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Rumination # 5

Dickinson & Maugh Placing Visual Rhetoric

Dickinson and Maugh analysis of Visual Rhetoric is an excellent example of how supermarkets and other places we visit daily can influence our preferences. Both Dickson and Maugh argue that these experiences create room for analysis and distinctions. They also discuss how some of the best work comes from originality.

Furthermore, They analyze how to understand the world and human behavior in grocery stores. Here we look at the Wild Oats grocery store that's an international chain of upscale, organic food stores. Wild Oats is a lot like whole food and Trader Joes in which they offer the customer a comfortable yet convenient experience while shopping for produce. This grocery store or what they like to be called " marketplace" is in Fort Collins, Colorado, a suburban town with other upper-middle-class stores surrounding.

In the same way, the writers talk about how, when we enter a marketplace like Wild Oats, we embody the experience by using our senses igniting memories or past experiences with our sight and smell. The paper also argues vision is a commonly noticed sense, although we often use all senses without even knowing. Dickson and Maugh continue by stating how postmodernism society seen in Wild Oats gives us an idea of how to be an ideal consumer in an upper- middle- class environment.

Wild Oats creates a built-in environment in which the consumer finds convenience and familiarity throughout each visit creating a sense of loyalty for the consumer and the grocery store. The paper argues that the reason these experiences are so pleasant is because of "pastiche" by focusing on things like "locality in both time and space." (Dickson and Maugh, 2004) According to Dickson and Maugh, Wild oats uses strategies like Location to attract the element of the contemporary life. As mention in the paper, "the grocery store—as banal as it may be—is a crucial place for understanding every day, visual rhetoric in a postmodern world." (Dickson and Maugh,2004)

Similarly, Wild Oats uses locality, community, and nature to provide a well-rounded experience. According to Dickinson & Maugh Placing Visual Rhetoric paper, "Wild Oats responds to postmodernity not through a self-conscious poaching of styles, but rather with a more unified rhetoric of locality, nature and community. " The authors added, "Wild Oats helps negotiate the terrors arising out of contemporary life by providing a comforting sense of place." (Dickson and Maugh,2004) Wild Oats states that their postmodern culture starts within their build environment.

Moreover, although Disney claims they had good intentions when making the Pocahontas, we see how Disney's portrayal of Pocahontas gave children and their parents the idea that it is okay for their children to roleplay as Native Americans. According to Deciphering Pocahontas: Unpacking the Commodification of Native American Women, By Kent A. Ono and Derek T. Buescher, Disney purposefully wanted to detach the Native American appeal from the Native American Cultural contexts (Kent A. Ono and Derek T. Buescher, pg. 32). As stated in the essay, "such advertisements encourage those with purchasing power not to have their children get to know Native Americans better through personal contact but instead to "play" with the culture in places outside of where Native Americans live." (Kent A. Ono and Derek T. Buescher, pg. 32)

Overall, the main focus in the Deciphering Pocahontas: Unpacking the Commodification of Native American Women, By Kent A. Ono and Derek T. Buescher essay was to show how Disney’s western society used Pocahontas as a commodity by " importing the figure of Pocahontas into mainstream product culture and reshaping a new meaning to the value of Pocahontas." (Kent A. Ono and Derek T. Buescher, pg. 25) Disney profited from all kinds of commodities, including sales from Burger King Kids meals, books, life-size Pocahontas, and John Smith cardboard figures to name a few.

Furthermore, During the late '90s, white Americans were beginning to reflect on America's changing understanding of its history. White Americans were finally processing their relationship with the people who were here first, so by the time Pocahontas came out, people were kind of sick of the cultural appropriation. Disney was excepting Pocahontas the movie to be a smash hit that would break through the glass, producing millions of dollars just like all their Disney merchandising and products.

