1) Below, I modeled the homework assignment due on Saturday using Roxy Paine's Breach. Much of the material we discussed in class, but I wanted you all to looked at a printed version. Following the model are the homework assignments for Tuesday's class.
Located outside of Andrews Hall and standing 42-feet high is Roxy's Paine's Breach. Originally commissioned by the University of Nebraska's Sheldon Museum of Art, the stainless steel sculpture functions as a catalyst that challenges us to question our traditional understanding of the division between the "natural" world and the "synthetic" world. But, if this is indeed one manner in which we can conceptualize the piece, how does the object itself stimulate such thoughts? Or stated in other words: what rhetorical strategies does the object activate or deploy so as to lead us to question preconceived binaries we have constructed?
The most evident structural arrangement (i.e. instance of logos), no doubt, is that of juxtaposition, or the technique "that ask[s] us to compare...two very different situations or conditions before our attentions so that we can feel the jangly and often disturbing differences" (Wysocki and Lynch 94). In this case, obviously, the difference between Breach and the other trees around it is the choice of materials. While as previously mentioned, Breach is constructed of stainless steel, the surrounding trees are constructed of what one would consider "traditional" tree materials: heartwood, sapwood, cambium, inner bark, outer bark, etc. At first blush, it would seem the juxtaposition reinforces the static organic-synthetic binary. But another moment of logos, specifically the manner in which logos is implemented as word play, forces us to reconsider the binary structure; as Compose Design Adovcate mentions, titles "can begin the process of getting the audience in the mood, they can make a comment on what is to come, or they can begin the work of arguing by challenging the audience's expectations" (206). Paine's title, Breach, does just that.
To breach means to break or rupture a surface; indeed Breach ruptures the aesthetic landscape of UNL's campus green through its difference of color, tactile feel, choice of material, and inability to produce and shed seasonal leaves. All these factors call attention to its construction. But it also breaches our consciousness because the sculpture compels us to ask: why is this object here? what purpose does it serve? what was the artist attempting to convey to the audience? how is it similar or different from the plant-life around it? Only then do we realize that, perhaps, Breach has much more in common with the "natural" organisms around it than we might first believe.
For starters, the "natural" elements in the same area aren't exactly "natural," in that they have been trimmed (or "sculpted") with branch clippers and isolated from the surrounding grasses with perfectly symmetrical rings of mulch. But this is only the first and most superficial "synthetic" occurrence with regard to these "natural" objects. In fact, before human intervention, trees rarely grew on the Great Plains; the majority of organic matter was a variety of tallgrass and medium grasses. Once the central plains became inhabited by less nomadic peoples, grasses were remove and replaced with agriculture (i.e. corn, etc.) and a variety of non-indigenous tree life intended to "beautify" the region. The scattered forestry that one finds throughout the Great Plains, then, is far from "natural." And this is to say nothing of the genetically engineered plants that now dominate the agribusiness and find a home in states such as Nebraska.
2) For Tuesday's class, read chapter 11 in Compose Design Advocate. This chapter builds off chapter 9, further developing concepts of visual rhetoric within the more specified framework of documentary photography.
3) Write a 300-500 word post that reflects upon your experience with, knowledge of, or interest in photography. If you don't have any of these three, explain why you don't (in detail) and address what possible concerns or questions you might have about the genre as we embark on our first major writing assignment. Include with this post should be 2 hyperlinks and 1 multimedia element. DUE: Tuesday, September 22 @ 12:30PM.
Located outside of Andrews Hall and standing 42-feet high is Roxy's Paine's Breach. Originally commissioned by the University of Nebraska's Sheldon Museum of Art, the stainless steel sculpture functions as a catalyst that challenges us to question our traditional understanding of the division between the "natural" world and the "synthetic" world. But, if this is indeed one manner in which we can conceptualize the piece, how does the object itself stimulate such thoughts? Or stated in other words: what rhetorical strategies does the object activate or deploy so as to lead us to question preconceived binaries we have constructed?
The most evident structural arrangement (i.e. instance of logos), no doubt, is that of juxtaposition, or the technique "that ask[s] us to compare...two very different situations or conditions before our attentions so that we can feel the jangly and often disturbing differences" (Wysocki and Lynch 94). In this case, obviously, the difference between Breach and the other trees around it is the choice of materials. While as previously mentioned, Breach is constructed of stainless steel, the surrounding trees are constructed of what one would consider "traditional" tree materials: heartwood, sapwood, cambium, inner bark, outer bark, etc. At first blush, it would seem the juxtaposition reinforces the static organic-synthetic binary. But another moment of logos, specifically the manner in which logos is implemented as word play, forces us to reconsider the binary structure; as Compose Design Adovcate mentions, titles "can begin the process of getting the audience in the mood, they can make a comment on what is to come, or they can begin the work of arguing by challenging the audience's expectations" (206). Paine's title, Breach, does just that.
To breach means to break or rupture a surface; indeed Breach ruptures the aesthetic landscape of UNL's campus green through its difference of color, tactile feel, choice of material, and inability to produce and shed seasonal leaves. All these factors call attention to its construction. But it also breaches our consciousness because the sculpture compels us to ask: why is this object here? what purpose does it serve? what was the artist attempting to convey to the audience? how is it similar or different from the plant-life around it? Only then do we realize that, perhaps, Breach has much more in common with the "natural" organisms around it than we might first believe.
For starters, the "natural" elements in the same area aren't exactly "natural," in that they have been trimmed (or "sculpted") with branch clippers and isolated from the surrounding grasses with perfectly symmetrical rings of mulch. But this is only the first and most superficial "synthetic" occurrence with regard to these "natural" objects. In fact, before human intervention, trees rarely grew on the Great Plains; the majority of organic matter was a variety of tallgrass and medium grasses. Once the central plains became inhabited by less nomadic peoples, grasses were remove and replaced with agriculture (i.e. corn, etc.) and a variety of non-indigenous tree life intended to "beautify" the region. The scattered forestry that one finds throughout the Great Plains, then, is far from "natural." And this is to say nothing of the genetically engineered plants that now dominate the agribusiness and find a home in states such as Nebraska.
2) For Tuesday's class, read chapter 11 in Compose Design Advocate. This chapter builds off chapter 9, further developing concepts of visual rhetoric within the more specified framework of documentary photography.
3) Write a 300-500 word post that reflects upon your experience with, knowledge of, or interest in photography. If you don't have any of these three, explain why you don't (in detail) and address what possible concerns or questions you might have about the genre as we embark on our first major writing assignment. Include with this post should be 2 hyperlinks and 1 multimedia element. DUE: Tuesday, September 22 @ 12:30PM.
