SA5: Visual Ethics Compilation
Due: 2:00 p.m. (to Canvas) on Thursday 3/8 Saturday 3/10 [changed by popular need/request]
Purpose & Ultimate Goal
In this unit, we'll be considering questions of hypermediacy and circulation: What ideas or assumptions do we hold about circulation that should be unpacked? How do we think and talk about objects that defy our expectations of genre or blur the boundaries between presentation and representation, or between object, text, and art? What happens when a work shifts from one medium to another? How can a certain symbol or icon shape our reading practices, our memory practices, and even our sense of what is ethical or unethical in the world? How could those ethics, in turn, influence how we circulate text?
In preparation for our discussions, I'd like you to compile and analyze a progression of 8-10 images that are organized from most to least ethical (or vice versa), and I am leaving it up to you to determine and explain what “ethical” means in your progression.
Organizing & Analyzing Your Visual Ethics Compilation
You will need a strong rationale for compiling and organizing the images the way that you do, and you will want to let our readings and discussions inform your rationale.
For each visual, please provide a critical annotation (~2 well-developed paragraphs) explaining how the image, and the way that you organized it, could raise questions or critical problems for us to consider. In each explanation be sure to actively take up concepts, passages, or key terms from Delagrange, as well as Hesford, Kress, or others if you'd like. For example, does the image challenge binary assumptions between “local” and “global”? Or, does it reveal how multiple perspectives can be at work on the same image? Does it help demonstrate how “ethical ” often gets understood or misunderstood? Or does it complicate the universality of supposedly “universal” concepts? Does it reveal a megarhetoric through unspoken assumptions? Or, something else? ...
As always, I'll look for you to demonstrate Harris's critical "moves" where needed. If you want to consult some background information for any of the images in your compilation, you are welcome and encouraged to do so.
Some Sources of Digital Images
You are welcome to take the photographs for this assignment, or to work with visuals already photographed. Please keep in mind that Web content is copyrighted, even if it is available in fair-use contexts. So, I'd like you to get into the habit of attributing web creation or source information, even for digital images that are royalty-free. Here are a few popular sites (also available in our blog's "Course Links" list):
Please follow any and all instructions provided on these sites to secure your download. This will ensure that you get an actual .jpg or image file, rather than the "preview" file with embedded tags still showing in them. (Let’s avoid “preview” images with embedded tags. They are annoying.)
Formatting & Citing
Have fun with this! But, of course, start early and send questions my way in advance!
Purpose & Ultimate Goal
In this unit, we'll be considering questions of hypermediacy and circulation: What ideas or assumptions do we hold about circulation that should be unpacked? How do we think and talk about objects that defy our expectations of genre or blur the boundaries between presentation and representation, or between object, text, and art? What happens when a work shifts from one medium to another? How can a certain symbol or icon shape our reading practices, our memory practices, and even our sense of what is ethical or unethical in the world? How could those ethics, in turn, influence how we circulate text?
In preparation for our discussions, I'd like you to compile and analyze a progression of 8-10 images that are organized from most to least ethical (or vice versa), and I am leaving it up to you to determine and explain what “ethical” means in your progression.
Organizing & Analyzing Your Visual Ethics Compilation
You will need a strong rationale for compiling and organizing the images the way that you do, and you will want to let our readings and discussions inform your rationale.
For each visual, please provide a critical annotation (~2 well-developed paragraphs) explaining how the image, and the way that you organized it, could raise questions or critical problems for us to consider. In each explanation be sure to actively take up concepts, passages, or key terms from Delagrange, as well as Hesford, Kress, or others if you'd like. For example, does the image challenge binary assumptions between “local” and “global”? Or, does it reveal how multiple perspectives can be at work on the same image? Does it help demonstrate how “ethical ” often gets understood or misunderstood? Or does it complicate the universality of supposedly “universal” concepts? Does it reveal a megarhetoric through unspoken assumptions? Or, something else? ...
As always, I'll look for you to demonstrate Harris's critical "moves" where needed. If you want to consult some background information for any of the images in your compilation, you are welcome and encouraged to do so.
Some Sources of Digital Images
You are welcome to take the photographs for this assignment, or to work with visuals already photographed. Please keep in mind that Web content is copyrighted, even if it is available in fair-use contexts. So, I'd like you to get into the habit of attributing web creation or source information, even for digital images that are royalty-free. Here are a few popular sites (also available in our blog's "Course Links" list):
- The American Rhetoric website
- Digital Public Library of America (dp.la)
- Wikimedia Commons
- New York Public Library Digital Gallery
- Creative Commons
- Morguefile
- AP Images
Please follow any and all instructions provided on these sites to secure your download. This will ensure that you get an actual .jpg or image file, rather than the "preview" file with embedded tags still showing in them. (Let’s avoid “preview” images with embedded tags. They are annoying.)
Formatting & Citing
- The critical annotations can appear alongside the images, or they can appear as an essay at the end of your compilation (your choice).
- You may create this as a document in Word, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Powerpoint, or Prezi, but the sequence should be visually clear.
- Critical annotations can be single-spaced.
- Include a short “Works Cited” list at the end of your document with the full MLA citation for the essays you use. Please also cite the source(s) of your images, especially if you have retrieved them from another online publication.
- You can find the citation for our readings at the back of your syllabus.
- [Good opportunity to get to the Digital Studio if you have not been there before!]
Have fun with this! But, of course, start early and send questions my way in advance!