The phrase Pro-Choice is an essential part of creating productive Pro-choice discussions. In the photo below, there is a feeling of masculine power shown in the men's facial and body expressions. Ideology is at work by showing women as subjects to policies and politics. The Pro-Choice movement fights for the safety and the wellbeing of the women. Throughout history, we've heard stories about women getting "back-alley abortions because they couldn't find a doctor to perform the procedure in their state. The pro-choice movement arises in the 1960s; and starts to set off in the 1970s. “Between 1967 and 1973 one-third of the state’s liberalized or repealed their criminal abortion laws. However, the right to have an abortion in all states was only made available to American women in 1973 when the Supreme Court struck down the remaining restrictive state laws with its ruling in Roe v. Wade” (National Abortion Federation). Before this law and even now, abortions are still illegal in some states, causing women to go through lengths of desperations to find licensed doctors.

Furthermore, in contemporary capitalist, we see the inequalities in the misappropriation of power and politics. While anti-abortion images function by using metaphors like "the fetus is human" and "abortion is murder," only women can give birth, and they should be able to choose freely. For this reason, the Pro-choice movement is used to focus on women as the main. There is no other definitive word in our society today than abortion. When a topic like abortion comes around, people feel uncomfortable, but to women, this isn't a personal decision anymore; it political. Today, we have politicians voting on abortion and women's rights. Anti-abortion poster and images in the media seem to be designed to shame women out of being able to do what feels and is right for their families. According to Fact check, 7 in 10 Americans believe in the value of Roe v. Wade (Fingerhut, 2017). This law states that it’s a woman's constitutional right to go through an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy; unfortunately, the countries representation doesn't show these values.

​In a related matter, The Guttmacher institute State law and Policies state, "16 states use their funds to pay for all or most medically necessary abortions for Medicaid enrollees in the country.” Even though this is excellent news, “33 states and the District of Columbia ban the use of state funds except in those cases when federal funds are available: where the woman's life is in danger, or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest" (Guttmacher, 2017). Although many women claim to be women's rights activism, many seemly protests pro-choice when ideally, it shouldn't be about control but women's ability to choose what they do with their bodies.

​It's equally essential to Pro-choice movement to allow women to be the central focus of this discussion. The history of "back-alley abortions" and Ideology states that "the ideas of the ruling class are in every age the ruling ideas (Karl Marx)." In contemporary capitalist societies, you see inequalities and the distribution of power. Still, as a result, many politicians exhibit characteristic structures of control that dominate Pro-Choice's attempt to educate the public on the real interest of this movement. Anti-abortion images weaken women instead of uplifts and educates. No women has getting an abortion on their bucket list; the realism that goes hand in hand with this decision forever changes a women's life.

In conclusion, in contemporary capitalist world, we see the inequalities in the misappropriation of power and politics that play a rule in the reality of women’s rights. The image below is a pro-choice poster, it uses a metaphor like "77% of anti-abortion leaders are men and 100% of them will never be pregnant" to support their rhetorical argument. The word choice in a pro-life or pro-choice media is essential to use pathos to communicate with people. Just by quickly glancing at the men in the background, you notice the positioning of men in the environment. Ideology plays its role as the men represent a structure of power due to their entitled facial and body expressions.

Image events are staged acts of protest designed for media propagation; this is prominent in campaigns such as Green Peace and Earth First. The authors used environmental activism through image events to develop a broader examination of the role of image events in argumentative rhetoric. Green Peace and Earth First have used some image events that seemed over the top radical and unsafe, to prove a point and get attention through the media. As you can see, Green peace has an image of a bird with trash and debris inside the body that it ate.

Earth First often creates protest videos that advocate the act to prevent logging, the building of dams, and other forms of development which may destroy wildlife habitat. Footage used for environmental protest groups demonstrates the sets of issues concerning the practice of arguments in visual culture and the possibilities for progressive politics in a postmodern age. "Greenpeace has performed thousands of image events on issues ranging from whaling to nuclear testing to hazardous waste." (JOHN W. DELICATH AND KEVIN MICHAEL DELUCA) An image event can also offer a kind of oppositional argument that creates social controversies and animate the possibilities for debate. Image events such as Earth First's protest videos are also a form of evidence that delivers images in fragments that serve as current research and public deliberation and would shift the burden for argument construction to audiences.

