. Second, the changes in the actor's skin color from the early part of the film to the end of the film serve to orientalize people of color. Third, there appeared to be several layers of cultural imperialism inherent in this film, including inter-India caste conflicts, Hindu and Muslim disputes, and perceived povertiy of India's populace by Westerners.

Now, that I have described my approach to viewing Slumdog I will proceed in defining the three primary concepts based on my understanding of colonialism, orientalism, and cultural imperialism.

Colonialism in this context refers to the domination of India under British colonial rule. In this film, the director, screenwriter, and producers are all white, Englishmen of means. Yet, they are appropriating Indian culture to stage this movie.

Orientalism in this context refers to the objectification of the primary female character, Latika (Freida Pinto). Rather than being soley a feminist perspective, this is infact orientalism on the level with Ingres in Grand Odalisque. Pinto fills the role of the 'other' as an object of the male gaze. Furthermore, Latika's oppressors are portrayed as violent men of color, which seems to be a pretty stable concept of Orientalism.

Cultural imperialism in this context refers to the domination of one religion over another. In this case it is Hindu versus Muslim. There appear to be Indian caste differences played out in the ethnic characteristics of the actors as well. Finally, the urban Indian slums depicted in this movie evoke cultural imperialism as well in regard to a Western gaze.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Blog Readings

As I read my fellow students' blog responses, I was curious to note that a couple of students applied their growing knowledge to consider how visual rhetoric affects children. Both Camille and Viola noted that visual rhetoric and its impact can begin to 'track' children in institutional settings as well as the home.

Furthermore, Joe's comments about our class discussions and sharing of projects provided me insight to see how our work impacts each other in unanticipated ways. How much we choose to share, or not, creates a different kind of rhetorical response. Visual artists are quite familiar with the critique process, which is often not 'nice' in that context but can be very challenging indeed. I appreciate that we are able to defend our visual representations with a written justification. The critique process in our class is unique in my experience. Generally, like Joe, I like to see what my fellow students are doing and hear their points of view.

Monday, March 8, 2010

At the Human Zoo

Okay, so I am creating a museum in Second Life about the circus. I am trying an experiment to see if I can figure out how to upload a video file there by using this as a .url. I created this movie in Flash. Wish me luck!


Friday, March 5, 2010

How does PoMo make you feel?

HA Schult is a German conceptual artist who goes to famous landmarks and fills them up with hundreds of life-size statues made of garbage. This is a picture of one of the installations.

Postmodernism would appear to be stitched into the fabric of our contemporary global existence. Just as the industrial revolution parted people from their rural paths and led them down the lane of urban alienation it would appear that the contemporary visible information 'superhighway' has continued to lead the masses to an invisible black-hole of consumption.

Who gains from this consumption? Does mass consumption and production of visual images contaminate visual pleasure in a psychological way? The constant fragmentation we experience between real and unreal seems to behave like a fracturing between wakefulness and sleep -- the phase where one has disarranged snippets of reality combined with the surreal. Maybe we are just copying and pasting ourselves into a new reality as JibJab or Second Life allows us to do.

I find that I am fragmented by Postmodernism as well. I used to feel secure in knowing fact from fiction in the visual realm. However, I no longer feel that confidence. Postmodernism has fractured my security. There is no one 'real' truth with Postmodernism. Sometimes that is liberating; sometimes that is terrifying. It depends on what I am looking at and when.