VISUAL ARGUMENTS BLOG  (Understanding Visual Rhetoric in Digital Writing Environments.)

 Mary E. Hocks provides some interesting insight into the world of digital media in her article “Understanding Visual Rhetoric in Digital Writing Environments.”  In this article she notes that there are three key components to digital media: Audience Stance, Transparency, and Hybridity.  Hook notes that Audience Stance involves “the ways in which the audience is invited to participate in online documents” (pg. 632).  I find this to be an interesting observation and very notable in most news websites.  Alongside being able to hyperlink to different locations to provide more information regarding a story, its common to find a comment section on the bottom of most article posted online. This provides a means for the audience to “participate” in the document as it opens a window for there to be in-depth conversation between individuals regarding the post. Additionally it can provide a means for the author to also contribute further to the article by answering audience questions or contributing to the online discussion. The comments section is circled in the image below note that the article ends at the top of the image followed by adds into the comment section.  In Hocks online article “Monitoring order”, she provides color coded bars at the top of the screen to help the audience identify which part of the essay they are reading.   This is a concept that can be noted when clicking on a hyperlink on a website.  The link changes color to notify you that you have already visited that are of the site. Additionally the navigation bar at the top of most websites can also help in guiding the viewer through the site and through online documents.  Lastly, hybridity is noted as “the way in which online documents combine and construct visual and verbal designs” (pg. 632).  The utilization of space to put text and images in places that may seem unconventional or innovative is seen on the website www.ign.com.  This gaming centered website utilizes the side margin to promote upcoming video games and movies.  Clicking on the image can link to an article within the site or to a promotional webpage that further highlights the advertisement. Notice advertisements on the side of the site surrounding the document which ends at the very top of the image. 



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In class, we discussed Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics," which is really the seminal work in well, understanding comics.  McCloud discusses just about every, and any aspect of comics that can be conceived, and our discussion on 'gutters' was interesting, as I hadn't read "Understanding Comics" in some ten years.

As an avid comics fan (buff?), I had always been told that Neal Adams was one of the genre-defining comics-book artists of his day (which happened to precede me by some 15 years).  As you can see in the examples to the right, his use of panel arrangement was completely "outside-the-box," to coin a phrase that came up in class.  That is not the interesting part, however.

Trap. The combination of the genres of trance and rap usually through sound mixing and editing, has become a staple of parties and festival shows. They share similar use of synth, heavy base and spoken words to create music. But what interests me out of these is the artwork and how the artwork mimics the mixing of themes between rap and techno much in the same way the music does.

Arguably one of the most recognizable symbols in the Western cultural lexicon, or even that of Eastern cultures, is the silhouette of Mickey Mouse. Popularized in the late 1920s by a series of short films, America’s favorite rodent has come to represent the Walt Disney Studios and the Disney corporation at large.

The above comic by Robert Berry appears in his Ulysses “Seen” adaptation of the James Joyce novel Ulysses.

We watched "The Machine is Us/ing Us" and had an interesting class discussion on whether it was a scholarly work or not. It was not, perhaps, “scholarly”; but it was an argument, and it made me think about the sociology of internet communication.

During our in-class discussion of Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art," the composer brought up gutters, the space in between frames of a comic (or newspaper, cartoon or other media).  In a comic, as McCloud states in the image to the right, gutters "play host to the magic and mystery that are at the very heart of comics."  These gutters are vital, and can serve as more than a space to let the reader's mind wander.

When we talked in class about usability and the internet, it sounded like the conclusion as to what makes a usable website is simplicity. Creating a website to serve a very obvious purpose is the key to usability. But even when a site is usable, there are aesthetics that make a website a more enjoyable experience for the user. Color, formatting, and graphic elements can enhance usability by making a website visually appealing.

In Vitaly Friedman's article "10 Usability Nightmares You Should Be Aware Of," the first item listed is  problematic hidden login links on websites. Friedman uses Backpack as an example because the login link is very small and placed right underneath a block of text that looks like an advertisement, rather than placing the login somewhere else on the page where it can be easily located.

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Of the recent readings for this course, I feel most compelled to comment on the writings of Jakob Nielsen. I had heard of him before, touted as the leading expert of usability. A great deal of the discussion in class was devoted to some apparent contradictions between his ethos and one of his now defunct websites. However, I noticed contradictions on the very page we were asked to look at for class.

Professor John Logie teaches us that comics have a place in academia. He teaches it in Visual Rhetoric. Why not? Comics are visual and they are graphic and they are certainly full of rhetoric. Comics teach us to engage ourselves with the comic we are viewing, on our own time, in our own space. Professor Logie teaches that Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" is an essential book to do just that, understand comics.
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