Image events of extremist groups are often striking; they are usually not the representations of the rulers but rather the rhetoric of some altering idea that excludes the forum of the Public Sphere by the rules of reason and protocols. The Public Sphere needs to be known as the structured setting where cultural and ideological content or negotiation among a variety of public takes to play. The modern public communication takes place in a context dominated by mass communication technology and charges by the prominent and dramatic visual imagery. In a visual culture, there is also the necessary visual argument. We argue that images can work as claims-making, reason-giving, and opinion-shaping to practice public discussion.

Overall, Image Events consist of an argumentative process that constitutes a distinct argument, according to Olson and Goodnight, 1994 article. The Olson and Goodnight article challenged the norms of public participation as well as the hidden possibilities for argumentation and delivery. Image events constitute a form of visual argument that operates in parts. There are dramatic images that advance indirect, incomplete, and unstated perceptions that serve as evidence for claims or use as resources for future discussions. Image events deliver an argument in powerful ways capable of creating opportunities for debate and producing moments of generative argument. Image events also expand the scope of participation in the public sphere.

Earth First extremist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElJFYwRtrH4

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama HOPE was widely promoted throughout Digital technologies such as Facebook, Instagram, and twitter, reaching critical players for social movements around the world (Stein, Notley, and Davis 2012). There have been many remixes to Obama HOPE; each remix has acquired this thing called power as its materialized transnational movements distributed throughout time and space (Gries).

We first see Visual activism arising around 2006 when artists like Ray Noland and Michael Murphy begin to create Obama artwork. Murphy, just like other artists, became inspired while listening to Obama's speeches. Murphy’s art gallery emerged on the campaign scene during the democratic national conference in Denver and Washington DC. Street artist like Ray Noland aka CRO developed a series of inspirational Obama images and animated videos which showed the true essence of the campaign.

While most artworks played a significant role in generating Obama's success during his campaign, many argue that Shepard Fairy's image of Obama HOPE fired an uproar or Visual activism in 2008. Obama HOPE useful desires for change, hope, and progress inspired other artists to become politically active and produce art for the Obama campaign. Many also argue that Fairy was given to much credit for the movement. (Gries) According to Gries, Obama HOPE earned its spot as the face of the Obama art movement because of its iconic presents throughout social media and street art. Shepard Fairey's HOPE poster was seen on every street in the nation. Although other artists created Obama's artwork before Fairey, very few of them had the full support of the Obama campaign.

As it is evident, the work of Murphy and Noland came out before Obama HOPE. Yet all these artists have one thing in common, which is finding a cause worth fighting for. In my option, Shepherd was given a lot more credit than he deserved. I'm fonder of the grassroots efforts of artists like Noland and Murphy, who are the original founders of Obama's artworks. As artists who depicted Obama as accurately as possible in their artwork, I'm sure both Noland and Murphy became a bit frustrated when not receiving the same praise as Shepherd. I would say that Obama's campaign was the reason for Shepherd Fairy's popularity boost. Today when people think about Obama, they picture Obama HOPE, a red, white, and blue image that inspires and gives hope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MedLL78SM5Q

During the Great Depression, Arthur Rothstein was working in South Dakota to document drought conditions. Arthur Rothstein's most controversial photo was released to the media in August 1936.

The Fargo Forum and others argued that Rothstein had manipulated the scene to make the drought look worse than it was. The Forum added that the photographs did not live up to the editor's definition of truth, creating political propaganda.

If you glance at the Rothstein photographs, it shows an alkali flat, like ones that are found in the Midwest. The paper referred to the skull as "a movable prop." Rothstein was interviewed multiple times confirming that he moved the skull around and played with light, shadow, background. Rothstein insisted he only moved the skull about ten feet from where he found it. Rothstein argues that he was not the one to blame for the manipulation of the photo, but his editor was the one that took the image out of context.

The paper argues that skull photograph was placed before the public as a classic example of a political hoax. Snyder also states that there is nothing "realistic or " natural" about the camera vision, which means no matter how unedited the photographer could be, it’s still misleading. The reason behind this theory is human perception differs from camera vision. "The Forum did not argue that all Rothstein photos were false, but the naturalistic enthymeme itself was a fallacy."